Santam – Absolutely Unacceptable Handling of Third-Party Claim

Accident date: 29 September 2025 Claim ***

I’ve been trying to resolve a third-party liability claim with Santam for over a month now, and the level of service (or lack thereof) is honestly shocking.

After the accident, I was told that I could not submit the third-party claim myself — that it had to be done by your insured. That makes absolutely no sense. What happens if the person at fault refuses to cooperate? Fortunately, your insured was decent enough to take full responsibility and submitted all the required documentation to Santam on 1 October 2025, including:

Police case number and accident report Sketch and images of the scene Three repair quotes (now expired) All supporting evidence provided by me

This should have been an open-and-shut case. Your insured admitted liability, which is very clear based on what he submitted - and I was cc'd into the emails, so I know exactly what was sent through. The accident involved him driving into my stationary vehicle — there’s no grey area here. Yet, more than a month later, Santam has still not resolved the claim.

Every time I follow up (and I’ve done so almost daily), I’m told it’s now with your legal department for “investigation” to determine who is at fault. How exactly does one investigate a stationary vehicle being hit by a moving one — especially when your insured has already accepted responsibility?

To make matters worse, I’ve not received a single proactive update. I’m constantly calling, getting transferred from one person to another, each giving me different claim numbers and contact details. I’ve supposedly had three different “claims handlers” assigned, none of whom have ever bothered to contact me.

Meanwhile, I’m still driving a damaged car that I had owned for just three weeks before this accident. The damage totals between R16,000 - R18,000 — hardly a large claim for a company of Santam’s size. Yet it’s being dragged out as if it’s a multimillion-rand dispute.

Your communication has been non-existent, your processes are disorganized, and your handling of third-party claims is utterly disappointing. If this is how Santam treats people who are not yet clients, I have absolutely no interest in ever becoming one.

People pay insurance premiums so that, when an accident happens, claims are handled efficiently and fairly. Right now, Santam is failing spectacularly at doing the bare minimum. Please stop delaying and resolve this — send an assessor, process the claim, and settle the damages.

Enough is enough.