Enterprise Car Club demanding damage payment.

DanInEd

Hi,
I had an email yesterday from Enterprise Car Club telling me that I was responsible for damaging a car I had hired. They even sent photos.
I had rented the car for an hour and a half, checked it beforehand and seen no damage and didn't have any bumps and scrapes in the time I had it.
The next hire was two days later and that user noted a bump on the back of the car. That's two days in which the damage could have occurred. My excess is £750.

Has anyone been in a similar position? It appears totally unreasonable for me to carry the cost of damage just because I was the last person to use it.

Any advice welcome.

Herzlos

Do you have any proof of the condition when you returned it? If not you might have a bit of a fight to get them to accept the damage was caused by an unknown 3rd party in the 2 days the car sat unused.

JP1978

Just show them the pictures or video you took when you left the car..... which, we are all sure you did - as anyone could have had an accident and just made out it had happened after drop off........

No?

Goudy

This isn't an uncommon occurrence and Enterprises has stung many like this.

Their terms and conditions state that if third party liability cannot be established, it's the drivers responsibility.

As you didn't report any damage and the next hirer did, it's you they see as the driver responsible.

They are meant to send an assessor out to assess the damage and if they think it's unlikely to have happened between rentals, they'll bill the last hirer.

It's likely they've just billed you as last hirer on no other evidence than the next hirers damage evaluation report.

You need to complain and if you don't get anywhere refer it to the BVRLA, others have and had the claims quashed.

https://www.bvrla.co.uk/consumer-advice/making-a-complaint-adr.html


If you are still considering membership after this, consider a hire car excess policy.
They cost around £35 for a year for UK and Europe, but make sure it covers car clubs.

Best of luck!

debtdebt

Goudy wrote: »

This isn't an uncommon occurrence and Enterprises has stung many like this.

Their terms and conditions state that if third party liability cannot be established, it's the drivers responsibility.

As is the case with all motor insurance policies.

DanInEd

Thanks for this. I didn't take a video when I left the car. Does anybody? Is it something I should have done? Groan - I know a few people who use the Enterprise Car Club and nobody takes videos after a hire.
I'm not going to accept it as the parking around there is bonkers anyway with cars on pavements and rammed up to the nearest car.

Aylesbury_Duck

DanInEd wrote: »

Thanks for this. I didn't take a video when I left the car. Does anybody? Is it something I should have done? Groan - I know a few people who use the Enterprise Car Club and nobody takes videos after a hire.

I do and I hire cars a handful of times a year, it's not time-consuming or difficult. It takes no more than a couple of minutes once parked at the drop-off place. It's too easy to be stung for something otherwise. Photos and video might not be perfect evidence but they're probably enough to head off a speculative punt by the hire company.

DanInEd

Well, I'm certainly doing it now. Before and after.
Although given that you could doctor the 'before' video and present it as 'after' suggests, as you say, that it isn't foolproof. I spoke to the BVRLA who agreed that video before and after is a good idea, especially in situations when a car may sit for a few days between hires.

The BVRLA also said that a two day period between hires does not allow Enterprise to automatically claim the:

t if third party liability cannot be established, it's the driver's responsibility.

as it, in essence, means that, as the last driver, you're left with a risk that is not fully explained in the Ts&Cs.

DanInEd

So here's an update.
Enterprise withdrew the claim as 2 days was too much of a gap and there was enough traffic in that area to have explained the damage. They were good about it, they based their decision on the facts.

Now I video the car before and after. I end the 'after' video with a shot of the screen of the key holder which shows the time and trip.

If you notice damage at the start of the hire, phone Enterprise straight away - before you start driving (they can see your telemetry).

CrazyDaiz

I did damage one of their cars, and reported it. Just a small dent to the rear o/s wing while parking (my first accident in 39 years of driving!) They sent me bill and photos of the car being repaired. It was damaged all over! I only hired it for 30 mins, I'd have had to have had it a week to have done the damage they are reporting I've done. Also when they were City Car Club, the exces was £250. When they changed hands I was told (and I still have the emails) that nothing would change, and to carry on using the site the same way, and payments were to be made to the same account. No mention that the excess had tripled! If I had know the excess was £750 I'd have cancelled my membership or taken out extra cover. I'm fighting them over it...I refuse to pay more than £250, and I refuse to accept I caused damage to nearly every part of the car, including the dashboard, on a 30 min hire! (The car was still being hired out after my accident btw as it was still roadworthy, it was a tiny dent!) I'm livid. I'm retired and don't have £750. It should have been made very clear when the company changed hands that the excess was going to triple.

Exemplar

JP1978 wrote: »

Just show them the pictures or video you took when you left the car..... which, we are all sure you did - as anyone could have had an accident and just made out it had happened after drop off........

No?

This - Audi Assist tried to bill us 2K for damage to their loan car. Lucky we took GPS tagged photos and video of it when we left it at the Audi dealer, and it had an extra 400 miles on by the time they picked it up (we left the keys with the Audi dealer).