Car accident in hired vehicle

Alz1986 · 25 June 2018 at 11:19PM

Hi all,

Does anyone have experience dealing with car rental accidents? A friend of mine hired a car from Enterprise recently and had an accident, he has admitted it was his fault. He notified Enterprise immediately. No damage was done to the hire car and some scratches to 3rd party bumper.

He gave £200 deposit plus excess reduced to £100- which only applies if 3rd party was at fault. But no damage to hire vehicle so this should be fine.

3rd party is now claiming personal injury. Friend's concern is would he have to pay for anything or are Enterprise going to handle this?

If anyone has experience in these cases their insight will be appreciated!

neilmcl · 26 June 2018 at 7:54AM

Unless he took out third party insurance then your friend will have to handle any claim the TP makes I believe.

newatc · 26 June 2018 at 8:38AM

I would have thought/hoped that the Enterprise insurance would cover it. I don't take out any additional insurance when I hire a car other then ensuring I'm on a reasonable excess with car hirer.I've had a knock (my fault) in a hire car and that went as I had envisaged but there was no personal injury claim fortunately.

neilmcl · 26 June 2018 at 8:59AM

I've not hired a car for ages but it does seem that TP insurance is included so the hire company will probably handle all of this in that case.

foxy-stoat · 26 June 2018 at 9:03AM

neilmcl wrote: »

Unless he took out third party insurance then your friend will have to handle any claim the TP makes I believe.

You probably believe wrong then, TP will claim from enterprise insurers for their damage and any injuries. Best to look on the paperwork as the hire company will probably keep the excess deposit.

George_Michael · 26 June 2018 at 1:35PM

As it's a legal requirement to have TP cover in place, (unless you have a large sum of money deposited with the courts), Enterprise would be acting illegally if they either didn't provide this or ensure that the renter had their own policy that covered any TP claim.

EdGasketTheSecond · 26 June 2018 at 3:24PM

When you hire a car the insurance is included with it. Let Enterprise deal with any claims.

Alz1986 · 26 June 2018 at 3:38PM

Thanks, thats what I had thought too. I think the worry is too often these hire companies tend to just charge you for anything hoping nobody questions.