Accident Exchange....help please

pugger

My partner had a non fault accident on the 1st October last year. Within a couple of days she had a call from Accident Exchange offering her an equivalent hire car, she accepted and the car was delivered a couple of days later. Now she is receiving letters and phone calls from solicitors acting on behalf of Accident Exchange to recover the costs from the other party.
I've just googled this company and the results weren't very good. We are now very worried they are going to hold her liable for the costs. Does anybody have any experience of this company?

straighttalker

You should have checked the terms and conditions of hire before taking the shiny new vehicle.

You may already know some or all of what follows.

Accident Exchange are a credit hire company. They provide hire cars to non fault parties and charge the at fault insurer a daily rate for providing such vehicles. The daily rates charged can be found here. http://apps.abi.org.uk/tphire/ I think they operate under the ABI GTA.

When the hire agreement was signed, you or your wife agreed to help the hire company make a recovery from the third party. This will include providing witness statements as to why you needed a hire car, provide bank statements, details of credit cards and savings and incoming and expenditure to show that you couldn't afford to hire a car and pay up front rather than go to a credit hire provider at a higher cost. In the event that the matter goes to a final hearing to determine how much is to be awarded for the hire aspect of the claim, you or your wife will have to attend to give evidence.

It sounds like the other parties insurer are disputing the amount of money claimed for the credit hire hence why Accident Exchange are instructing their own solicitors. I recommend you assist them as much as you can in line with the terms and conditions of hire. It may not go all the way to a final court hearing if the matter is capable of being settled beforehand.

khcomp

READ EVERYTHING when you're dealing with insurers: I had a similar experience after a non fault claim in 2014: I was given a hire car, and when I received the agreement, I refused to sign & return it, as it mentioned that I would be charged for the hire if the hire company couldn't recover costs from the third party. I still had the hire car for 3 months without quibble.
I'd refer the solicitors back to your insurer at the time - I assume it was them who passed your details on to AE. As long as you gave up the hire car promptly upon settlement of the claim, you shouldn't be held liable. They couldn't pick mine up for a fortnight after my claim was settled, so I emailed them, had the car valeted, parked it up securely & took a load of high res photos to show that it was 'as delivered'.

OnanTheBarbarian

Just co-operate with Accident Exchange/ their appointed solicitors and you have nothing to worry about.

pugger

Thanks for the replies. Neither of us have been involved in an accident before so this is/was all new to us.

Accident Exchange were the ones who called her out of the blue and told her that she was entitled to a hire car. This is from their terms and conditions- "The charges for the hire vehicle are covered by the hire agreement entered into by you with Accident Exchange
Limited and although these charges are your responsibility, we will recover these charges on your behalf from
the negligent driver(s) or their insurer(s).
For your protection and also for your added peace of mind, we have arranged a complimentary insurance policy
on your behalf. This policy is underwritten by AMTrust Europe Limited and, subject to the terms and conditions
of the policy, it protects you from having to pay the hire charges incurred under the hire agreement in the event
that they are not recovered from the negligent driver(s) or their insurer(s). It also provides cover for legal costs
and expenses which may be incurred in the event that formal legal proceedings need to be taken on your behalf
to pursue your claim should the other driver not accept liability or seek to dispute your claim at a later stage".

She had the hire car for two weeks, she even tried to get them to take it back a day or two early but they insisted she have it for the full two weeks. She's worried sick now as this is going to court.

khcomp

Seems pretty clear to me - she's just not liable under any circumstances. Has she tried contacting AE directly?

pugger

She's just got off the phone to them, they insist she has no liability and they are going to send a letter confirming this.

Aretnap

In the absence of a company like Accident Exchange, if you were left without a car for two weeks by an accident you would have to go down to Hertz (or equivalent) yourself, pay with your own money to hire a car while yours was being repaired, and then claim the cost back from the at fault party's insurance company. If they didn't pay up, you would then have to take the insurer to court yourself to recover your costs.

Accident Exchange are essentially a company who arrange all of this for you, and also provide you with a loan to cover the hire costs, repayable when you recover the costs from the at fault party's insurer (so you don't have to pay money you may not have upfront). They then work to recover the costs of the hire car on your behalf, taking the third party's insurer to court if necessary.

It sounds like the third party's insurer aren't paying up, so Accident Exchange are issuing a court claim against them. This could be because the insurer is disputing whether AE's fees are reasonable, or they're disputing whether your wife really needed a hire car, or it could be simple inertia on their part. It's unlikely that it will actually get as far as a court hearing and the claim will probably prompt the insurer to settle, but if it does get as far as court your wife might be required to give evidence about what she uses her car for, why she needed a replacement etc. This might be a little bit daunting, but it's not something to be terrified of. As the T&Cs say there's an insurance policy in place so she's not going to end up paying the hire car costs herself, even if the court doesn't award what AE are claiming. The only way she might become liable would normally be if (a) she originally gave AE false information, making them think that her claim for a hire car was better than it actually was, or (b) she refused to assist them in reclaiming the money, eg by completing the paperwork, or appearing in court in the unlikely event that it actually becomes necessary.

pugger

That's the stage we are at right now, statement of truth, bank statements etc. The total is £927, AE said that the other insurer paid £500 a few months ago but there is still £427 odd outstanding which is what the court claim is for.

khcomp

So the claim should be against the other party, and have gone via their insurer. She has no liability.

OnanTheBarbarian

khcomp wrote: »

So the claim should be against the other party, and have gone via their insurer. She has no liability.

The claim is against the other party, your posts are not helping as you don't understand how this works.

The OP has liability for the charges, if they had no liability for the losses, they would have no claim that could be pursued on their behalf by accident exchange.

As I said earlier, so long as the OP assists the appointed solicitors and provides information and documentation when requested, there will be no problems