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Unexpected bill from the Fire Brigade.

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Crabby
Crabby Posts: 858 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
My wife was involved in a small car accident, she skidded on a roundabout at low speed on a greasy road surface and tipped her car onto its side. Her's was the only vehicle involved, no one was injured and the only damage caused was to the car.
The fire brigade arrived righted the car and put sand on the road.
Because of the age of the car and the excess on my wife's insurance policy it wasn't worth making a claim.

Months later she has received an Invoice for £500 from the Fire brigade. She didn't call them out or ask for their assistance.

The question is, does she have to pay?
Winner winner, Chicken dinner.
«1345678

Comments

  • topdaddy_2
    topdaddy_2 Posts: 1,408 Forumite
    What doss the invoice detail ie what are you being charged for? Thought this is what council tax is for but they seem to think you are liable.
  • ariba10
    ariba10 Posts: 5,432 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Your car insurance is for things like this.
    I used to be indecisive but now I am not sure.
  • InsideInsurance
    InsideInsurance Posts: 22,460 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Did they assist your wife or just deal with the road surface issue? Who righted and recovered your vehicle?

    Assuming they helped her at all then really their isnt much choice, you're insurance would cover it or you can pay for it yourself if you arent wanting to claim on the insurance.

    If they didnt help her/ the car at all and simply dealt with the road surface then you could attempt to push back and say its the council/highways agency (as appropriate) that the bill needs to be sent to as the road surface issue was not caused by you but you were just a victim of it.

    Ambulances also charge for attending RTAs
  • arcon5
    arcon5 Posts: 14,099 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ariba10 wrote: »
    Your car insurance is for things like this.

    I thought taxation for which we all pay was for public services like this. Otherwise what are we paying tax for
  • colino
    colino Posts: 5,059 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Fire Service and Ambulance have been charging like this for years, people just aren't aware of it because it gets wrapped up in the usual insurance claim.
    Complain, but they'll probably just want your insurance company to get involved.
  • arcon5 wrote: »
    I thought taxation for which we all pay was for public services like this. Otherwise what are we paying tax for

    Good question, but the police are the only emergency service not to invoice the driver for attending a collision.
  • Aretnap
    Aretnap Posts: 5,751 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    arcon5 wrote: »
    I thought taxation for which we all pay was for public services like this. Otherwise what are we paying tax for
    Schools, hospitals, bin collections, nuclear weapons etc etc.

    Ultimately you pay taxes for the things that elected politicians decide they should be spent on. In their infinite wisdom they've decided that not all the cost of car accidents should be borne by the taxpayer, some of it should be passed on to the people who cause the accident, or to their insurers. There's also provision for the NHS to reclaim some of the cost of treating road accident victims from the responsible party's insurer.
  • colino
    colino Posts: 5,059 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    The tax thing is down to UK voters fixation with tax rate on their PAYE. By driving that down to election winning rates, just about everything else has an extra tax tagged on or a hidden cost for public services.
  • Crabby
    Crabby Posts: 858 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    Did they assist your wife or just deal with the road surface issue? Who righted and recovered your vehicle?

    They righted the car and put sand down, my wife eventually drove the car home.

    My wife didn't ask for the fire brigades help, if she'd known they where going to bill her for £500 she'd have told them to bu££er off.

    Me and my wife could probably tipped the car, a 1.0L Aguilla, back on it's wheels and she wasn't responsible for the slippy road surface.

    The invoice just says; Fees - other, plus VAT, no other details.
    Winner winner, Chicken dinner.
  • Crabby wrote: »
    They righted the car and put sand down, my wife eventually drove the car home.

    My wife didn't ask for the fire brigades help, if she'd known they where going to bill her for £500 she'd have told them to bu££er off.

    Me and my wife could probably tipped the car, a 1.0L Aguilla, back on it's wheels and she wasn't responsible for the slippy road surface.

    The invoice just says; Fees - other, plus VAT, no other details.


    And you'd have done what about the fluids she spilt?

    Your options are pay it or pass it onto the insurance company. They may well be expecting some invoices as you did inform them of the incident.
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