Oferta motivada after an accident in Spain: check the insurer offer

Within three months after receiving the injured party’s prior claim—or the equivalent court notification when criminal proceedings began ex officio—the insurer must issue an oferta motivada if liability and the damage are established and quantified. Otherwise it must issue a respuesta motivada explaining the precise obstacle or rejection.

Check the offer for €9.90

A valid offer separates personal injury from property damage, uses the statutory traffic scale for personal injury and identifies, in detail, the documents and definitive medical expert report supporting the exact amount.

Low offers may omit treatment days, sequelae, future treatment, property damage or other elements of compensation. Compare each line with your own medical, income and expense evidence.

• People who received an oferta motivada, insurer calculation, medical assessment, settlement proposal or payment document after a traffic accident in Spain.
• A respuesta motivada is not an offer: it means the insurer says liability or the full damage is not yet established, or gives a specified reason for rejecting the claim.

Your rights before you accept anything

• Ask for the liable insurer’s details, the claim reference number and its written position.
• The offer must say that payment is not conditional on waiving future actions if the compensation received is lower than the amount legally due. Do not treat a separate settlement, release or finiquito as the offer itself.
• If you disagree with an oferta motivada, or with a respuesta motivada saying the accident caused no bodily injury, you may ask the Instituto de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses (IMLCF) for a report without the insurer’s agreement and at the insurer’s cost. A different private complementary report requested without the insurer’s agreement is at your own cost.
• If the insurer omits the detailed supporting documents or definitive medical expert report required by article 7, it cannot later introduce definitive medical expert reports in the resulting court case.

Deadlines and urgency

• The three-month response clock runs from the insurer’s receipt of the prior claim, or from the equivalent court notification in an ex officio criminal case, not automatically from the accident. Unjustified failure to make the required offer can trigger delay interest; an accepted offer also attracts delay interest if it is neither paid nor secured within five days.
• The prior claim or equivalent communication or notification interrupts the one-year limitation period. A new one-year period starts when the offer or reasoned response is reliably notified, so preserve proof of the relevant receipt dates.
• If the insurer makes an offer or denies the claim, review the decision before accepting the offer or responding.
• After delivery of a complementary expert report, the insurer has one month to make a new reasoned offer. Limitation remains interrupted during this expert intervention; if the insurer rejects a request for new reports, it resumes when the injured person learns of the rejection. For an IMLCF request, the examination is due within three months of the application and the report within one month after examination.

• Keep the prior claim and proof of receipt, or the equivalent court notification in an ex officio criminal case, plus the complete oferta or respuesta, every annex, calculation table and payment or release document.
• Match the offer against discharge and rehabilitation reports, sick-leave and income proof, receipts, repair estimates, future-care evidence and the definitive medical expert report.
• Record what is missing line by line: temporary injury days and their grade, sequelae points, personal and property loss, expenses, lost income, interest and any future need supported by evidence.

Safe order of actions

• Do not sign first. Save the complete document and attachments, and record the notification date.
• Check whether the document is an offer or a reasoned response, then test it against each article 7 requirement and the evidence in your file.
• Identify who may be liable for your loss and the liable motor insurer before choosing the route; this guide concerns the insurer’s article 7 process.
• Send a dated written response identifying omitted items and annexing the supporting evidence. Consider a complementary report or IMLCF route before litigation.

Triage compensation route

A real case: one crash, two injured people, two different deadlines

Mistakes that weaken the claim

• Signing a document or settlement only because someone says: “It is standard.”
• Looking only at the total and not checking the medical report, valuation assumptions and separate personal/property figures.
• Treating a respuesta motivada as a zero-value offer, or assuming a bank transfer alone settles every head of loss.
• Letting the new one-year period run while calls continue without a dated written challenge.

If they deny, delay or offer too little

• Ask the insurer to specify why liability or damage is not established and to provide the documents and reports supporting that position.
• If ongoing healing prevents the sequelae from being fully determined, or another reason prevents the damage from being fully quantified, the reasoned response must address advance payments for already consolidated losses, promise an offer once quantification is possible and provide reasoned updates every two months.
• If the refusal or low offer is based on a dispute over liability or the valuation of your loss, prepare a written response and attach the supporting evidence.

Prepare a complaint against a refusal or low offer

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