HELP! possible dodgy car insurance scam?? certainly a confusing mess!

wallofbeans

A car smashed into my girlfriends about a year ago (they were at a roundabout and didnt look to see she hadn't gone already).. claim was pretty quick, they admitted liability and we thought all was settled...

To back track a little, when the claim started my gf called her insurance company to get it going and then soon after she got a call from another company (she'd never heard of) saying they were dealing with the claim.. she called her insurers to check it out and they said it was legit... she got offered a free hire car which she took for 3 days while hers was being fixed...

Back to now.. A couple of days ago she gets a call from a solicitor saying they are acting on her behalf to collect the remainder of her claim. She's never spoken to them before and thought her claim was done and dusted..

She calls her insurer and yes, the claim is closed as all repair costs were paid...

"But did she take a hire car from this other company?" they ask...

"What, the company you said were working on your behalf, who offered a free hire car? Yes, I did."

"They are probably trying to claim the cost of that hire car back says insurer."

"But what has that got to do with me?" she asks. "And how did this solicitor get my details and how are they allowed to act on 'my behalf'?"

Surely, the hire car costs are being claimed back on behalf of the company that gave her the hire car and not my girlfriend, who didnt pay for them? As far as she is concerned, the claim was with her insurer and that is closed... Anything else going on is between this other company, the other drivers insurer and my gf's insurer.. but not my gf herself??

The other company got annoyed when she started saying things like this over the phone.. They were quite aggressive and suggested she was trying to block their progress in reclaiming the second part of the claim...

My gf is worried that if she doesn't co-operate with them then they will suggest her not helping meant they couldnt claim back this second set of costs and we worry that they include overpriced hire car charges and who knows what else in legal fees...

Anyone had to deal with anything like this before and have any advice? We are starting to get nervous and don't want to do anything to make this worse!

raskazz

There's nothing dodgy going on. The company who provided the courtesy car are a credit hire company - effectively they were giving your girlfriend a hire car on credit. When you accept something on credit then that credit must be repaid. So the credit hire company are effectively collecting the cost of the hire but in the name of your girlfriend as she is the one who has benefited from the credit.

mattymoo

Wallofbeans - it is called subrogation. When she took the hire car she will have signed documents permitting them to recover the costs from the other side (the guilty driver) in her name. It is a standard practice. She will also have agreed to co-operate with that process including giving evidence in court should the need arise.

It is also likely that if she fails to co-operate and they are unsuccessfull in their recovery, she will become liable for the outstanding amounts. As raskazz says, it is a credit hire account and the debt has to be repaid at the end of the day, hopefully by the other side.

Co-operate with the solicitors - normally in the form of giving a signed statement and hopefully the matter should be resolved with no further action required.

dacouch

The reason your Insurers told you the hire company are working on their behalf is they will have given your Insurer a commission of around £150 for passing your details over to them. The credit hire company will be charging a very high daily rate for the hire car so its a profitable business for them.

They should have explained how it works when they gave you the car and got you to sign the credit agreement.

Like previous posters have advised you should give them all the help they request as you will have signed a form agreeing to help them.

wallofbeans

it all seems a little outrageous though, as she had no idea this was what she was getting into and even asked when she got the hire car if it would cost her or the other driver anything, as if it was going to then she wouldn't have it.. she was told it was totally free... and has never been given any information about anything that is going on unless she has pushed for it...

The last thing she needs is the costs coming back her way! She was not at all at fault in the claim so what are the chances that will happen?

This is all via a large reputible insurer too... all very worrying and a shame that we all seem to have to know this stuff in advance as companies are never totally honest!

Thanks all

DCFC79

Did your gf insurance not include a hire car,

aqueoushumour01

did you sign any documentation? In that case legally you are bound by what it said although it's not on that they didn't explain this all to your gf.

mattymoo

wallofbeans wrote: »

The last thing she needs is the costs coming back her way! She was not at all at fault in the claim so what are the chances that will happen?

Low if she co-operates with them.
Credit car hire rates are far higher than normal vehicle hire rates and insurers have challenged them in court in the past. Following this court case, rates were agreed under the ABI GTA (general terms of agreement iirc)- http://www.abi.org.uk/TPHire/

The link is useful in that it shows whether the other persons insurers and the credit hire firm subscribe to the agreement.

If we assume that one or both parties does not subscribe to the GTA then the matter will revolve around how reasonable the rates were and that the hire period was reasonable. For instance, if her own car was repaired after a week but she hired for a month, this would be disputed.

The rate issue is a technical discussion between the hire co and the other insurer and is settled via negotiation if the GTA is not in place.

Without her evidence the hire company will find it harder to support their claim and the other insurers will use this against them. As I mentioned earlier there would have been a clause in the hire agreement requiring her co-operation and if she ignores this and their claim is compromised, I suspect they will look to her for the balance.

wallofbeans

she thought car hire was part of her insurance, she even called her insurance company staright after she made the claim as she got a letter from this other company (not the insurer) so she wanted to check it was all legit before talking to them... insurer said they were acting on their behalf so she trusted them...

She only had the hire car for a few days i think and swapped it in for her car as soon as it was repaired... Like I said, she only took the hire car coz they told her it was 'free' and part of her insurance... I thought it was great that they offered it as she pays enough for her insurance that they should do these extras when needed... seems it wasnt that easy!

she called her insurer to ask about all this on friday and they seemed to be aware that this other company don't quite tell people all the information and said that people had complained before!! They are looking into it further on monday... I know she'll have to call them back and chase though!

asbokid

raskazz wrote: »

There's nothing dodgy going on.

Nothing dodgy? I thought we were talking about Drive Assist?

dieselhead

I think you are making more of this than is really necessary, this is normal practice in a clear non fault claim. The insurance company has out sourced the provision of the hire car, normally in a non fault case this is free for you and is charged the the other parties insurers. It seems the car hire company has been slow to complete their paper work and now needs to re-claim their costs from the other parties insurance, they will need your help to do this.

I have been in a similar situation, I was in a bad rear end shunt which resulted in my car being written off. Both my insurers and the RAC who had recovered my car offered me a hire car, I needed to get to work the next day and so asked who could supply me a car faster, it was the RAC not my insurers (RAC got me a car the same day), I completed further paperwork to give them details of the accident and they simply claimed from the other parties insurance, however it was made very clear on the phone and in the paperwork that if I were found not to be at fault I would be responsible for the cost.