We have advisors in our Ibex offices who are used to dealing with accident claims and will deal with your claim as quickly as possible, but you can do your bit to help by submitting as much information as possible when submitting your claim. If you know the name and address of the garage where you want your car to be repaired, will help your claim.

In the event of an accident, try to stay calm. Ideally, the first thing that you should do is take photographs of the incident, then look for any witnesses before any vehicle is moved. If there are witnesses, take their name, address and contact details and if the GNR are to be called, ask them to remain until the GNR arrive. Next, you should complete a European Accident Statement and then submit this and any photographs to your insurer. We would recommend keeping two copies of this document in your car - a Portuguese copy and a version in your own language. The details to complete are internationally identical so if you do have an accident and the other party insists on completing a Portuguese version, you can refer to the “own language” version to translate.

Even if the GNR are called and they are to prepare a Police Report, we have been told on many occasions that the GNR have said that the European Accident Form does not need to be completed because a police report will be requested by the insurers. However, this is not correct and you still need to complete the Accident Statement as this is the basis upon which a claim will be submitted and handled. Without this, no insurer will even open a claim!

The GNR report will not apportion blame but simply quote what each driver has said and provide a sketch of the road and the incident, and the insurers and their claims handlers will assess the situation from the Police Report and the Accident Statement. It can take up to 8 days for the Police report to be prepared and available but you should submit your claim immediately and provide the Police report later if required by your insurer.

The European Accident Statement is self duplicating and once you have completed the front, you keep one copy for your insurers and the other party keeps the other copy for their insurer. There is no distinction as to which car is vehicle A and which is vehicle B but you should draw a sketch of the incident marking which vehicle is which and once signed by both parties take your copy to our local office. If you have not already done so, our advisor will ask you to complete the reverse of the form and pass the document to the claims department of your insurer with any supporting photographs and details of the garage where you wish to have repairs carried out.

The claims department will liaise with you and it is important that you do not arrange for any repairs to be carried out to your car unless and until it has been inspected by the insurance loss adjustor.

Once your claim has been submitted you may think that the claim is taking too long to process but there is no set timescale for claims to be settled so some claims may take longer than others to settle. However, we will do what we can to help the claim to proceed as swiftly as possible.

Finally, don’t forget that as long as there is no injury, whatever is damaged can be repaired or replaced.

If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to call into one of our offices in Almancil or Tavira to get the most suitable policy to meet your needs or call us on 800 860 708 / 289 399 774 for Almancil or 281 325 842 for Tavira. Or if you prefer, send an e-mail to ptnews@ibexinsure.com