True or False: Do You Know Car Insurance Well?
In addition to assisting consumers, the experts at the Insurance Information Centre also assist auto insurance industry professionals.
Here are the answers to five frequent questions:
A policyholder, who adds an occasional driver with a bad driving record to his auto insurance policy, can have the coverage related to this new driver reduced.
TRUE. Q.E.F. No. 28 – Limitation of coverage for named drivers helps to limit the coverage for a named driver who is added to the policy. This allows you to limit coverage when he or she drives the insured vehicle. However, you must respect the minimum civil liability provisions under the law.
Damage resulting from a collision with a dead animal on the road is covered only under Protection 2 – Coverage against perils of collision and upset, Section B.
FALSE. A collision with an animal, whether dead or alive, is covered under Protection 3 - Coverage against perils other than collision or upset. However, in the absence of this protection, the loss can also be covered under Protection 2.
A policyholder, whose vehicle is being repaired, has an accident driving the vehicle loaned by the repair shop: damage to this vehicle is always paid under the coverage for temporary replacement vehicles.
FALSE. If the policyholder purchased Q.E.F. No. 27 – Civil liability resulting from damage caused to vehicles of which named insured is not owner, he can ask his insurer to have the loss covered under this endorsement. In fact, if the repair shop has coverage for the loaned vehicle under Section B, the coverage under the endorsement is often more advantageous for the policyholder than that offered under the coverage for temporary replacement vehicles.
The insurer may add Q.E.F. No. 9 – Marine risk exclusion for amphibious vehicles to off-road vehicles
FALSE. This endorsement, as its name indicates, is only for amphibious vehicles. These are vehicles that can navigate on water and on land. While an off-road vehicle can travel over shallow marsh land, it is not considered an amphibious vehicle and therefore is not insurable under Q.E.F. No. 9.
An accident that a policyholder has not declared to his insurer may appear in his file in the Fichier central des sinistres automobiles (FCSA).
TRUE. The accident will appear if the other person involved in the accident filed a claim with his insurer, since both the licence numbers of the two drivers involved in the event will be transmitted to the FCSA. Only the type of vehicle (e.g., private passenger, heavy, recreational) and the description (make, model and year) of the driver’s vehicle who declared the accident will appear in the file of the policyholder who did not file a claim. No liability percentage will appear in his file.
GAA recommends that policyholders declare all accidents in which they are involved to their insurer, even if they do not wish to file a claim. Thus, their file will contain their version of the facts, including the liability percentage attributed by the insurer
