The Ghost of Drive Assist, unrecoverable charges... 3 years after accident!(HCS, MTA)

OnanTheBarbarian

David111 wrote: »

Thank you for the response. I find this whole thread stinks a little of scamming by the insurers of not-so diligent people into thinking they were to receive a courtesy car but instead have signed a hire agreement.

This is the insurance industry through and through....

They make nice kick backs when they are referring their own punters onto credit hire firms, yet squeel like pigs when they are on the receiving end of a credit hire invoice.

The only time a customer genuinely has anything to fear as far as having a credit hire car/van/bike is concerned is if they have been dishonest with their accident description or their needs for a vehicle and have mislead the hire co, or if they refuse to co-operate with recovery of the charges. This is when the hire co can turn their sights on the customer.

Otherwise, it is a case that the credit hire companies are operating in a risk environment when it can sometimes be the case that a full recovery of their charges may not arise due to the customer being held partially at fault for the collision, or (as in the case here) it takes a very long time to be paid.

This is why the charges are high because there is no guarantee they will get paid in full or soon, so the good cases pay for the bad etc.

It is cheaper to hire a car from enterprise etc because they have had your money off you before you even drive off the forecourt, rather than taking a gamble like the credit hire boys to.

David111

Hi Tia, Have you any update on this? I have a court date for the same thing and wondered if you have been summoned?
David

madoak

Hi, I'm hoping our experience may help you. Husband was chased by MTA and Hamilton Claims solutions for hire car costs of £1,200 in a non fault accident in 2012. We held out and eventually I wrote to the CEO of the Post Office who were our insurers. She expedited help, even though the post office had previously said that they couldn't help us. In the interim, after an explosive row at home, I decided to pay the sum in full. There was no way that I was going to allow my husband to perjure himself and I think this may have been what it would come to. Two days after it (the cheque) cleared had a good conversation with the post office who were appalled and DID NOT KNOW that MTA were trying to get my husband to take the action in his name. 1 day later we had confirmation that we were being reimbursed in full plus compensation for the time, stress etc. I quote from the letter,
"As discussed, the administrator acting on behalf of Drive Assist were instructed NOT to contact our clients with regard to recovery of hire costs and I am sorry that this instruction has not been adhered to. Please be assured that this has been escalated to our service manager who is now in direct contact with them."


Really hope that you can get yourself free of this horrible nightmare. I did say to the Post Office at that time that though we really did not have that disposable cash and have two disabled kids, hence could not get ourselves potentially into a litigious situation when any monies that we do have are for their futures. I do not believe that ultimately one would be free of any financial burden if taking court action despite MTA's assurances to the contrary.
Note; neither my husband or myself will ever sign 'anything' ever again without due care or consideration.

"

maddogb

So Ed, if that is the case why are you not putting those facts in the letter to DAs customers?


A simple note saying "we need your help, will cover your expenses and absolutely will not pursue this debt against you if we fail against the 3rd party insurers" would suffice instead of threats.

maddogb

Ed_Black wrote: »

if you do not then DRA Realisations Ltd will only be able to seek to recover the hire charges by seeking them from you directly.

if you want to be taken seriously here try to cut the atypical financial industry bolshie crap and don't tell me that sentence won't scare the bejeezez out of the average consumer.

Roppo

Hi there,

I am in the exact same boat as the Waking Up (the original poster). I reported the accident to our insurers on behalf of my wife who was rear ended. At the time, the at-fault driver immediately apologised, admitted fault and everything ran smoothly until we received this infamous letter from MTA solicitors.

The first letter asked me to log in and provide as many details as possible. I rang our insurers (Mini/BMW) and they recalled the information for me and assured me that supplying it [the information] and agreeing to MTA's terms would be fine... (they said, as also stated here, that providing I cooperate they won't come at me for the costs...)

I've received a second letter, exactly the same as Waking Up:

I will be acting for you in this matter. My name is Irina Ivanova and I am a Paralegal. I am a grade D and details of my charging rate are contained in the temrs and conditions attached. I will be supervised by Michael Taylor, Partner, who has overall responsibility for my work. You can contact me on my telephone number above... etc...

It asks me to sign and without my signature they cannot move forward.

Has anyone progressed from here? Did you cooperate fully? Did you have to attend court and to what end? Did they recover the costs from the at-fault insurers? Did you have to pay out for anything?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!!

I will be seeking independent legal advice and will be phoning Mini/BMW and MTA for a bigger picture of what's going on. I'll request a paper copy of their terms to slow things down a bit.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rob.

Inabitofapickle

My insurer passed me over to Enterprise to obtain a hire car, they would chase the payment from the 3rd party, legal proceedings would follow if I failed to assist them to recover the money from the 3rd party, or if I mislead Enterprise about the incident, and if the 3rd party dispute the hire car charges.

It's in the T&C's that you signed when you were given a hire car, not courtesy car. ALL 3rd party insurers will challenge the hire car charges as there is a significant chance to reduce the bill, this is a standard procedure. Car insurance companies will not offer to pay for anything unless they have to.

It's extremely unlikely to reach court, if you are a genuine non-fault driver and met the condition, the need of use of another vehicle, whilst yours is in for repair then the courts will automatically award in your favour.

- However, the law may state entitlement to another vehicle whilst yours is in for repair, you should have exhausted all available alternatives first.
EXAMPLE
If you have friends and family whom own a similar vehicle to yours in repair and could be made available to you, and you have disposable income to afford temporary car insurance cover, then you should opt for that route first. Once your vehicle is repaired, you should then bill the 3rd party insurance the time and cost, for the duration of your car repair timeline only.

You will need to confirm a witness statement with MTA solicitors, involving confirmation of your name, birthday and the incident, then you'll be asked about times and dates involved, regarding the non-fault incident then various questions involving you, your financial status and if the 3rd party sent you any correspondence or had any verbal communication with you.
Send any evidence of correspondence via e-mail, you can scan documents, this will assist MTA solicitors and meet the T&C's of your hire car contract.

The 3rd party most likely sent you a letter regarding the offer of an 'free hire car' from them personally, asking you to cancel or return the hire car you may already have organised or are using already. This is a request, demand that you can ignore. In the UK/European Union, there are laws protecting you from unfounded threats or demands, and as such if any unwanted commutation was made from the 3rd party, phone calls or letters through the post, you should forward them to your car insurer and ask them for assistance. The offer of a 'free hire car' will result in an instant reduction of the hire car charges.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car have told me that they will cancel any outstanding debt regarding the hire-charges and cover the legal fees (reasonably incurred) so long as I comply with the process and not mislead them through-out.

I am at the point of waiting for my witness statement in the post, to confirm that all information is fact, the truth.
MTA solicitors letters will tend to mention, time of compliance deadlines, usually 7, 14 or 28 days, if you contact them to let them know of any complications or difficulties such as work, they will understand and work around you, you are the customer after all. They want to urge your response to settle incidents as quickly as possible, I'd prefer this end sooner than later.

Good luck...