More motorists seek perils plan to insure against flood damage

PETALING JAYA: With the recent flood incidents, many people are now considering to add-on special perils plan for their vehicle insurance.

Leven Wong, who has been in the insurance industry for more than 10 years, said there had been a spike in requests for mid-term inclusion of special perils coverage after some states were affected by the floods.

“Some insurance companies allow mid-term inclusion. However, to be fair to the company, we need to verify the car is in good condition.

“Clients will need to provide us some photos of their car’s interior and exterior plus engine compartment in ensuring the vehicle is not damaged by the recent flood before the endorsement is issued,” he said.

According to the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM)’s website, motor insurance is one of the largest insurance sectors and coverage in Malaysia.

It is compulsory for all vehicles using Malaysian public roads to have a motor insurance under the Road Transport Act 1987.

There are several types of motor insurance policies which include standard cover as well as additional cover.

The common types include act cover; third party cover; third party, fire and theft cover; and comprehensive cover.

However, there are some exclusions for the standard cover policies as they do not cover certain losses, such as the insured’s own death or bodily injury due to a motor accident, liability against claims from passengers in the insured’s vehicle (except for passengers of hired vehicles such as taxis and buses) and loss or damage arising from an act of nature, such as flood, storm and landslide.

To extend the policy to cover flood, landslide and landslip as well as cover passengers, one has to pay additional premiums to do so.

Some additional covers include flood, windstorm, rainstorm, typhoon, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquake, landslide/landslip, subsidence or sinking of the soil/earth or other convulsion of nature.

The additional covers can also include breakage of windscreen or windows; strike, riot and civil commotion; tuition and testing purposes; additional named driver, all drivers’ extension for private car policy issued to a company of businesses only; passenger liability; liability of passengers for acts of negligence and additional business use.

Meanwhile, for the standard covers, act cover is the minimum to meet the requirements of the Road Transport Act 1987.

It is the most basic policy and it is required in respect of legal liability for death or bodily injury to the third party (excluding passengers).

The third party cover will insure against claims for bodily injuries or deaths caused to the third party, as well as loss or damage to third party property caused by the insured’s own vehicle.

As for the comprehensive cover, the policy provides the widest protection, for example, third party bodily injury and death, third party property loss or damage and loss or damage to the insured’s own vehicle due to accidental fire, theft or an accident.