Notification of Claims

It is important that you notify the Club office or Network Partner specified in your Certificate of Insurance of claims or events likely to lead to a claim. You are required by the Club’s Rules to make this notification as soon as possible – and in any case no later than three months after the event. It is recommended that the responsibility of liaising with the Club on claims matters should be delegated to a specified person in your office.

Mitigation of a Claim

Once you are aware of a claim, or of an event that is likely to lead to a claim, you should take immediate steps to minimise the amount of loss by taking all the obvious steps such as separating contaminated cargo. Most importantly, you should notify us immediately. We will then be able to advise on the appointment of a surveyor or other expert, as well as advising on any other necessary steps. (In some cases, we may agree upon a procedure whereby a survey can be appointed without notification to us.)

When notifying the Club of a claim, please supply as much of the following information as possible.

– incident date

– date reported to you

– your reference

– assured acting as (ie haulier, stevedore, NVOC etc)

– incident location ie. nearest town, together with state/country

– incident description

– value of claim ie. amount claimed, if known

– contracts or conditions applying (if any)

– shipment location

– delivery location

– recourse location

– name of claimant

• Please supply all relevant documents
• Please use our reference number (once we have informed you of it).
• Let us know of any developments in respect of the claim.
• Consider what can be done to prevent such an incident reoccurring and remember the Club can offer loss prevention and specialist advice even in respect of uninsured risks or items.

If you are unsure whether a matter is covered – for example you think it may be below your deductible or outside your cover – you should still notify the Club. The Club will advise on cover and may be prepared, at its discretion, to offer assistance even if the matter is not covered.

The Club will supply you with forms (either in electronic form or in hard copy) to report claims. Although the Club does not insist on the use of these forms, they provide an indication as to the type and extent of information that is needed at the initial stage of a claim.

Cargo Claims

In the case of a cargo claim the claimant can, if properly insured, claim on their own cargo insurance, and should be encouraged to do so. We recommend the following:

"We are currently investigating this claim. In the meantime, if you have not already done so, may we suggest that you make a claim on your cargo insurance, so that you are compensated as quickly as possible and your interests are protected. We confirm that your liability insurers have been notified of your claim, and in accordance with their instructions we formally deny liability. We will contact you when our enquiries are completed.” When the claimant is not likely to be insured, the response should be limited to the second paragraph above.

Acknowledgement of a Claim We will acknowledge receipt of notification of your claim and let you have the Club’s reference number as soon as possible. If you do not receive this response within a few days please let us know. The Club reference number should be used in all communications.