Auxillis Hire Car Charges - Non Fault

4_Pete's_Sake

I had a no fault claim where another driver caused very minor damage after hitting my car at the rear. Admiral arranged for Auxillis to handle my claim against the other driver's insurer (AXA) Auxillis arranged for the repair to be carried out by a local garage and this all went smoothly and all in all I am very happy with the repair that was administered by Auxillis.

Auxillis also said they could arrange a hire car for me that was similar to mine, but if the hire car got damaged I would be liable for a maximum or £500.00 but that I could pay an optional £60 Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) which would bring my liability down to zero. Admiral Law, could then claim the £60 back from AXA for me as an uninsured loss as I have legal expenses cover on the policy. However AXA also wrote to me and said they could also arrange a "Like for like" car until my repair was completed with Enterprise without any liability and with no need to pay any CDW and that it would also include delivery and collection and roadside recovery and that it would cost much less than Auxillis would charge them. This was more convenient in that I would not have to pay the the CDW and then claim it back through Admiral Law which would require the completion of several pages of forms.
Auxillis advised me that repair was expected to take about 4 working days and sent me document to agree to online which stated that the cost of a hire car for 1-6 days was £227.76 per day plus a one off delivery and collection charge of £80.00. It turned out that I needed the hire car for 6 days therefore the total would have been £1446.56 plus the CDW charge of £60.00 = £1506.56 to claim back from AXA - just for having a hire car for 6 days, which would have been more than the total cost of the repair was less than £1100.00.
I then checked what a "Like for Like" car to my Audi A4 would cost with Enterprise and for a full week, a Mercedes C220d would only cost £219.00 with no CDW fee or admin charge for the car’s delivery and collection. (However the actual cost to AXA was only £185.00).

I felt it was unethical for Auxillis to charge AXA such a high fee so I contacted AXA and asked them to arrange the hire car and then advised Auxillis that I would not be using them for the hire car and explained why. They stated that the rates provided to me were commercial not domestic charges and that the acutal cost would have been less than the figures sent to me. They also said that they would now be willing to waive the £60 CDW charge but I still declined and I used AXA instead who it seems always use Enterprise and therefore receive discounted car hire rates. As a result the total cost for my opened end car hire for the 6 days was only £185.00 Just over £30.00 a day!!!

AXA also advised me that they do sometimes challege the cost of hire car charges and on occasions challenge this in the Courts. I would certainly not have been happy if I were required to take a day off work to go to a Court to give evidence.
Using the other driver's Insurance Company was such a simple process and I would most certainly recommend this as a the best way of obtaining a hire car whilst your vehicle is being repaired. AXA really bent over backwards to assist me in arranging a really top quality hire car which was even more hi-tech than my Audi.

Cap2019

Admiral put me on to Auxillis earlier this year after an accident that wasn't my fault. To their credit, Auxillis were extremely efficient in arranging for my car to be collected and repaired and I had a hire car on my drive the following morning. Being extremely paranoid/ vigilant when it comes to money, I did read the T&Cs with a fine tooth comb and spotted the daily hire charges straight away. I researched Auxillis and other accident management companies online and started panicking about the fact that they could chase me for the extortionate hire charges if the third party refused to pay (and rightly so) so I gave the hire car back after just 5 days and made do getting lifts into work with my girlfriend. My car was repaired within 2 weeks so it wasn't a huge hassle but definitely inconvenient. The total cost of my claim was approx £5k incl repairs but I only racked up a hire bill of approx £500 (£88/day Astra) so the third party insurance didn't kick up a fuss in paying it. Luckily everything went smoothly with regards to claiming back the costs incurred but I was massively disappointed in Admiral for passing me on to Auxillis with no explanation as I stood at the roadside on my own having just been spun around at 40mph. I can't fault Auxillis after my experience but I can see how people run into trouble, particularly when they are given cars far more expensive than their own and when the repairs drag on for months. Admiral on the other hand I will never use again. I appreciate that it is common practice to use accident management companies when an accident is clearly 'non-fault' but recieving no an explanation as to why the insurance company (that you pay!!) just fob you off on to another company is ridiculous.

Asia01

I am in the same position with Auxillis.

Please can you update what happened with this ?

DoaM

DoaM wrote: »

That makes me feel better ... I've had a hire car via Auxillis since 8th May and don't expect to get my car back until 1st week in July.

At least if anything similar happens to me I can confirm that the hire car is the equivalent spec/model ... in fact it could almost be my own car if it wasn't for it being a different colour!

Just to update - everything went fine for me ... no dramas, no hassle, no charges to me at all.

Cap2019

DoaM wrote: »

Just to update - everything went fine for me ... no dramas, no hassle, no charges to me at all.

Good to hear. I mentioned above that my experience with Auxillis was totally fine too. It seems they're not so bad after all. It goes without saying really .. READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS!!

EdGasketTheSecond

It's still bang out of order though when your insurer palms you off to a claims management company as if you have no other option while getting back-handers from said claims management company. Also Auxillis and their like don't explain that they are charging a high amount for their hire cars and you are expected to keep costs down by hiring a car yourself if you can afford it to avoid the TP rejecting the claim for hire car costs. Also if you don't take the hire car then Auxillis quickly lose interest and your claim takes forever for anything to happen.

DoaM

In my case it was a company car with company insurance, so I had no choice in the matter. Everything still worked out OK though.

EdGasketTheSecond

Is that supposed to scare me? I can't see my post is any different to what a lot of other posts say.

daveyjp

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Also if you don't take the hire car then Auxillis quickly lose interest and your claim takes forever for anything to happen.

That was certainly our case when we refused to use a different claims management company.

We refused because we didn't need to use them, as we didn't need a hire car. The damaged car could still be driven and we had another car to use whilst it was being repaired,

As soon as that was explained it was down to us, so we claimed directly off the third party.

dacouch

DoaM wrote: »

This is true if everything is handled at the forum team level - the forum is too busy for them to be able to analyse every situation so they generally take the easy way out. What dacouch mentions involves the MSE legal team so maybe such things are handled differently.

and he will be told not to discuss the matter so we won't know about it unless his post disappears in around six weeks time...