non fault claim- car hire not being paid by at fault insurer

DullGreyGuy

It's ultimately a complex situation, thankfully I never did policyholder claims but as an escalated complaints handler as a side job to my role dealing with liability disputes and minor injury cases I did listen to various calls etc. With my employer at the time we as standard dealt with non-fault claims in house but like most insurance if we deal with your claim and you've chosen a courtesy car option you get a Corsa or a C1 etc and so customers complain that its not their fault they had the accident and a 3 door tiny car isn't suitable for their needs. 

For us it was at this point we mentioned we could pass their details on the Enterprise who could offer a hire car on a credit hire basis. We then get the complaint X months later that they're being asked to provide statements or go to court etc. 

Personally, I think credit hire companies should explain their position better at point of sale, I do also think that customers should read the terms better and ask question then too as those terms do state you are liable if you dont support them. There should be a direct question asked on if they can afford to hire a car themselves then not after the car has already been had. 

Ultimately you have two choices:

1) Provide the information they are asking inline with the contract you signed and agreed to comply with when you were given the car; or 

2) Refuse to give them the information, pay them for the hire yourself and you then take on the Third Party Insurer for the recovery of the debt. 

Obv with option 1 if the court says its only 50% recoverable then the hire car writes off the rest, with option 2 you are left out of pocket. 

How much is the bill you ran up @pinkhog

PINKHOG

DullGreyGuy said:

It's ultimately a complex situation, thankfully I never did policyholder claims but as an escalated complaints handler as a side job to my role dealing with liability disputes and minor injury cases I did listen to various calls etc. With my employer at the time we as standard dealt with non-fault claims in house but like most insurance if we deal with your claim and you've chosen a courtesy car option you get a Corsa or a C1 etc and so customers complain that its not their fault they had the accident and a 3 door tiny car isn't suitable for their needs. 

For us it was at this point we mentioned we could pass their details on the Enterprise who could offer a hire car on a credit hire basis. We then get the complaint X months later that they're being asked to provide statements or go to court etc. 

Personally, I think credit hire companies should explain their position better at point of sale, I do also think that customers should read the terms better and ask question then too as those terms do state you are liable if you dont support them. There should be a direct question asked on if they can afford to hire a car themselves then not after the car has already been had. 

Ultimately you have two choices:

1) Provide the information they are asking inline with the contract you signed and agreed to comply with when you were given the car; or 

2) Refuse to give them the information, pay them for the hire yourself and you then take on the Third Party Insurer for the recovery of the debt. 

Obv with option 1 if the court says its only 50% recoverable then the hire car writes off the rest, with option 2 you are left out of pocket. 

How much is the bill you ran up @pinkhog

I had the car for about 2 weeks I think (mine was written off eventually) but I need to check, as this is going back to last June!! Solicitor said on email that the outstanding charges are £5k+ but when I spoke to someone there a few weeks ago, he said third party had offered all but £700 of the amount! I need to find my notes as I wrote the figures down just to be clear. If it's a matter of just £700, why all this hassle? Take what you've been offered as surely this must be happening on a regular basis!!! 

PINKHOG

If my house was burnt to the ground for example, would the insurance company ask to see bank statements in case I could afford another house?!!! 

DullGreyGuy

PINKHOG said:

If my house was burnt to the ground for example, would the insurance company ask to see bank statements in case I could afford another house?!!! 

This isn't your insurers... you have legal obligation to mitigate your losses and so you need to demonstrate you couldn't comfortably have afforded an open ended hire hence it was reasonable for you to rely on credit hire. 

PINKHOG

DullGreyGuy said:

PINKHOG said:

If my house was burnt to the ground for example, would the insurance company ask to see bank statements in case I could afford another house?!!! 

This isn't your insurers... you have legal obligation to mitigate your losses and so you need to demonstrate you couldn't comfortably have afforded an open ended hire hence it was reasonable for you to rely on credit hire. 

And for example, what if I could have afforded it? Not many people are even giving that option a thought immediately after an accident! 

DullGreyGuy

PINKHOG said:

DullGreyGuy said:

PINKHOG said:

If my house was burnt to the ground for example, would the insurance company ask to see bank statements in case I could afford another house?!!! 

This isn't your insurers... you have legal obligation to mitigate your losses and so you need to demonstrate you couldn't comfortably have afforded an open ended hire hence it was reasonable for you to rely on credit hire. 

And for example, what if I could have afforded it? Not many people are even giving that option a thought immediately after an accident! 

Then the hire car company's argument for their higher fees is weakened but thats their cross to bear which they'd rather not if they dont have to. Last minutes higher of a like for like car on a day by day basis as you dont know if its going to be the couple of days my last claim was or the 120 days another poster here had is something may would struggle with. At £200 a day for a vaguely similar car to our last one would be a £24k commitment on the prior poster's slow part delivery repair which not many could comfortably fund.

Aretnap

PINKHOG said:

DullGreyGuy said:

PINKHOG said:

If my house was burnt to the ground for example, would the insurance company ask to see bank statements in case I could afford another house?!!! 

This isn't your insurers... you have legal obligation to mitigate your losses and so you need to demonstrate you couldn't comfortably have afforded an open ended hire hence it was reasonable for you to rely on credit hire. 

And for example, what if I could have afforded it? Not many people are even giving that option a thought immediately after an accident! 

If you could have afforded to hire a car yourself up front, you (or in practice your credit hire company) can only claim whatever it would have cost you to go down to your local branch of Hertz and hire a car yourself for however long you'd was off the road - not the full, higher, credit hire rate. 

It doesn't affect you personally unless you actively misled the credit hire company about your circumstances - they take the lower recovery on the chin and don't pass the difference in to you. But that they do need evidence of your savings and income to claim the full credit hire rate.