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Unexpected bill from the Fire Brigade.
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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?
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.
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Comments
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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.0
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Your car insurance is for things like this.I used to be indecisive but now I am not sure.0
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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 RTAs0 -
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.0 -
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I thought taxation for which we all pay was for public services like this. Otherwise what are we paying tax for
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.0 -
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.0
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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.0 -
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.0
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