Car Hire - Damaged Bikes

blawford

I hired a car for a trip, took mountain bikes with us on a bike rack on the back of the car.

Got hit from behind by another car, unsurprisingly damaging both bikes. Can I claim the cost of the damage to the bikes? What is the best way of going about this?

Thanks.

molerat

Claim from the other driver or their insurer. What about damage to the car ?

blawford

As the title says, it was a hire car. There was an excess of £1000 on the hire agreement that I had to pay when I returned it.

The accident was a 4 car shunt on a motorway slip-road. I came to a complete stop and about 3 seconds later got hit by the car behind, due to him being hit by the car behind him. This caused me to hit the car in front.

I was told that I would get most if not all of the excess back once it is all sorted (they said that there might be some not returned for the fact that I hit the car infront?), although I also took out a 3rd party excess reimbursement policy which I guess will handle any eventualities.

In terms of the bikes, how do I go about claiming off the 3rd party? Is it the car that hit me, or the car that hit him? Do I go and get a repair estimate for the bikes first? One of the bikes was in pristine condition (only a few weeks old and only ridden once) and is now quite scratched up, will I be able to get more than for just a buckled wheel?

Keep_pedalling

You should be claiming from the guy who caused the stationary car behind you to ram your bikes. I would be claiming for the bikes and the excess you had to pay the hire company.

Nebulous2

You'll need to take the bikes to a bike shop, get them inspected, get a quote for repair and submit it to the insurer as part of the claim. You'll also need to keep them unrepaired in case the insurance company wants to do their own inspection.

Do you have legal cover as part of any of your own insurances - such as household cover? Multi-car accidents can be quite complicated and getting some advice would help.