Your Guardian Motor Policy, Decoded

📌 This guide explains the policy in everyday language. The official policy wording, your Schedule and your Certificate of Insurance are the binding documents — if anything here differs from them, they win. Want the full official wording? Ask us and we'll send it.

The building blocks

Your insurance isn't one document — it's a set that works together.

📄 What makes up "the policy"

Your Proposal & Declaration — the answers you gave when applying. The whole contract is built on these being true, so keeping them updated matters (more on that below).
The Schedule — your personal page: vehicle, sum insured, excess, limits, and which optional benefits/endorsements apply to you.
The Certificate of Insurance — the legal proof of cover; it names who may drive (the "Authorised Drivers") and what the vehicle may be used for.
The policy wording — the rulebook explained on this page.

💡 Which sections of the rulebook apply to you depends on the cover named in your Schedule: Comprehensive, Third Party Fire & Theft, or Third Party.

📖 Key words the policy uses (and what they really mean)

Sum Insured — the maximum Guardian pays for your vehicle. Set it right: claims settle at market value or sum insured, whichever is less.
Market Value — what it would cost to replace your vehicle with the same make, model, age and condition just before the loss.
Excess — your contribution to each claim (shown on your Schedule). Windscreen-only claims under OEB 2 skip the excess.
Authorised Driver — only people your certificate allows may drive. Anyone else behind the wheel can void a claim.
Period of Insurance — the dates on your certificate. Renewal is what keeps this unbroken.
Accessories & Spare Parts — factory-standard extras are automatically included; non-standard extras (sound systems, rims, mods) are only covered if you declared them and Guardian accepted them onto your Schedule.

Section 2 — Loss or damage to your vehicle

Applies to Comprehensive (all of it) and Fire & Theft (fire/theft causes only).

🚗 What Guardian pays when your vehicle is damaged or stolen

Guardian chooses to repair, replace, or pay cash — and the ceiling is always the lesser of market value and your sum insured, minus your excess.

✔ Also included: reasonable towing/protection costs to the nearest repairer after a covered incident, and you may authorise repairs yourself below the limit in your Schedule (send the estimate, accident report form and a photo right away).

✘ Not paid: wear & tear, depreciation, mechanical/electrical breakdown, tyres alone, glass alone (unless OEB 2), loss of use, and betterment (repairs that leave the car better than before).

💡 Total loss by theft: Guardian may wait 30 days from the report before settling. If the vehicle is financed, settlement goes to the finance company first.

Section 3 — Your liability to other people

This is the heart of every policy — and the part the law requires.

🧑‍⚖️ Who's protected when there's an accident

Guardian covers what you become legally liable to pay for injury or death to others and damage to their property, up to the Limits of Liability in your Schedule. That protection extends to:

Any Authorised Driver of your vehicle
Passengers getting in or out (at your request)
You, when driving another private car you don't own or haven't hired
Your employer or partner in connection with your vehicle's use

✔ Legal costs: Guardian can arrange representation at inquests and defend court proceedings, and covers emergency medical treatment required by law. Manslaughter defence costs are included within limits (driver must be an authorised driver, 21+).

✘ Not covered: injury to your own employees in the course of work, property in your custody or being carried in the vehicle, and damage to the insured vehicle itself (that's Section 2's job).

Section 4 — Extra benefits built in

🎁 Benefits many clients don't know they have

Garage fire damage — if fire damages your private garage and no other policy covers it.
Medical expenses — reasonable medical costs for you, your driver or passengers injured in connection with the vehicle.
Personal accident for you & your spouse — lump-sum benefits for death or specified serious injuries (ages 17–65), plus $50/week for up to 26 weeks of total disablement.
Luggage & personal effects — covered in the vehicle, though money, jewellery, phones, laptops and business goods are excluded.
Motor trade protection — cover continues while your car is with the mechanic for service or repair.

Which of these apply depends on your cover type — comprehensive gets the full set; third party policies get a reduced set.

Section 5 — Optional Extra Benefits (the renewal menu)

Each costs a little extra and must be listed by number on your Schedule. Renewal is the perfect time to add them.

🌊 OEB 1 — Special Perils (our #1 recommendation)

The standard policy excludes flood, hurricane, windstorm, tornado, earthquake and other natural disasters. OEB 1 deletes that exclusion.

💡 In Trinidad & Tobago's rainy season, this is the difference between a covered claim and a total loss you carry alone. If you have comprehensive cover and no OEB 1, ask us for the price today.

Available on: Comprehensive.

🪟 OEB 2 — Windscreen & All Glass

Glass-only claims are paid with no excess and no impact on your No Claim Discount. After a replacement, cover reinstates free once per period up to $2,500.

