Each location has its personal practices in terms of insurance coverage premiums and what impacts them. On this case, I’m speaking in regards to the insurance coverage surcharge you may face after an accident in Massachusetts. At the moment, I break down the steps for the attraction course of and why it’s vital.

What’s an Insurance coverage Surcharge?

A surcharge in your insurance coverage is a price that’s added to your premiums. This often occurs when you’re usually concerned in at-fault accidents, pay your premiums late, or have a lapse in protection.

Nevertheless, a surcharge also can have an effect on your insurance coverage when you’re merely including one other car to the coverage. In these instances, although, you’ll be able to work with the insurer to see if there are reductions out there for multiple-car insurance policies.

On this article, I’m specializing in interesting the insurance coverage surcharge that comes after an accident.

Steps to Attraction the Insurance coverage Surcharge

The insurance coverage surcharge will kick in if the insurer deems that you’re greater than 50% at fault. In accordance with Massachusetts legislation, you could have as much as 30 days from the discover of the surcharge to file an attraction with the Division of Insurance coverage Board of Attraction.

1. Full and submit the Attraction Kind that’s positioned on the bottom of the Discover of At-Fault Accident Willpower. You’ll want to surround the $50 submitting price made payable to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The tackle is positioned on the Attraction Kind.

2. You’ll obtain a discover within the mail acknowledging the receipt of your attraction.

3. In roughly three weeks, you’ll obtain a listening to discover. At this listening to, you’ll be able to attend your self, submit an announcement not less than 5 days earlier than the listening to, or have a consultant seem in your behalf.

4. The listening to will final round 15 to twenty minutes to find out the justification of the surcharge.

5. About two to 4 weeks after the listening to, you’ll obtain a choice from the Board of Appeals as as to if the insurance coverage surcharge will stay.

Notice: If the surcharge is added to your insurance coverage premiums, you’ll nonetheless should pay the extra quantity. In any other case, the insurer can cancel your coverage.

How A lot Will Charges Improve if You Don’t Attraction?

The elevated quantity of your insurance coverage premiums will rely on a variety of elements. It’s not precisely a one-size-fits-all reply, to be trustworthy.

For instance, charge will increase are topic to:

• your earlier driving document.
• what number of years you drive which are accident-free.
• how typically you file insurance coverage claims.

Basically, all of it comes all the way down to how a lot of a danger the insurer deems you for protection. When you have a spotless driving document and make your funds on time, the rise may be nominal.

Use the Appeals Course of Appropriately

The appeals course of is supposed to assist the harmless keep away from paying out when accidents have been clearly not their fault. So long as you clarify your place to the Justice of the Peace, and will not be at fault, chances are you’ll keep away from these additional charges.

At Vargas & Vargas Insurance coverage, we can assist you additional perceive the method and what you want after an accident. Contact us right this moment to know your choices and what you are able to do to keep away from points like this sooner or later.