Legal situation on car hire.

Phil-W_3

Hi,

Need some advice on the legal situation re costs of car hire following an accident.

In January of this year I was involved in a minor accident (my fault). Damage to my car was minimal and damage to the other party's car amounted to minor dents in the drivers door. We both contacted our insurers and I thought the matter was closed.

I have just received (i.e in December: 10+ months later) a claim form from the County Court saying that the other driver is claiming car hire costs from me. I have going to check details with my insurers, but I suspect this is because they are refusing to pay the car hire charges.

The damage to the other party's car was such that it remained fully roadworthy, I was full insured and I have only just been notified of the claim.

What is the legal position on this?

Thanks...

Phil.

sarahg1969

Send the papers to your insurers. They will deal with them for you.They must have taken issue with the hire claim, or delayed in paying it. That's all.

Phil-W_3

Thanks for the responses.

I've contacted my insurers, who seem surprised by the situation as they say it is routine to pay for a hire car in this situation.

I am forwarding the papers to them for further comment.

I suspect from the time lag between accident and the County Court papers that there has been some error in the way that the other party hired a car and that the insurers say he did not incur a valid expenditure .

Watch this space.

Phil.

lisyloo

The damage to the other party's car was such that it remained fully roadworthy

Hi Phil,

The other party would still have needed transport whilst the repairs were actually taking place.

I'm speculating here, but the other party may have involved a claims handler.
They charge high prices for car hire which might be being dispute by your insurer.
You'd expect you're insurer to know about this but sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

It'll be interesting to know the outcome but I don't think it's anything for you to worry about.

Phil-W_3

An update on my situation.

I've contacted my insurance company and they're in dispute with the guy I hit over the amount being claimed for the hire car. He's claiming about £850 - which equates to 7 or so weeks hire. There was minor damage to his door, which probably meant about 2 days in a garage - so it's not difficult to see why the claim is being disputed by the insurance company.

Because of the Christmas period, it's proved super slow getting any answers/action out of my insurance company, so I want to make sure I post a defense on the county court website before the 28 day period expires. (My insurer's legal department should be taking care of this, but I want to make sure there is at least one response before the deadline).

Can anyone point me to any guidelines for the amount of time a hire car would be made available by an insurance company? From what I can make out he would be entitled to one if (a) his car was un-roadworthy and (b) when his car was actually under repair. I also understand he's required to mediate the cost - i.e hire a car at a reasonable cost.

It would help if I could quote from a legal (or semi-legal) document specifying what he was actually entitled to - and compare that with what he's claiming.

Thanks.

Phil.

Sponge

Surely you should leave it to your insurance company? It's their job to be handling it and they have the knowledge. You don't want to be saying/doing anything that could prejudice your/their case.

lisyloo

I don't think there are any guidelines, but legally he's entitled to be put back into the same financial posistion had the accident not occurred.
So he/she is entitled to car hire whilst the car is unavailable.

When you say 7 weeks or so, is this simply your interpretation?
I'm speculating, but my guess would be somewhat different.

Get on to your insurers, they should be sorting this out.
It's not Xmas any more, it's normal working hours, so get on to them to tell you what to do.

LadyIndecisive

I would strongly urge you not to attempt to do anything with the claim form, other than let your insurers nominate solicitors to enter a defence on your/their behalf. You are very likely to do more harm than good. Your insurers should have forewarned you that they had been unable to agree settlement and to expect a claim form, alternatively they should have nominated a solicitor before proceedings were issued, to accept service of the claim form on your/their behalf. They appear to have been rather lax.

There are no set written guidelines for hire claims. Negotiation is generally based on previous case law, which I would not recommend for light reading as it is incredibly boring.

sarahg1969

You do not need to bother yourself with this at all. Assuming you have passed the papers on to your insurers, as advised, you just leave it to them to deal with.

lisyloo

Assuming you have passed the papers on to your insurers, as advised, you just leave it to them to deal with.

I would disagree with this.
The insurers SHOULD deal with it, but from a legal standpoint it is the individual who is being pursued through the legal system (because they got no joy from the insurer).

You ened to make SURE your insurer is dealing with it.
Don't assume that they are because this is no defence.
The individual gets sued.

There is a difference between liability and insurance.
It's the individual that's being pursued here.
How things should work is that the insurer should deal with it (or advise what to do) but legally the individual is being pursued so they have an active interest in making sure it gets dealt with.

LadyIndecisive

Valid point by lisyloo, as they seem to have been a bit lax thus far probably safest bet to call them and ensure they are doing something.