Unavailable Rental Advice

StarshipUK

I rented a van in the UK quite a few months back from a local van hire company and when I went to collect it there was no one there so I was unable to collect it, so I quickly booked and rented one elsewhere.

They still charged my credit card for the full rental which the credit
card company refunded, but now the van hire company is taking me to court over the full hire amount for their van that I could not hire as they were not there to rent it when I went to collect it. The company does not list opening hours on their website, but I would expect someone to be available during normal business hours (early afternoon) when I went to collect it. They are saying they tried to phone me to let me know they would not be there at that time, but I had no phone calls from them and no message left on my phones voicemail from them.
Their website does state "Please note: Once a vehicle is booked and
credit/debit card details supplied, we operate a no cancellation
policy." My question is, is there anything specific in UK law which
protects me as a consumer in this type of situation (pre-booked hire
vehicle not being available) that I would be able to present in court.

EdGasket

I think they have to keep their side of the deal and actually supply the hire van which they failed to do.

Car_54

Google "Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977".

In your defence you should quote the appropriate section(s) of the Act and submit that the term "Once a vehicle is booked and
credit/debit card details supplied, we operate a no cancellation
policy." is unfair and should not be enforced.

StarshipUK

Thank you. I am not an expert on legal documents, but after quickly reading through this it seems like it is section 11 which would apply to this.

arcon5

Car_54 wrote: »

Google "Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977".

In your defence you should quote the appropriate section(s) of the Act and submit that the term "Once a vehicle is booked and
credit/debit card details supplied, we operate a no cancellation
policy." is unfair and should not be enforced.

Don't quote this, you'll look like an idiot. A no cancellation policy is legal and used across so many industries from flights to hotels etc etc.

Argue they breached the contract by not making the van available.

DoaM

PM a board guide (e.g. Crabman) and get this moved to Consumer Rights ... people with relevant knowledge are more likely to see this there. (I'm assuming you hired the van as a consumer, and not as a business rental?)

Did they say what number they tried to call you on? Is the number on the rental agreement? Is it correct?

dannyrst

Did you not try to ring them? Did you agree a pickup time with them? What time was this and what time did you leave?

AdrianC

dannyrst wrote: »

Did you not try to ring them? Did you agree a pickup time with them? What time was this and what time did you leave?

^This is exactly what I was about to ask.

Was there any out-of-hours phone number reasonably available? Was this a small one-off rental place, or part of a chain with a 24hr call centre?

In short - did you actually give them a reasonable chance to supply, in the event of a temporary absence? Or did you simply give the door one quick rattle, then huff and stomp off?

Joe_Horner

arcon5 wrote: »

Don't quote this, you'll look like an idiot. A no cancellation policy is legal and used across so many industries from flights to hotels etc etc.

Argue they breached the contract by not making the van available.

A (one sided) no cancellation policy is relevant insofar as it relates to what they would have done if their claimed call had happened. If they'd made the call they claim to say it wouldn't be available but refused cancellation when the op daid "but I need it now" then a court would likely disallow the clause as exsessovely biased in their favour. So whether they called or not is a minor detail and doesn't really add to their case.

As you say, though, the main defence is their breach of contract by failing to supply and / or unilateral variation of the contract by imposing different timings (if they really did call to give a different time) without allowing the OP the chance to reject the changes and cancel.

StarshipUK

AdrianC wrote: »

^This is exactly what I was about to ask.

Was there any out-of-hours phone number reasonably available? Was this a small one-off rental place, or part of a chain with a 24hr call centre?

In short - did you actually give them a reasonable chance to supply, in the event of a temporary absence? Or did you simply give the door one quick rattle, then huff and stomp off?

They are a very small company with a handful of LWB vans. However to confuse things they use a larger (apparently separate) rental company for their credit card payments, so the payment did not show as this companies name, but a different rental company on my credit card.

Interestingly on the court claim as well as full rental costs and court costs they are also claiming for an additional £60 as "Admin Fees" and I did not think they were allowed to do this either, and could only claim for the actual amount instead of adding even more extra charges.

I had booked the van with them months earlier over the phone. I was expecting a call from them to confirm the rental but I heard nothing so quickly phoned them the day beforehand to confirm I would still be able to pick up the van. At that time they did not mention they would be closed or unavailable at any point during the day to pick the van up. When I arrived (early afternoon just after 1PM) there was no one there, where I spent around 10 minutes trying to find someone at their site before phoning their number where they answered and said they were driving they would be renting to me making deliveries to a different town and would be back in 30-40 minutes. On the claim they state they told me they would be 20 minutes which is not correct, and I had already spent time trying to locate them. They said they tried to phone me however I did not see any calls from them and no voicemail was left (my home phone diverts directly to my mobile). I told them to cancel and hired a van immediately from a different larger company up the road, which cost slightly more but I was able to get the van from the other company without any messing around.

StarshipUK

Sorry that should say they were driving the van they would be renting to me. Forum won't let me edit the post for some reason to correct that.