# Claim for damage to a car after an accident in California

An insurance claim for damage to a vehicle. The insurer acknowledges a notice of claim within 15 calendar days and accepts or denies the claim within 40 calendar days of proof of claim; the Code of Civil Procedure gives three years for an action for injuring goods or chattels.

## At a glance

| Detail | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Kind | Claim |
| Authority | [The insurer, under California’s Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations](https://www.insurance.ca.gov/) |
| Where it applies | us, us-ca |
| Last verified against its sources | 2026-10-04 |
| Version | 1 |

## Where this sits

**Level 2.** [Property & casualty insurance claims](/a/vertical-property-casualty-insurance-claims) › Auto collision claim › **Claim for damage to a car after an accident in California**

**Starts from:** [A motor vehicle accident](/a/motor-vehicle-accident)

**May be caused by:** [A motor vehicle accident](/a/motor-vehicle-accident)

**Related:** [Claim for injury to a person after an accident in California](/a/california-bodily-injury-claim), [Report an accident to the California DMV (SR-1)](/a/california-dmv-sr-1-accident-report)

Damage to the car and injury to the person are two claims with two clocks. This article carries the other one inside it.

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## Rules

**Requirement:** The insurer tells the claimant what information it needs as proof of claim, and provides the forms and instructions.

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**Requirement:** An insurer that denies or rejects a first-party claim does so in writing, listing every basis and the facts and law behind each.

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## Deadlines

**The insurer acknowledges your notice of claim:** Upon receiving notice of claim, every insurer shall immediately, but in no event more than fifteen (15) calendar days later, acknowledge receipt of such notice to the claimant unless payment is made within that period of time.

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**The insurer accepts or denies the claim:** Upon receiving proof of claim, every insurer shall immediately, but in no event more than forty (40) calendar days later, accept or deny the claim, in whole or in part.

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**The time to sue for damage to property:** Within three years: an action for taking, detaining, or injuring goods or chattels (Code of Civil Procedure section 338(c)(1)).

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## Where a person decides

The insurer accepts or denies the claim. The deadlines above bind the insurer; what counts as proof of claim is the insurer’s to specify.

## What this page does not know

- What a given insurer asks for as proof of claim differs by insurer and policy; it is not modeled here.
- When the three years start to run in a particular case is a legal question this page does not answer.
- The regulation is read from the Legal Information Institute’s reproduction, not the official publication.