Kathmandu: Nepal Insurance Authority has instructed all general insurers to submit details of surveyors who have kept long pending loss assessment files. The Authority has sought such information amid complaints against the surveyors for unnecessary delay in loss assessment report submission.
According to the ‘Insurance Claims Payment Guidelines 2076’ issued by the Authority, an individual surveyor with five pending loss assessment files cannot be appointed for any additional loss assessment unless those pending files are cleared. Similarly, an institutional surveyor with above 10 pending files cannot be appointed for assessment of any new claims. The Authority has found that the insurance companies have been appointing the same surveyor for all loss assessments.
At the time when the Guideline was issued, the number of surveyors in Nepal was very limited. But the Authority has already introduced more than 1100 surveyors in the market by calling for the license of surveyors last year.
The surveyor is an independent body, which is entitled to an independent preliminary assessment of any damages. But surveyors are working in favor of the insurance companies by unnecessarily delaying loss assessment. But the insured suffered following such delays.
The Authority is going to take action against surveyors who have more than 5 pending files and insurance companies that employ such surveyors.
