Enterprise - Huge damage bill

Tom373

Hi All,


I recently had a car from Enterprise. It was due to a no fault (on my part) accident where my car was written off and my insurance co referred me to Enterprise's 'No Fault team'. They failed to properly mimic my existing policy (as I was told would be the case) and didn't add my wife to the additional drivers. I did sign a hire agreement, but was rushed by the person serving me and wasn't asked about additional drivers nor was I ever offered a copy of the T&Cs to look at.


My wife had a scrape on the rear wing and rear door, where the panels were dented a bit. I was totally honest and told them exactly what happened. They've now said I was in breach of contract because my wife was driving and isn't listed and have come back to me with a £4.5k invoice - That's like 25% of the cars value!


My grudge with paying this is:
- They initially told me it was my insurance policy that would cover me. Ive requested the recorded phone calls - Had to threaten complaining to the Information Commissioners Office before they did comply!

- Later they said it is actually just mimicking my policy - but its not even doing that, otherwise my wife would be included.
- Since reading the T&Cs paragraph (they still have not sent me a full copy despite asking several times) it states '...charge you the fair market value of the vehicle repair.' How could a repair at an official Merc dealer be considered as a fair market value?


Enterprise's Damage Claim Dept also seem to have a tactic of sending threatening emails late in the evening, so once reading them it makes it difficult to sleep properly with all this whirring around your head!



Can anyone offer any advice?
Should I go to court, representing myself as can't afford a solicitor, with Enterprise?
Would anyone be able to give me a quote based on a full Audatex report or decipher it for me?


Thanks in advance,
An extremely worried Tom.

debtdebt

If you had a nearly new Mercedes that someone else scraped, where else would you want it repaired other than a Mercedes approved repairer.

You should really have checked who was covered on the hire car before setting your wife loose on it.

Tom373

Well yes, I accept that I should have been more thorough in checking....
But, I was explicitly told something that wasn't true about my cover for the hire car, leading me to believe she was covered.


Also, I understand where you might want it repaired if it was private, but they stated a 'fair market value for the repair'. I don't see how a top end repair constitutes 'fair market'?

AdrianC

You don't see how a Merc dealer's bodyshop is an appropriate repair on a near-new Mercedes that, quite probably, ultimately belongs to Mercedes GB?
A car that will be sold through a dealer forecourt in a few months as a 6-12mo low-mileage approved used car?
The expected depreciation of which has been used to calculate the hire rates?

Because in saying it's not a "fair market value", that's exactly what you're saying.

debtdebt

In my mind "fair market value" is on a sliding scale dependant on the value and prestige of the marque.

Nearly new Merc, you'd like a Merc approved repair.

10 year old Focus, you'd settle for an insurer approved all marques bodyshop using pattern parts.

It's all about reasonableness.

You're lucky the hire company aren't reporting your wife to the Police for driving uninsured.

Aylesbury_Duck

Can't see you winning this one. It's your responsibility to check that insurance is in order on the documentation you signed and if you felt rushed, to have paused, checked and ask for a copy. I agree with others that it's up to them how and where they get the car repaired.

Arklight

You can't hire a car and then give it to someone else to drive whom the hire company don't know about.

Adding an additional driver is usually a noticeable additional cost and involves the same license checks as the main driver, so it's not like you can argue it was just a box to tick.

It's an expensive lesson for you unfortunately. Your best bet is to ask for leniency with the repayments.

It might be worth exploring if you can actually buy the car from them.

angrycrow

Can't help but think everyone is being a little hard on the op here.

His insurer referred him to Enterprise for a hire car whilst his own car was being sorted. He was told the cover would mirror his own so if his wife is covered on his own policy it would be reasonable to interpret this as she was covered on the hire car. This is what should have happened.

Either the insurer messed up the referral to Enterprise or Enterprise messed up the hire paperwork.

Op approach your insurers and raise a complaint which should get things moving in the correct direction.

Angus_Og

I've removed my previous post as I misunderstood the OP. Sorry.

Arklight

I also didn't get from the OP that it was his insurance company who referred him to Enterprise as part of his policy when his own car was unusable. I thought he'd rented a car for himself and then given it to his wife to drive.

If they told him he'd have the same cover on his hire car as on his actual car then absolutely no way should he pay thousands of pounds for a repair without a fight. Establishing liability between Enterprise and the insurance company sounds like a real pain though and actually I wouldn't even try with Enterprise, they just want their money and they will just go after the named hirer to get it if they don't have an obvious insurance company to claim from.

As ultimately it's the OP's insurance company who should have paid for the damage anyway, then I would say it rests with them to do so now. It's not making any difference to the amount or their liability, and the accident would still have occurred.

Angus_Og

Arklight wrote: »

I also didn't get from the OP that it was his insurance company who referred him to Enterprise as part of his policy when his own car was unusable. I thought he'd rented a car for himself and then given it to his wife to drive.

Yes, that's how i read it the first time.