Albany Assistance and court proceedings - please help

thegirlintheattic

You have to comply with all requests or Albany will come after you.

If you have credit protection then as long as you comply Albany will cover the costs if the 3rd party refuses to pay.

AndrewSmith

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

You have to comply with all requests or Albany will come after you.

If you have credit protection then as long as you comply Albany will cover the costs if the 3rd party refuses to pay.

Unless the third party are awarded the win under impecuniosity as the owness is on the hirer to ensure that they have made every effort to mitigate costs prior to signing a credit hire agreement. The credit hire agreement terms and conditions will make reference to this. If the hirer signs in agreement with these terms and conditions then it is later found that they could have afforded to replace the vehicle like for like, effected temporary repairs or hired a suitable vehicle themselves without affecting their normal standard of living then the hirer would be in breach of the credit hire agreement and, as such, any premium insurance or guarantee would be void and the third party insurer would not have to pay for the hire leaving the hirer liable for the hire costs, or the difference between ABI rates and spot rates depending on the circumstances.

Credit hire should be outlawed in my opinion as the only winners are the credit hire companies. Insurers have to increase premiums to cover the sometimes outrageous hire bills, this means that ALL policyholders lose out in the long run. It's nothing more than a scam in my opinion especially when the majority of at fault insurers are happy to provide a suitable courtesy car either at a far cheaper cost than credit hire or free of charge via their approved repairers.

Everyone is moaning about the increase in car hire premiums, the main reason for the hike in costs is they are having to pay out on spurious personal injury claims and ridiculously inflated and purposely extended credit hire bills.

The whole system is a complete joke and should be looked at very closely with a view to coming down hard on these credit hire firms who are the only ones to win in all this.

chanz4

I 100% agree, near enough all body shops even provide courtesy cars or vans now also

sarahg1969

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

You have to comply with all requests or Albany will come after you.

If you have credit protection then as long as you comply Albany will cover the costs if the 3rd party refuses to pay.

It is entirely possible that the the OP was not asked to sign a credit hire agreement at the commencement of hire, but was just asked to provide an electronic signature to confirm receipt of the vehicle. It is not unusual for that electronic signature to then be added to the hire documentation. If that has happened, then Albany may find themselves on a sticky wicket if they come after the OP for the hire charges.

vax2002

The OP needs to find the contract he signed, anything else is speculating.

AndrewSmith

sarahg1969 wrote: »

It is entirely possible that the the OP was not asked to sign a credit hire agreement at the commencement of hire, but was just asked to provide an electronic signature to confirm receipt of the vehicle. It is not unusual for that electronic signature to then be added to the hire documentation. If that has happened, then Albany may find themselves on a sticky wicket if they come after the OP for the hire charges.

The credit hire company will take a physical signature on the credit hire agreement at the point of delivery of the vehicle, along with ID and license details coupled with a swipe of a credit or debit card.

vaio

chanz4 wrote: »

I 100% agree, near enough all body shops even provide courtesy cars or vans now also

Yep, but that's only whilst your car is actually being repaired. Credit hire covers the period whilst you are waiting for your car to be examined, parts sourced etc etc.

The obvious answer is for at fault companies to be pro-active and provide the innocent party with a replacement car immediately. Historically they have resisted this, preferring to try and save money by transferring this cost on to the innocent driver. This opened a niche for credit hire which, in the best traditions of capitalism, has been filled.

another solution would be for all policies to provide a replacement car if required. Some policies do provide this at extra cost and I'm sure if all policies provided it the cost would be less than the reported £80 per policy that credit hire accounts for.

sarahg1969

AndrewSmith wrote: »

The credit hire company will take a physical signature on the credit hire agreement at the point of delivery of the vehicle, along with ID and license details coupled with a swipe of a credit or debit card.

What I'm saying is that there is a possibility that the credit hire agreement was NOT physically signed at commencement of hire. I have asked the OP to confirm if they have been asked to sign anything recently. I am aware that some companies simply add an electronic signature to a hire agreement that hasn't been read by the hirer, who thinks that they are getting a courtesy car.

The OP needs to confirm if they did sign a credit hire agreement at the commencement of hire and if they were made aware that they personally were responsible for the hire charges.

shreddy

Both Albany and the alleged at fault insurer will have a copy of the credit agreement. I would assume that they did sign a credit agreement as this along with the terms of the agreement are one of the first things an insurer asks for when reviewing a credit hire claim - No agreement or cancellation clause = unenforceable and we will refuse to make any payment.

Impecuniousity is also a commonly used argument - The at fault insurer will likely have requested these documents informally from Albany, Albany will have refused and the case has now gone to court to request the documents via a formal Part 18 request.

The burden of proof lies with the at fault party to show that the person hiring the car could reasonably have used a cheaper hire company. The burden is normally discharged via a report on ‘spot hire’ rates which is essentially evidence of the rates charged by hire firms in the locality of the person hiring for a similar vehicle. These firms do not provide credit hire and are therefore generally cheaper.

Once the at fault party has discharged this burden, the hirer can then show that they had no choice but to use credit hire. If so, he/she can still recover the full credit hire rate. Usually the hirer had no other choice if the were impecunious: that is, they could not afford to pay spot hire charges up front. It will likely be argued that if you have a credit card or savings you should have mitigated your losses and thus utilised 'spot hire' such as Enterprise, Avis etc which offer a MUCH lower daily rate rather than credit hire. It is the duty of the credit hire company to explain this to you prior to signing the credit agreement.

Take a look at the case of Darren Bent v Highways & Utilities Construction Limited and Allianz Insurance. Although it is in the process of appeal.

Credit hire has a lot to answer for in relation to increased insurance premiums!

chanz4

Im glad, hopefully the oft will get involved