Unhappily Insured!!!

On 14 September 2024, my husband was involved in a terrible accident that totaled our Toyota Fortuner. Thankfully, he survived. On 16 September, we contacted our broker to initiate the insurance claim process. After submitting all the requested photos, we received an email on 19 September confirming that the car was written off, with an insured value of R429,000. The next day, our broker informed us that the vehicle was en route to the nearest Gobid location, which is 370 kilometers from where we live. We were relieved that the process was moving quickly and started looking at replacement cars, all while still processing the shock of the accident.

We took our two children to the accident scene, and they, too, were relieved that their dad had survived. On 25 September, my husband received a call from an independent assessor who wanted to meet with him. The assessor requested various documents, including the hospital report, the GPS location of the accident, and photos of the car, as well as the police report, which he later received.

However, when the assessor met with my husband, he treated him as though he were a ********, asking intrusive questions such as what clothes he had been wearing and what he did the night before the accident. For context, the accident occurred on a Saturday at 2:00 PM. My husband was eager to cooperate, but having been diagnosed with a Grade 1 concussion from the accident, he had trouble remembering certain details. Eyewitnesses at the scene initially thought my husband had died, as the car landed on its roof and he was unconscious. Because of this, my husband provided the contact details of witnesses who saw the accident and people who were with him before the incident.

He was also required to complete a large stack of forms for the investigation. We had to submit a week's worth of his bank statements, and the assessor even obtained six hours of CCTV footage showing my husband before the accident. Yet, after all this, the insurance company denied our claim. This, is despite us being loyal customers since 2011, with no prior claims.

The assessor never contacted the eyewitnesses, didn’t visit the car, and made assumptions that remain unclear to us, as we are not allowed access to his report. Think twice before insuring with Santam. After 12 years of paying our premiums faithfully, our first claim was unjustly rejected.