Dreaded "credit hire car" non fault accident & court

Mildly_Miffed

Keep_pedalling said:

What really surprises me is why a fairly low value car with structural damage was not written off. 

£7k-worth of car, no mention of damage beyond a bent rear axle.

The delay, and the huge hire car cost, was down to parts delays.

Although quite why the discontinuation wasn't determined in one phone call to the dealer is another question. Presumably it showed as available until it was actually ordered then never arrived...

Aretnap

lincroft1710 said:

L11Marc said:

lincroft1710 said:

Saying that part of the money in your son's bank account is yours, makes it sound like money laundering!


Unless there is documentary evidence that there is money that is rightfully yours in your son's account then you actually only have £1000 in savings

It's my bank account, I set up a savings account for my son with his money in it. I then transferred a few thousand from my account a few years back as the interest it gains monthly is good (more money in, the higher the interest paid) and just keep a float in my current account for bills, everyday spending etc.

So when I get paid weekly I normally transfer into the savings account and record how much is mine and his. He's 4 years old lol

That really muddies the waters!


You obviously will know (or can calculate) how much of your money is in son's account, but you will have to add this to your standalone £1000 and if the figure is over £6500, then yes you could have technically afforded the hire car

The relevant question is not "in hindsight, could you have just about covered the final bill from your savings if you'd been forced to?" It's "are you so financially secure that you could have signed up for an open ended car hire, not knowing how long your car was going to take to repair or how long it would have taken the third party insurer to reimburse you, without having to worry about it affecting your lifestyle or financial security?"

If the answer to that question is "no" (and it is, for the large majority of people) then you have a justification for using credit hire rather than just paying for a hire car yourself and claiming it back from the third party at a later date 

Badboi

I’m in a similar boat - just got an email from enterprise saying they are having to set the solicitors on the other party, mines “only” 1200 quid, but 100% non fault (as I wasn’t even in the car when the idiot hit it 🙈).  So just waiting for solicitor contact and in the meantime, I am forwarding the email and other correspondence about it onto my insurance company (they provided/authorised the hire car) 

Badboi

Surely worst case, you would have to pay your excess, certainly not £7k worth of hire as it’s the insurance company who authorised the car hire ?

facade

Badboi said:

Surely worst case, you would have to pay your excess, certainly not £7k worth of hire as it’s the insurance company who authorised the car hire ?

The agreement that the OP signed will say that in essence, he will not have to pay anything, provided that he co-operates 100% with the Ambulance Chaser- including allowing close scrutiny of his financial affairs, lots of form filling and above all, he must not blink until it is finally settled, even if he has to go to Court.

It is the OP who is liable for the credit hire as it has to be his loss for the Ambulance chaser to claim it back on the OP's behalf. If the Ambulance Chaser just gave him a car or hired one for him, that would be a nice charitable gesture, but they could not claim any reimbursement for their kind gift. 

One of the reasons that Credit Hire cars are so breathtakingly expensive is that sometimes the Ambulance Chasers lose and have to eat the hire fee- or a good proportion of it if they settle on a more reasonable figure.

(Another being the word Credit in the name. They lend you the hire money, and charge interest on the loan. Sheer co-incidence that the Ambulance Chasers have a some tenuous connection to/"arrangement" with the hire company...)

Grey_Critic

Just just done a dummy enquiry for a Nissan Juke for 60 days and got a price of £1,400 from Budget - that works out around £23.50 pence per day - The hire car would be happy ate that so someone is ripping someone off. 

lincroft1710

Aretnap said:

lincroft1710 said:

L11Marc said:

lincroft1710 said:

Saying that part of the money in your son's bank account is yours, makes it sound like money laundering!


Unless there is documentary evidence that there is money that is rightfully yours in your son's account then you actually only have £1000 in savings

It's my bank account, I set up a savings account for my son with his money in it. I then transferred a few thousand from my account a few years back as the interest it gains monthly is good (more money in, the higher the interest paid) and just keep a float in my current account for bills, everyday spending etc.

So when I get paid weekly I normally transfer into the savings account and record how much is mine and his. He's 4 years old lol

That really muddies the waters!


You obviously will know (or can calculate) how much of your money is in son's account, but you will have to add this to your standalone £1000 and if the figure is over £6500, then yes you could have technically afforded the hire car

The relevant question is not "in hindsight, could you have just about covered the final bill from your savings if you'd been forced to?" It's "are you so financially secure that you could have signed up for an open ended car hire, not knowing how long your car was going to take to repair or how long it would have taken the third party insurer to reimburse you, without having to worry about it affecting your lifestyle or financial security?"

