Car hire after non fault accident ......HELP !!!!!

biscuit1_2

i was also TOLD where to take the car for repair which was 30 miles away, you do at the time feel they are doing you the favour, i'm sure my insurance company told me someone will be in touch to sort out the Car hire and repair so it feels above board and was very slick indeed. i am also obviosly being bought off, they need me to say it was me and they followed the rules, ummm , so what are the rules and what are fines for not following them, and who governs them, interesting 

Sandtree

Who is the insurer?

Generally speaking there are minimal rules in terms of an insurer passing your details to a credit hire company outside of your consent for personal data to be shared.

Accident management/credit hire companies are not regulated in the same way that insurers are (or even brokers) as whilst linked to the insurance industry its not actually insurance in itself. Some of the companies do subscribe to the Association of British Insurer's scheme which creates additional rules (eg cannot charge for delivery/collection of the hire car, maximum rates etc) but these are just contractual agreements not regulations.

When claims don't go to plan however the courts have to become involved, as these companies deal with hundreds/thousands of cases a month and so have a lot of money invested they inevitably pour over every litigated case they can to see what the judge has said to enable them to tweak their processes to fit with the courts thinking... I know a while back there were challenges on affordability and why hire on credit was required and shortly after the companies introduced new statements from their customer saying that had credit hire not been available they couldnt have afforded to hire a like for like vehicle for the unknown period of repairs.

Were I a betting man, and given I work in insurance I guess I technically am, I would say that the TP insurer are unhappy with the 7 weeks of hire and will be questioning if a) that duration was reasonable or could the repairs have been done quicker through better planning - this in part will depend if your car was still roadworthy and b) if 7 weeks was for some reason reasonable should a total loss have been made in which case your hire may have been reduced to 3 weeks or less.

biscuit1_2

Sandtree
Insurance was through the AA 
The comments you make relating to credit are there
the car was roadworthy, went in on Nov 25th returned Jan 13th and only really needed a rear bumper skirt 
niot difficult to see why there insurance is miffed.

And it gets worse as i have found the documents that apparently i have signed, Possble tbf 
but they state i am being charged at £ 107 a day, now one thing i do know, these figures were never quoted to me 
i am pretty tight and my first thought would have definately been HOW FUGGIN MUCH, SOD OFF 
I definately remember quering things and being told it would be claimed through their insurance.

Grumpy_chap

You found the documents that you apparently signed, which include £100 per day to hire y C3.

Did you, or did you not, sign them?

biscuit1_2

This is the paragraph relating to contingent litigation
Although the rental agreement provides that you are liable to pay the hire charge immediately on expiry of the credit period ( in this case after 51 weeks ) XX will, subject to your continued co-operation and compliance with the terms of the rental agreement , write off any unrecovered hire charges at the end of the litigation process. This is known as Contingent Liability and means you are only liable for the hire charge to the extent that they are recovered from the fault party's insurer

However any breach of the terms and conditions could result in you becoming personally liable for these charges 

lisyloo

So to be clear.

are you being asked to cooperate for example to agree to a case being taken out in your name and go to court if necessary with the threat of charges if you don’t?

or are you being asked to pay?

if it’s the former then I’d wager that you signed up to that. It’s very unlikely to get to court but if it did then you (probably) agreed to attend. I say probably as I believe this is standard stuff. 

Personally I don’t think the OP is to blame as the operators are slick and the insurer has lied at the time the consumer was a little vulnerable and the small print was probably also on page 6. I’m not saying it’s ok to sign without reading but they are slick and well prepared.

Sandtree

The whole contingent liability thing is basically a legal fudge which has been challenged and even the topic of claimants not realising what they were signing up to...

I was going to try and type out an explanation but others would just have picked holes in it but instead you can read this article: https://www.litigationfutures.com/news/high-court-defendant-must-pay-credit-hire-costs-even-where-claimant-has-contingent-liability-for-them 

£20,100 of hire charges for a written off £700 car makes other recent charges look reasonable though!

biscuit1_2

are you being asked to cooperate for example to agree to a case being taken out in your name and go to court if necessary with the threat of charges if you don’t? SPOT ON 

Grumpy_chap

I have just gone online and could book a C3 Auto from an airport pickup location (premium cost) 25th Nov to 13th Jan for <£1.6k.  £1.3k from non-airport location.
>£5k for the same is an outrage and not surprising the insurer won't pay.
If this was all arranged by the OP's insurer (AA) then AA should pay.

biscuit1_2

Sandtree   -  The whole contingent liability thing is basically a legal fudge which has been challenged and even the topic of claimants not realising what they were signing up to... 

Yes absolutely, it all seemed seamless, i was never given or made to feel there were any options, in fact i was just glad it was moving so swiftly, i would not have travelled 30 miles to get my car repaired, bearing in mind i live in a an area with many garages around me. I would never, ever have agreed £100 a day rental, and never would have allowed it to carry on for almost 2 months had i been aware i was paying, !!!!!! no 

The more i look at it, the more i am inclined to believe they will be happy to take a hit especially if i am admitting it was my mistake, when, like wiplash, in the main, it just normally sails through with no resistance.