Hire car after car accident advice

Ellielou123

Hello,

I was recently involved in a car accident. The other driver accepted full liability and my insurance company provided me with a hire car.

There's a capped mileage of 20 miles on the contract. However I am not doing nearly as much as this... Maybe 7-10 miles on a Monday to Friday and nothing on weekends.

Do I have to do 20 miles a day or will the insurance company reduce this for me. If i do say 2 miles a day, does this still warrant the need of the hire car? If reduced, will they say the hire car is not necessary?

Many thanks.

TBagpuss

Capped mileage usually means that you cannot do *more* than the cap, not that you must do that minimum. If the 20 in your post a typo?

I have never heard of a contract having a minimum required mileage. What is the actual wording of the part of the agreement you are concerned about?

InsideInsurance

Your insurers provided you a hire car, ie you;ve paid for an optional extra on your policy, or they have passed/ sold your details to a credit hire car company?

A CAP normally means its the maximum mileage that you can do not a minimum. Why do you think its a minimum?

Ellielou123

TBagpuss wrote: »

Capped mileage usually means that you cannot do *more* than the cap, not that you must do that minimum. If the 20 in your post a typo?

I have never heard of a contract having a minimum required mileage. What is the actual wording of the part of the agreement you are concerned about?

Thanks for the reply.

The wording on the insurance contract says "I need a hire car because I have to travel 20 miles per day" and another page I had to sign said about minimising costs. I could walk/get the bus and work have said I can work from home, so if I only did a couple of miles in total, the insurance company won't tell me off (I hope!)

Is this okay?

I've been off work on sick leave and I haven't needed to use it very much.

Quentin

You won't be penalised for being I'll. But if you no longer need it tell them so.

InsideInsurance

Ellielou123 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

The wording on the insurance contract says "I need a hire car because I have to travel 20 miles per day" and another page I had to sign said about minimising costs. I could walk/get the bus and work have said I can work from home, so if I only did a couple of miles in total, the insurance company won't tell me off (I hope!)

Is this okay?

I've been off work on sick leave and I haven't needed to use it very much.

It sounds like you have credit hire. This is a car given to you on credit at a massively inflated rate and then they will attempt to recover the outlay from the other party.

Legally in any claim you must attempt to mitigate your losses, ie make them as small as possible (things guaranteed to you under your contract of insurance are different). One thing credit hire companies are concerned about is the TP turning round and saying you didnt need the car/ the size of car you were given etc and so refusing to pay the (whole) bill.

Clearly if the form asks you to declare you will be using it for an average of a minimum of 20 miles a day and you're not going to be doing this then you need to speak to them before signing it otherwise they'd have grounds to pursue you for any outlay they were unable to recover if the TPI dispute that your losses were mitigated

OnanTheBarbarian

Yes, this sounds like the ABI Mitigation Statement.

i.e the form is signed by you as a way of justifying the need to hire a replacement vehicle. If you are going to do next to no mileage then it may bring into question the need to hire and the hire company may struggle to recover the charges from the insurer of the at fault party.

If this happens, the hire company could turn their sights on you by saying "you told us you needed to hire a car as you do at least 20 miles a day and you have not" Meaning they could attempt to recover any shortfall on the rental costs from you.

Speak with them and advise them of your situation and make sure you note the date & time you have this conversation and who you spoke with. if they give you various assurances of "don't worry luv we won't come after you" make sure again that you note down precisely who told you this and when.

Any such representations count as what are called "antecedent negotiations" and have effectively become an additional implied term to the contract of hire, thus giving you a get out of jail card if they try to get shirty down the line.