Morethan & ABI GTA

NZ039926

Hi,

I had an accident which wasn't my fault. Morethan adviced me to hire a car but let me down when I received the £800 bill from the car hire company.
Since then, Morethan supervisors went on a long meeting and they just sent me fob off letters.
Now I received a letter from insurance company of the person who hit my car saying that:

"the hire account was not agreed in full, was because the car hire company has an obligation to monitor the situation with regards to the damaged vehicle and keep us updated if the claim is delayed in any way. The car hire company failed to abide by the ABI GTA in this instance"

What does ABI GTA mean?
Where do I go from here?

I am in debt because of this, and I feel disappointed by the way MoreTh<n treated me. I will never use morethan again.

Thanks.

mattymoo

http://www.abi.org.uk/TPHire/

Association of British Insurers General Terms of Agreement.
In effect, the other persons insurers are saying you hired the car for longer than necessary. They are refusing to pay the bill in full and under the terms of your hire agreement, you are responsible for the balance.
It is probably the hire companies fault rather than More Than. They should have explained this situation car arise.

dunstonh

I agree. You are pointing the figure at the wrong company.

NZ039926

mattymoo wrote: »

http://www.abi.org.uk/TPHire/

Association of British Insurers General Terms of Agreement.
In effect, the other persons insurers are saying you hired the car for longer than necessary. They are refusing to pay the bill in full and under the terms of your hire agreement, you are responsible for the balance.
It is probably the hire companies fault rather than More Than. They should have explained this situation car arise.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Thanks for your reply.

This has left me in severe financial difficulty and all because I was the victim of an accident which occurred through no fault of my own.

How can I get my £800 back?

Thanks for your advice.

NZ039926

dunstonh wrote: »

I agree. You are pointing the figure at the wrong company.

=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Thanks for your reply.

I phoned Moreth<n hundreds of times asking them to get things moving and spoke to Gajendra, Montelyn, Guete, Veilankalni (not sure about the spelling) and ..... many others.
They were doing a good job of fobbing me off.
Some of Moreth<n staff were telling me their supervisor in a meeting when I can clearly hear the supervisor coaching them as what to say.
Morethan were very happy to collect the monthly payments, but when I needed them they let me down.

mattymoo

Have never dealt with hire car claims under the ABI GTA but insurers used to consider the following.

1) was the type of car hired similar to or smaller than the claimants own car. If you had a fiesta but claimed for an audi A4 then the claim would be reduced down to the fiesta hire rate.

2) Delays. If your car repair was completed on 1st of May but you did not collect until 14th of May and hired a car during those 2 weeks, the insurers (of the other person) could reasonably refuse to meet that cost.

3) Repair delays - car driveable. If a car is driveable (legally) and parts need to be ordered in then you should continue to drive your own car. Once the garage has the parts the repair should be booked in and the hire car period starts from here.

4) Repair delays - car not driveable. Trickier one since the hire car period starts on day 1 and parts may take a while to source, particularly for exotic and some japanese marques.

You, as a claimant, have a common law duty (in English law) to mitigate your loss. This means you have to keep it as low as possible. The ABI GTA is there to ensure this occurs.

In the past, some of the hire car companies were happy to let matters drag on for months, knowing they would get their money either from the negligent persons insurers or from their own client (you) if the insurers refused to meet the full cost. The GTA is aimed at making the hire company more pro-active in managing the hire period.

Not sure why you say More Than were fobbing you off. Is this in relation to the repairs on your own car? Did their engineer delay authorising repairs? Can you clarify this.

Can you also clarify if the other persons insurers have stated why they feel the hire claim is unreasonably high. Sound like they are saying it is down to delay but without knowing reason for delay cannot say if it reasonable.

jamesd

Ask the other person's insurer for specific details of how the GTA was breached. Tell the car hire company that the insurer has partially rejected their claim because they are alleged to have breached the GTA, failing in their duty to deliver you a proper service by doing so. Ask them to explain what they believe has caused the insurer to partially reject the claim and why they believe that they have not failed to carry out their duty to you to minimise your loss by properly complying with the GTA.

You need to either get those two to agree or get the car hire company to agree that it is responsible for the non-payment through its negligence in failing to comply with the GTA.

Madofonic

I was very shocked to read about your problem considering it is down to hire company and the insurer to agree a reasonable settlement and any outlay costs for hire which could not be agree should be written of by either the hire company or the insurer.

The hire company have an obligation to monitor the hire period which also include monitoring your claim, whereby they should call the insurer, you, the garage and any other parties involved to make sure no delays are caused.

However if there are delays, you should quote "the Chain of Causation’ which
clearly stated that a claimant (you) can not be held responsible for delays that are out of their control, meaning if the hire company, insurer, garage or any other party cause a delay which extended the hire, they can no expect you to pay for it.

There was also a case that went to the ‘House of Lords’ whereby The Court of Appeal found that the Claimant should not suffer because of matters beyond their control. It was considered that the Claimant in ‘Clark V Ardington’ appeared to have acted reasonably in placing the vehicle in the hands of a respectable repairers and there were no supervening events. The Court of Appeal suggested a remedy for the Defendants, being that the insurers of the Defendants could, where the period of repairs was unjustified seek contribution from the repairers themselves. It was held that any arguments in respect of the length of the hire due to the extended repair period were irrelevant. It would be extremely difficult to envisage a circumstance where the claimant would be criticised and held responsible for the delay in repairs once the vehicle has been placed in the hands of the repairers.

In the event you have caused any delay the hire company and insurer must firstly establish whether the delay period was reasonable under the circumstances and whether it had any effect on the overall period. They also need to prove that you have failed to minimise the length of hire and that the hire company and the insurers themselves have no involvement in the delay, such as failing to chase or inform you of any developments or requesting documentation or information.

All in all it is down the hire company and the insurer to agree a settlement figure and not seek contribution from you without just cause.

Also ready your rental agreement or if you do not have a copy obtain one from the hire company to see if you have in fact signed or agreed to settle any outstanding hire. If you have not, then you are not legally required to pay anything in the first place. If your insurance company are putting pressure on you, go to the finance ombudsman.

Hope this helps.

V_tricky

OP -

You're best bet here would be to ask to speak to the recovery unit in Birmingham - 0121 234 4812 and tell them that you'd like them to deal with your complaint.

They deal with all the complaint cases & overflow from India essentially, and so should be prepared to sit down and go through step-by-step where the failures were, and whether they were the responsibility of Morethan or the hire company.

See points 4.11 and 4.12 of the ABI GTA 2005

As the other posters have already said, it is the hire company's responsibility to monitor the hire, and if there are any delays, advise the responsible party's insurer.