We are in the 1st year of opeartions of business and unfortunately we had a major fire in our factory in Jan 12. Ours is an unorganised business segment where there are a lot of cach purchases have to be made. We had intimated the Insurance comapny about it the same day and the very next day the surveyor appointed by them had visited our premises.
He carried the available documents with him and had given us the list of documents that needs to be submitted. As this was the 1st year of operations we did not have the books in place as and we submitted the books which had flaws.
When the surveyor sent us the queries we rectified the books and resubmitted the books of accounts with the changes on account of wrong posting and misouts by our accountant.
Surveyor refused to accept the same and said that if we agree to his assessment figures and he agreed to do a volumetirc assessment of the loss. By accepting this we came down to a 50% figure as money was the need of the hour and we were on the verge of collapse due to heavy loss of profits and raw Material.
Now post submission of the report by the surveyor the Insurance company has refused to accept the assessment and want's us to accpet the amount which is 50% of what the amount that we agreed with the surveyor in anticiaption that the amount would be settled in 10 days time.
Post the desire of settling the amount at 50% was shared with us we met the Insurance company executives and asked them the basis for this generocity. They have not given any concrete reply and have raised the following concerns:
- Our books of accounts are not properly maintained. However, quantitative assessment is done by the surveyor but, admisibilty is a question?
- They have all the rights of rejecting the claims and its only because of the broker relations that they are offering 50%.
- They are of the view going to court will not help us and will be waste of time.
- They have asked us to get the endorsement from the underwriter for a clause which was missed out by the broker whicle filling the form. However, we had disclosed this point while sending our proposal and a written mail of acceptance was obtained from the underwriter. Based on this now the Insurance company is saying that they would not settle the amount.
Need help to decide on the way forward. Should we forget the claim? Should we take a lawyers help and file a case against the broker and Insurance company?
How would law view this particular matter as this was oyr 1st year of operations and because of fire we are in to shambles and on the verge of closing the business as we have suffered the loss of 1 Cr.
Please help.
