Article 15. Assessment of Damage

1. The injured third party claiming compensation from the insurer or the Bureau shall notify in writing, whether in person or through a representative, the responsible insurer or, in the cases referred to in Article 17 of this Law, the Bureau about the road accident within 3 working days of the accident, unless he is unable to do so for serious reasons. The injured third party shall submit, in person or through a representative, a claim for damages, a declaration or any other document concerning the circumstances of the road accident and signed by the persons involved in the road accident, in the event that the police was not called to the place of the road accident, as well as information and available documents about the responsible person, circumstances of the road accident and the documents that prove the fact of the damage caused in the road accident, and shall also give access to the documents evidencing the circumstances, fact and size of the damage.

2. Where the damage is caused to property, the injured third party must keep the damaged motor vehicle or other property in the condition as immediately after the accident until it is inspected by a person authorised by the responsible insurer or the Bureau and allow the person authorised by the insurer or the Bureau to inspect the damaged or destroyed property. The responsible insurer and the Bureau shall, without delay but not later than within 3 working days of receipt of a written notice from the injured third party about the road accident, send an authorised person to inspect the damaged or destroyed property, write a survey report and shall present it to the injured party for signature.

3. The size of damage to property shall be assessed by the responsible insurer or, in the cases referred to in Article 17 of this Law, by the Bureau on the basis of reports and documents prepared by authorised persons and/or by property valuators, which prove the circumstances, fact and size of the damage. When determining the circumstances of the accident and liability of the responsible person, a declaration of a road accident or any other document concerning the circumstances of the road accident and signed by the persons involved in the road accident, or documents about the circumstances of the road accident issued by competent bodies shall be followed. Should the person authorised by the responsible insurer or the Bureau fail to arrive within the time-limit specified in paragraph 2 of this Article, the injured third party shall have the right to contract a property valuator to assess the size of damage to property. In this case, the responsible insurer or the Bureau must compensate the injured third party for reasonable expenses incurred by him when contracting the property valuator. Nevertheless the injured party has the right, at his own initiative and on its own account to apply to the experts to assess the size of the damage.

4. In case of personal injury, the size of damage shall include all of the damage sustained by a natural person. The damages shall comprise the loss of income that the injured person would have received had he not sustained bodily harm, and the expenses related with the rehabilitation of health (medical treatment costs, expenses incurred for additional nourishment, medicines, prosthetics, care of the injured person, acquisition of specialised transport means, retraining costs and other expenses necessary for the rehabilitation of health).

5. The damages incurred by loss of life shall include funeral expenses and other related expenses as well as expenses related to loss of a breadwinner. Persons entitled to compensation for damage caused by loss of a breadwinner shall be compensated for that portion of the deceased person’s income, which they received or were entitled to receive when the deceased person was alive. Persons who were maintained by a breadwinner or at the time of his death were entitled to such maintenance (minor children, spouses, parents incapable of work or other actual dependants incapable of work), also the children of the deceased born after his death shall have the right to compensation for damage.

6. Damage to person shall be assessed by the responsible insurer or, in the cases referred to in Article 17 of this Law, by the Bureau on the basis of documents and information which prove the circumstances, fact and size of the damage as well as on the basis of medical examination reports. On the basis of the conclusions reached by institutions or establishments entitled to assess the damage to health, the responsible insurer or the Bureau shall have the right to send the injured third party for medical examination and shall be obliged to compensate for examination expenses.

7. The injured third party shall be entitled to present claims for non-pecuniary damages to the responsible insurer or, in the cases referred to in Article 17 of this Law, to the Bureau. If the responsible insurer and the injured third party do not agree with the amount of compensation for non-pecuniary damage, the injured third party shall be entitled to apply to court. The persons specified in paragraph 5 of this Article shall also be entitled to compensation for non-pecuniary damage.