Available on: Comprehensive and Fire & Theft.

👥 OEB 3 — Personal Accident for Un-named Passengers

Extends lump-sum accident benefits (death/serious injury, ages 17–65, plus $50/week disablement up to 26 weeks) to your passengers. If you carry more people than the vehicle's seating capacity, benefits reduce pro-rata.

Available on: all cover types.

🚗 OEB 4 — Courtesy Car / Loss of Use

While your vehicle is being repaired after a covered claim (or until a total loss is finalised), Guardian provides a substitute vehicle or up to $100/day toward a registered rental — up to the number of days on your Schedule.

Available on: Comprehensive.

📋 OEB 5 — Agreed Value

On a total loss, Guardian pays your Sum Insured (less 15%/year depreciation applied pro-rata, less excess) instead of debating market value after the fact.

💡 The catch: it only works if you provide a written valuation from an approved valuator at the start of each period — another reason valuations at renewal matter.

Available on: Comprehensive and Fire & Theft.

🏥 OEB 6 — Hospitalisation

Up to $15,000 per 12-month period toward hospital bills from injury or sickness (reimbursement basis; claims within 90 days with original bills). Benefits halve at 65 and end at 70; pre-existing conditions, pregnancy and certain other causes are excluded.

Available on: Comprehensive.

⚖️ OEB 7 & 8 — Increased Legal & Third-Party Limits

OEB 7 raises the manslaughter legal-defence limit; OEB 8 raises your third-party liability limits. Worth discussing if your exposure is higher than average — commercial contexts, frequent passengers, high-traffic driving.

Available on: all cover types.

Section 6 — Your No Claim Discount

💰 The discount you've earned — and how it's protected

Claim-free years	Comprehensive	Third Party / TPF&T
1 year	30%	15%
2 consecutive	40%	20%
3 consecutive	50%	25%
4+ consecutive	60%	35%

Step-Back (comprehensive): after you've earned at least the 3rd-year discount, one claim doesn't zero you — 50% steps back to 30%, and 60% to 40%. A second claim in the same period loses the discount.

Protected maximum: after 2+ consecutive years at the full 60% with Guardian, a single claim leaves your discount untouched.

💡 Each vehicle earns its own discount even under one policy — and emergency-treatment payments alone don't count as a claim against it.

Section 7 — What's never covered (unless added back)

🚫 The general exclusions, in plain English

Natural disasters — flood, hurricane, windstorm, earthquake, volcanic eruption… unless you add OEB 1 Special Perils.
Unauthorised use or drivers — outside the "Limitations as to Use" on your certificate, or anyone driving who isn't authorised.
Drink/drug driving — no indemnity while the vehicle is driven under the influence.
Deliberate acts — intentional damage, theft or conversion by you or anyone acting with your consent.
Outside the Territorial Limits — check your Schedule before shipping or driving the vehicle abroad.
War, terrorism, nuclear risks, data/cyber events — standard market exclusions.
Airport airside areas — vehicles in restricted airport zones.

Where the law (the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third-Party Risks) legislation) requires Guardian to pay a third party anyway, Guardian can recover that money from you if the policy terms were broken — one more reason the rules above matter.

Section 8 — Your duties (the ones that decide claims)

📝 Do these things and claims go smoothly

Keep the vehicle roadworthy and allow Guardian to inspect it.
Never leave keys or the keyless fob in an unoccupied vehicle — this can void theft cover entirely.
Report fast: accidents to Guardian as soon as possible; theft or criminal acts to the police immediately; forward every letter, claim or summons you receive right away.
Never admit fault or offer payment at the scene — that's Guardian's call, in writing.
After an accident, don't drive the car before repairs if driving could worsen the damage — further damage isn't paid.
Disclose changes immediately: replacing the vehicle, modifications, different use, new address. Your renewal is built on your original declarations staying true — this is exactly what the "I have changes" option on your renewal page is for.

✘ Fraudulent or exaggerated claims void the policy completely — Guardian keeps the premium and can recover anything paid.

Also in this section: cancellation rules (10 days' notice from Guardian with a refund of unused premium; you can cancel anytime with short-period rates applied), arbitration for disputed amounts, and coordination when another policy covers the same loss.

Section 9 — Endorsements

🔖 Special conditions that may be on your Schedule

Hire purchase / mortgage / lease — claim settlements are paid to the finance company, bank or lessor first.
Anti-theft device warranty — theft cover only works if the declared device was fitted and switched on.
Joint insured / company as insured — adjusts who counts as "You" when two people or a business own the policy.

Questions about any of this?

That's literally what we're here for. Ask us anything when you confirm your renewal — or add any Optional Extra Benefit with one tick.

Back to My Renewal →