Which is the question (slightly shortened) the solicitors should have actually asked

Aretnap

lincroft1710 said:

Aretnap said:

lincroft1710 said:

L11Marc said:

lincroft1710 said:

Saying that part of the money in your son's bank account is yours, makes it sound like money laundering!


Unless there is documentary evidence that there is money that is rightfully yours in your son's account then you actually only have £1000 in savings

It's my bank account, I set up a savings account for my son with his money in it. I then transferred a few thousand from my account a few years back as the interest it gains monthly is good (more money in, the higher the interest paid) and just keep a float in my current account for bills, everyday spending etc.

So when I get paid weekly I normally transfer into the savings account and record how much is mine and his. He's 4 years old lol

That really muddies the waters!


You obviously will know (or can calculate) how much of your money is in son's account, but you will have to add this to your standalone £1000 and if the figure is over £6500, then yes you could have technically afforded the hire car

The relevant question is not "in hindsight, could you have just about covered the final bill from your savings if you'd been forced to?" It's "are you so financially secure that you could have signed up for an open ended car hire, not knowing how long your car was going to take to repair or how long it would have taken the third party insurer to reimburse you, without having to worry about it affecting your lifestyle or financial security?"

Which is the question (slightly shortened) the solicitors should have actually asked

It is the question that they asked (could you have afforded a hire car), albeit with some potential for misinterpretation of what they meant by "afforded".

If the OP is still concerned about how to reply he should call then and ask for further guidance.

MyRealNameToo

Grey_Critic said:

Just just done a dummy enquiry for a Nissan Juke for 60 days and got a price of £1,400 from Budget - that works out around £23.50 pence per day - The hire car would be happy ate that so someone is ripping someone off. 

But that is a quote knowing it's going to be 60 days... how much is it if you are hiring it one day at a time? 

Even that is an unfair comparison because were you to do that its fairly likely at some point they'd say you can't extend the hire on this car but you need to swap it to another because this one has been pre-booked by someone else. 

There is a lot of additional cost in having all your cars out on a potentially perpetual hire which will just end at a date you are not in control of. Similarly Enterprise Credit Hire will be taking the financial risk that they dont get paid at all and realistically they have to factor that into the rate. 

I spent a lot of my claims days arguing with credit hire companies so they have no love from me but those that follow the ABI GTA are an acceptable evil. There are those that operate outside of the scheme and their prices are truly crazy 




As to the OP generally the focus is on the open endedness of it, could you afford a blank cheque given you didnt know if it was going to be 10 days, 86 days or 386 days. Ultimately if you are concerned then before answering pick up the phone and speak to the solicitors. 

Badboi said:

Surely worst case, you would have to pay your excess, certainly not £7k worth of hire as it’s the insurance company who authorised the car hire ?

Their insurer sold passed them to accident management.

Obviously didnt hear the conversation the OP had but in my claims days our First Notification of Loss team would appoint an approved repairer when the customer called to notify of the claim. The subject would then turn to a courtesy car so the FNOL team will check the policy to see if it included courtesy car and if it did they'd explain that the garage provides these if the car is repairable and if they have one plus it is likely to be a 3 door small car like a Corsa. 

Now some would not have bought the optional courtesy car, or say a Corsa isnt suitable for them, or that they think their car will be written off. Now if it's a fault accident then the answer is basically tough, you get what you paid for. If it was a non-fault accident then they would offer to pass your details to Enterprise Credit Hire who'd contact them back to discuss potentially providing a suitable car on credit hire. 

We weren't authorising hire, we've made it clear what they are entitled to under the terms of the policy they bought. As such its an uninsured loss which either Enterprise (or other credit hire firms) can deal with on a credit basis or they can arrange their own hire (noting issue of unknown duration) and if they have purchased Legal Expenses then we'd appoint a law firm to assist them in getting their out of pocket expenses back like the excess, a hire car, loss of earnings or anything else that the incident has cost them that wasnt insured vehicular damage 

Grey_Critic

With respect to all perhaps there needs to be a Cheat Sheet covering all the points people have raised that when someone is in a similar position can use. 

example why would I want to deal with a claims management company? 

I insure my car with XXX - I have **Courtesy Car** as part of my cover. The premium I pay the insurers it is up to them to Negotiate not you or I - That is why we paid the extra for in our premium. 

I do not have a courtesy car -I can organise my own if needed. The OP could have bought a nsecond hand car for 2 to 3 thousand whilostb theires was off the road and sol it when their own car was fixed. I know  few who have done so and actually made a profit on the deal