Exact Answer: 24 Hours To 48 Hours
Every insurance claim company has its policies, terms, conditions, and rules and regulations which must ensure the time under which a claim should be filed. Thus, the time under which the claim should be filed after an accident. However, when we take ideal conditions, then almost every insurance claim company has a similar period under which a person is supposed to file the claim after an accident.
Apart from the policies and terms and conditions of the insurance policy company, several can also determine the time for which a person must file a claim after an accident. The major factor that plays a vital role in determining the time for the same is the type of claim that the person is claiming.
How Long After An Accident Can You File A Claim?
There are majorly two types of claims that can be filed after an accident. The first claim could be the vehicle claim and the other is the life claim. Depending upon these factors, insurance policies have their fixed period under which the claim should be filed since the accident took place.
A vehicle claim could be filed if the vehicle was damaged because of the accident. Depending upon the damage caused to the vehicle, compensation can be provided to the owner as per the terms and conditions of the insurance policy company. On average, one must file a claim for the vehicle damage to receive compensation by the insurance policy company within about a span of a minimum of 24 hours to a maximum of 4 weeks.
Apart from this, another type of claim that can be filed after an accident is a life claim. This claim is filed in cases when a life is lost because of the accident. In such cases, the insurance policy company compensates a particular amount of money as mentioned in the terms and conditions of the company. In cases of life claims, the insurance policy company allows the concerned people to file the claim for the lost life within a span of a minimum of 2 years to a maximum of 3 years.
| Type Of Claim | Time |
| Vehicle claim | 24 hours to 4 weeks |
| Life claim | 2 years to 3 years |
Why Does It Take That Long To File A Claim After An Accident?
The major reason why it takes that long to file a claim after an accident is the procedure that must be followed before filing a claim.
Once the accident has occurred, to file a claim, the most primary and in fact the most crucial step is to collect all the documentation, other steps are to contact the insurance policy company, then contact the claim adjuster and finally complete the further documentation.
The first step is to collect all the documents required to file a claim after an accident. The documents must include the person’s information such as name, photos, address, phone number, documents of the insurance policy. Moreover, apart from this basic information, you must also have proof of the accident, you can take pictures and videos once the accident has occurred and other information about the accident such as the place where the accident happened, a time when it occurred, and more.
After collecting all the documents, you can contact the insurance policy company to file the claim after the accident. Moreover, you would also need to contact a claim adjuster to complete the further process of the documentation.
Conclusion
It is always recommended to file the claim as soon as possible after the accident has happened. If you file a claim after a long duration of time then the process might take to not just only file the claim, but also the process of receiving the compensation would take longer to be completed. In almost all of the general cases, insurance policy companies allow the people to file a claim for about a minimum of 30 days to a maximum of 90 days after the deadline date of filing the claim has passed.
But any longer filing the claim after this period can also result in the cancellation of your insurance policy as per the terms and conditions of the insurance policy company.
