After reporting a claim, the most common question is: when will the money arrive? With compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (MTPL), this does not depend on the insurer's goodwill – Act LXII of 2009 on compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (the MTPL Act, Gfbt.) sets deadlines measured in days and months. However, these deadlines do not all run from the same day, and not all of them concern payment. As a broker, I see that behind the complaint “they won't pay” there is often a missing document, or the injured party does not know from when each deadline is counted. This article sets them out in order – from reporting to interest.
- Under Section 31 of the MTPL Act (Gfbt.), the insurer must make a reasoned compensation offer or give a reasoned reply within 15 days of receiving the documents essential for settling the claim, but no later than three months after the claim was submitted.
- Once the offer has been accepted or a final judgment has been delivered, the amount determined must be paid within 15 days; under the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.), compensation falls due when the damage occurs, so interest can be claimed in the event of delay.
- The MNB (Hungary's central bank and financial supervisor) can examine compliance with the deadlines in consumer-protection proceedings, but it does not decide disputes over amounts – for those, the routes are a complaint to the insurer, the Financial Arbitration Board (PBT) and the courts.
The first deadlines are yours: reporting the claim
The claims-settlement clock starts with the report. As a not-at-fault injured party, under Section 29 of the Gfbt. you must report the incident to the at-fault party's insurer within 30 days of its occurrence or of your becoming aware of it; the process is set out in the article on the steps of a claim as an injured party. On the at-fault side, the rule is stricter: under Section 30 of the Gfbt., the insured person must report the incident to their own insurer in writing within 5 working days, providing the relevant data and describing the material circumstances. A delay does not mean automatic rejection: the Gfbt. does not attach any loss of rights to the injured party's 30-day deadline, and on the at-fault side, under the general principle of insurance law (Section 6:453 of the Hungarian Civil Code, Ptk.), late reporting has adverse consequences only if it makes a material circumstance impossible to establish – in MTPL, the insurer can enforce this against the insured person as a recovery claim of up to HUF 500,000 for a non-intentional breach under Section 34 of the Gfbt. But a delay makes proof harder, and every day you wait also pushes the three-month deadline further back.
The second thing you provide: the documents. The 15-day deadline runs “from receipt of the documents essential for settling the claim” – it does not start without the accident report form, the registration certificate, the driving licence, the police documents, the photos and the invoices. Exactly what is needed is collected in the claim-reporting document checklist.
Damage assessment: the law is silent, insurers make commitments
The Gfbt. does not set a deadline measured in days for the inspection. Insurers' claims-settlement information sheets, however, contain their own commitments: several insurers state that they will make contact within three working days of accepting the report to arrange the inspection, while others give one or two working days for each step. This differs from insurer to insurer and can be checked in the given insurer's information sheet – it is worth reading, because the insurer can be held to its own commitments. Do not have the car repaired before the inspection, and photograph the damage; if hidden damage comes to light during dismantling, the same commitments typically apply to the supplementary inspection.
15 days and three months: what Section 31 of the Gfbt. requires
This is the key rule of claims settlement. Within 15 days of receiving the documents essential for settling the claim, “but even if these have not been received, no later than three months after the claim for compensation was submitted”, the insurer (and the manager of the Compensation Account, Kártalanítási Számla) must do one of the following for the injured party:
- make a duly reasoned compensation offer, if liability is not disputed and it has quantified the loss under each head of claim, together with information on interest; or
- give a reasoned reply to the individual demands in the claim, if it does not accept liability, liability is not clear, or it has not quantified the entire loss.
Two things follow from this. First: the three months run even if the insurer is still waiting for something – for example, a statement from its own client – so keeping a claim “pending” is not an open-ended state. Second: the reply may be negative or partial, but it must be reasoned, and it is this reasoning that you can argue against. That is why it is worth submitting the claim in writing, dated and broken down by head of claim: this makes it clear from when the three months run. What typically leads to disputes is shown in the article on common reasons for disputes and rejections.
Payment: 15 days from acceptance
Under Section 32(3) of the Gfbt., where compensation is paid as a single lump sum in money, the insurer must pay the amount determined to the injured party within 15 days of the compensation offer being accepted or the compensation being awarded by a final judgment. This deadline is enforced: in its consumer-protection decision dated 21 February 2025 (H-FK-II-B-6/2025), the MNB (Hungary's central bank and financial supervisor) fined an insurer because it arranged payment three weeks after the offer had been accepted. If part of the loss is not disputed, you can ask for that part to be paid before the disputed part is settled – some insurers' practice is to pay an advance on the amount calculated by their expert; however, this is not a statutory obligation but a practice that differs from insurer to insurer.
Interest is not a favour either: under Section 6:532 of the Ptk., compensation falls due when the damage occurs, Section 6:48 of the Ptk. links the rate of default interest to the central bank base rate, and under Section 31 of the Gfbt. the compensation offer must also include information on interest. If this is missing from the offer, ask about it.
If there is a delay: the steps of the complaints route
If the deadline has passed and neither an offer nor a reasoned reply has arrived, the order is as follows:
- A written enquiry to the insurer, referring to Section 31 of the Gfbt. and your own dates (reporting, receipt of documents).
- A complaint to the insurer: it must give a reasoned reply to a written complaint within 30 days (Government Decree 437/2016).
- A consumer-protection report to the MNB about the breach of the deadlines – the MNB examines compliance with the rules; it does not decide the individual claims dispute.
- The Financial Arbitration Board (PBT) as a consumer, or the courts. Keep an eye on the time: under Section 6:538 of the Ptk., a claim based on liability for hazardous operations becomes time-barred after three years.
The primary route for claims settlement is the insurer's claims line. If a case gets stuck, I help where I can – I act on the client's behalf (as their agent, not the insurer's); I do not argue your case with the insurer in your place, and I do not provide legal representation. What exactly this means is described in the article on the broker's role.
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Sources
- MTPL Act (Gfbt., Act LXII of 2009) Sections 29–32 – reporting, compensation offer, payment
- Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk., Act V of 2013) Sections 6:48, 6:453, 6:532, 6:538
- MNB decision H-FK-II-B-6/2025 – breach of the payment deadline
- Government Decree 437/2016 – complaints handling, 30-day reply
- Generali – MTPL claims-settlement information (contact within 3 working days)
- MNB – Financial Arbitration Board (Pénzügyi Békéltető Testület)
