HP Voluntary Termination - Reasonable Care

hayward-kennedy

Can anyone advise on this please?

I have handed back my car & terminated the HP agreement. They have now sent through a bill for damages of £789.

Now, I will say first off that there was some damage. The car was parked on the street once (in a perfectly legal place), and a renowned local lunatic old lady came out of her house and keyed it. The police were informed but there was no proof and she denied it, so nothing could be done there I'm afraid. So there were quite severe scratches to the door and part of the side panel.

However, the bill seems excessive. They have billed me for a dent on the wing, and scratches in several places other than the ones I mentioned above. I was unaware of any other scratches or dents at all, so if they were there they would have to be extremely minor and just part of normal wear & tear.

I believe the term used to assess what should be paid for damages is 'reasonable care' or something similar?

Is there any way of appealing this type of bill? Who decides on what is reasonable? It all seems far too subjective to me. A 2-year-old car will have some sort of wear & tear, but how much of that should I be paying for?

I'm really not sure what to do next.

Gaz83

Did you take any of your own pictures prior to the car being returned?

Foxy-Stoat_3

Depends on how many panels were damaged.

Fair wear and tear is one thing but vandalism damage and dents are another.

I would think that you dont have many legs to stand on, unless you obtained a few quotations for repairs before you handed back the car, just incase they tried it charge you excessive amounts for minor repairs.

andyfromotley

Why didn't you get the damage repaired on your insurance?

Unfortunately you are now in a pretty weak position.

Ask for a total breakdown of their costs and treat this as a negotiation. try to batter them down, but i suspect it will be difficult without detailed photographic evidence to back up your case!

MallyGirl

Someone keyed my car a fair few years ago and the cost to repair the damage by one those 'chips away' type of businesses (not a main dealer respray) was over £500

hayward-kennedy

I didn't take photos I'm afraid. I wish I had.

I understand that I have left myself in a very difficult position, but I really do feel that the charges are excessive. There was no dent, for instance, which is being charged for at a cost of £38. I know that's one of the smaller charges, but some of the scratches I'm certain were not there or were incredibly minor. The photos they have sent with the bill are very unclear.

I don't want to screw this company out of money or anything like that, I just want this to be fair. I'm just asking if anyone has any experience of appealing this sort of thing? Or if there's any kind of definition of what is & isn't reasonable wear & tear?

The company is called RMS Receivables. I'm reading some not-so-complimentary things about them, and there are a number of people saying they are rip-off merchants and not to pay them.

I just want a fair resolution.

Gaz83

A dent costing £38 to repair could be tiny, easily unnoticed by anyone who wasn't looking over with a fine tooth-comb.

dgtazzman

The cost of these repairs can run up. Somebody grazed my 6-month-old car with a shopping trolley at the local Sainsbury's last week, no note of course. The dent is hardly noticeable and only close up under certain angles, but I went to get a quote for having it repaired at Chipsaway, they wanted just over 350 pounds for it (would have had to repaint 2 door panels for the colors to match up).

I ended up just having the minor scratches to the paintwork buffed out, cost me under 50 pounds and the dent, I'll just live with for now as it's so minor, you really have to be looking for it to see it.

If somebody had keyed my leased car, I would at least get a crime reference number and would have gotten the insurance involved at the time, so I think it's too late to do much about it now.

xHannahx

Hubby voluntary terminated his.
They charged £80 to polish two panels due to really minor blemishes. He refused to pay as a full valet wouldn't cost that much. He found out where they took the car, and contacted two valet companies in that town for quotes for a full valet/polish. He sent them a cheque along with the quotes For valet and in his letter told them if they cash cheque they in doing so agree it as full and final settlement. Never heard any more from them but they cashed the cheque.

engineer_amy

some of our company cars are on HP, the documentation they provide at the start clearly sets out what is classes as fair wear and tear, and they provide a little plastic template doo-dah with a circle cut out in the centre, about an inch and a half wide. If the scratch/scrape/ding is entirely within the circle it is classed as fair wear and tear, and not chargeable, otherwise it is chargeable at current commercial rates.
After being stung once for about £1k for large scratches being repaired by the HP company, the next time we got them repaired ourselves before returning the car at the end of the agreement. Worked out a lot cheaper and we were able to get a couple of quotes