Nationwide shortage of courtesy cars. Apparently?

silversaltire

Hi guys,

I was involved in an accident on Saturday where another driver pulled in front of me. She admitted liability & her insurer (Tesco) said I was entitled to a courtesy car & passed my details to Enterprise Car Hire. They phoned me & said they had a shortage of cars nationwide & I wouldn't be able to have one until 6 days after the accident.

I live very rurally with no bus options & have a mobility issue which classifies me as vulnerable, I am now stuck at home & have had to cancel my monthly medical infusion & have also been unable to go to work all week so I'm losing money with no idea how long it will take for them to pay out.

Is there any way I can claim for compensation or loss of income as the insurer has failed to provide me with alternative transport when I was not at fault.

Thanks in advance.

Sandtree

Have you been back on to Tesco about it?

Is your car currently undrivable? 

What is your lost income going to look like -v- the cost of hiring a car yourself?

You can claim for any losses you have reasonably sustained (there is a test for remoteness but that mainly bites for contractors/small business owners) but also have a duty to mitigate losses as far as possible. So if you earn £1,000 a day and could hire a car for £50 a day there would need to be a good explanation for the additional £950 per day if you went for loss of income rather than car hire.

MalMonroe

I'm surprised that Tesco is unable to advise you further, have you contacted them to let them know that you still need some transport? Enterprise isn't the only UK car hire company. I think you need to keep on at Tesco insurance until they do something to help. Or ask your insurance company to do so.

In the meantime, there's some info here from Citizens Advice -

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/insurance/insurance/types-of-insurance/vehicle-insurance/vehicle-insurance-if-the-accident-wasn-t-your-fault/

At the bottom of the page on the link there is a number to phone for more help. 

You (or your insurance company) need to contact Tesco insurance though because you need alternative transport, and soon.

I do hope you manage to get things sorted.

[Deleted User]

Check if you can hire a car from anywhere else, and if no use a taxi. Inform Tesco what is happening since their option failed, just an email will be fine. Keep all the receipts and pass them to Tesco to add on to the cost of your claim.

csgohan4

can you not claim from your own insurer who will recover costs from Tesco?

eddddy

As others say, you need to contact Tesco Insurance. I'd be pretty certain they'd sort out an alternative hire car provider for you.


To 'encourage' them, you could suggest that otherwise you'll have to use an accident management company to arrange a hire car. That will cost Tesco Insurance much more than arranging a hire car themselves.

Sandtree

eddddy said:

To 'encourage' them, you could suggest that otherwise you'll have to use an accident management company to arrange a hire car. That will cost Tesco Insurance much more than arranging a hire car themselves.

ACMs will require you to sign paperwork of which one of the statements (that no one reads) is that the TPI hasn't offered to assist already. Could get messy but likely resolvable if Tesco dont do enough to find an appropriate solution however this does depend on in the OP car is underivable etc. 

Grumpy_chap

silversaltire said:

Hi guys,

I was involved in an accident on Saturday where another driver pulled in front of me. She admitted liability & her insurer (Tesco) said I was entitled to a courtesy car & passed my details to Enterprise Car Hire. They phoned me & said they had a shortage of cars nationwide & I wouldn't be able to have one until 6 days after the accident.

I live very rurally with no bus options & have a mobility issue which classifies me as vulnerable, I am now stuck at home & have had to cancel my monthly medical infusion & have also been unable to go to work all week so I'm losing money with no idea how long it will take for them to pay out.

Is there any way I can claim for compensation or loss of income as the insurer has failed to provide me with alternative transport when I was not at fault.

Thanks in advance.

In the wider context, there are reports of restrictions in new car supply (because of the chip shortage) and associated impacts to availability of used cars.  I suppose that makes it not inconceivable that there could be fewer hire / courtesy cars available - though it is not something any of us ever expected to hear.  It is also possible that the insurer / care hire depot did not try that hard.

As the "injured" ( in insurance terms) party, your obligation is to mitigate costs of any alternative provision.  That has probably been met by offering the insurer the opportunity to provide the alternative transport themselves (which they failed). 
Are you able to hire a car directly, perhaps via a different company?
Are you able to use taxis?

Hopefully cancelling your medical appointment will not be detrimental to you - I would not have done that lightly.

I doubt you can claim consequential losses for loss of income, unless that would be a lower cost outcome than alternatives such as taxi to / from work.