Self employed and needing legal help

lee3van5

I was recently involved in an accident in my work van. I am self employed and contract to MJ Quinn who sub contract me to Openreach.
Mj Quinn have billed me for the repairs at £4000 buy say i need to only pay the £1000 excess. I had no choice in where the vehicle went for repairs or if i consented for the work to commence at that price. After receiving the bill. I double checked the parts cost against mercedes and this garage has charged twice as much per part and added parts on that was not needed.
What can i do about this?
Any help would be appreciated

Thank you

MEM62

Have you been made aware of the company's vehicle policy? What it say?

Pennywise

I'm confused? Surely even if the £4k bill is too high, you're still liable for the £1k excess, even if the bill was only £2k. Are do you think the bill should have been less than £1k in total?

lee3van5

“with regard to tools vehicle and equipment ; in the event of any damage (save for wear and tear) or loss of tools, vehicle and equipment, the Engineering Contractor shall be liable for the replacement costs of the same and shall pay the same to MJ Quinn on demand.”

I have been charged for parts not needed and the price of parts used is twice the price of buying them from mercedes

nicechap

lee3van5 wrote: »

I was recently involved in an accident in my work van. I am self employed and contract to MJ Quinn who sub contract me to Openreach.
Mj Quinn have billed me for the repairs at £4000 buy say i need to only pay the £1000 excess. I had no choice in where the vehicle went for repairs or if i consented for the work to commence at that price. After receiving the bill. I double checked the parts cost against mercedes and this garage has charged twice as much per part and added parts on that was not needed.
What can i do about this?
Any help would be appreciated

Thank you

If you need legal help you should consult a lawyer, may do a free 30 min consultation. There is CAB but no guarantee on quality of advice.

When you say your works van - do you own it or does the firm you work for? If its the firms, being responsible for the excess is a common enough term to discourage irressponsible driving.

As Pennywise suggests, irrespective of the garage's inflated costs, the excess would be the same.

The only thing I would add you investigate is whether you have to pay it (have it deducted?) in one go which might leave you effectively earning less than NMW. Your union would be able to help you challenge this, or you could pay a lawyer to write a rebuttal letter on this basis. You remain responsible for the amount so might be able to agree terms to pay it back over a longer period.

EDITED TO ADD: Apologies, I missed the bit that you are self employed, so NMW doesn't apply. This would be a commercial dispute between 2 companies then rather than an employment matter.

Hasbeen

What did you hit? Did the van go through insurance to be repaired? If there was another party involved did they claim?

lee3van5

I will have to pay it back at 10% of my cash earned each week. It is a company van. They pay for the rental of it. I have to pay the least amount. Either cost of repair or excess. I estimate cost of repair to be about £600-£800 at the most. Parts is less than £500.
It as not gone through insurance. They have taken it to a garage and then told me the costs.

McKneff

Ask to see the estimate or the invoice..
You cannot possibly estimate the cost yourself. Costs can escalate alarminly. Even if it is £1001 you aee liable for the £1000.

tacpot12

They probably have over-paid for the repair, but if it is their van, and if you think it should cost £800 to fix, having to pay them £200 extra is not outrageous as they have done all the running around to sort the repair, offered you a repayment plans, and have presumably lent you another van while the damage was being repaired.