You can complain by telephone, letter, e-mail, via the online complaint form at versicherungsombudsmann.de or in any other suitable form or submit a request for mediation. Your complaint/application must contain the following information:
- Your personal details as the policyholder
- Name of the insurance company, policy and claim number, insurance parties (you can also upload your insurance documents as a file)
- Specification of what you wish to achieve with your complaint (e.g. payment of a certain amount, cancellation of the contract)
- a brief description of the facts of the case (if this is not clear from the enclosed documents).
Once all the necessary information and documents have been submitted, the consumer arbitration board Versicherungsombudsmann e.V. Will examine your claim and usually obtain a statement from the insurance company involved.
Note: The employees of the consumer arbitration board will investigate the facts of the case on their own initiative and may ask you for additions. You yourself do not need any specialised or legal knowledge. You can, however, be involved in the proceedings before the consumer arbitration board at your own expense be represented by a lawyer at your own expense.
The complaints procedure can end with a decision or a recommendation from the ombudsman, for example. If the value of the complaint is EUR 10,000, the decisions are binding; if the value of the complaint is higher, a non-binding recommendation is issued.
If you as a consumer do not agree with the ombudsman's decision, you still have the option of taking the matter to an ordinary court.