Car Hire - Total Loss Claim

dennisear

Hello, I hope someone can advise me. In July 2025 my family and I flew to Calgary in Canada and hired a car from Budget, paid for on a Credit Car. I also bought a Vehicle Hire Excess Insurance policy from LeisureGuard before leaving. I didn't take out any additional insurance at the Budget counter when picking up the car.

Everything was fine with the car until the night before we were due to fly back home. We stayed overnight in a motel local to the airport, arrived there and parked in the motel car park, nothing unusual. Overnight however there was a severe storm which caused flash flooding in the motel car park (I think due to blocked drains) and it appears that the car was flooded from beneath entering the hybrid battery compartment rendering the car inoperable. When we went to use the car in the morning it was completely dead, nothing worked, we couldn't even open the doors. Luckily we had already emptied the car so had nothing left in it. I phoned Budget and they came and towed the car away, we caught a taxi to the airport and flew home. I of course was very worried about this but heard nothing from budget.

Until yesterday that is. A letter arrived from Budget Canada stating that they have now completed their investigation that showed water intrusion into the high voltage system and the car is classed as a total loss. They state that they acknowledge my acceptance of the Loss Damage Waiver but that it only covers collision, vandalism or theft and that flood-related water intrusion is not covered under LDW and therefore cannot be covered under the waiver.

They further state "To proceed with the total loss claim, we will require you to open a claim with your personal auto insurance provider or your credit card insurance provider. Once you receive a claim number, please forward it to us so we can provide all supporting documentation and coordinate next steps with your insurer".

I checked the Vehicle Hire Excess Insurance policy and they state that all claims have to be received within six months, and I'm not even sure if that policy covers me for this type of thing, plus I think the maximum pay-out would only be £10,000, and I'm sure the total loss claim would be much higher than that. Does the fact that this was paid on a credit card help at all?

I really don't know what to do - I certainly cannot afford to pay for the total loss myself, plus I really don't see how by parking in a motel car park I can really be liable for this loss.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thank you for reading.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6656050/car-hire-total-loss-claim

Welcome to North America, Auto insurance is very different in US and Canada compared to the UK's Motor insurance. As they have mentioned, many personal covers, umbrella liability and/or credit cards come with cover for cars you hire and often people dont get any insurance at all from the hire company.

did you inform LeisureGuard of the incident at the time?

Better Hire Car policies for US hires do often cover the typical shortfalls of CDW but not all do. Same as providing top up liability insurance. Looking at what might have been your terms it does appear to cover items not covered by CDW but is capped at £10k unless you opted for the extension that increases it to £50k

Ideally you told them within the 6 months and have just been awaiting paperwork to finalise the claim. You should still attempt if you were bad and "forgot" to tell them; generally insurers should still consider such a claim but can have grounds to dispute if your delay in informing them has prejudiced their case.

dennisear

Hello, thank you for the response. I didn't inform LeisureGuard as they seem to work on a pay back what you've been charged type basis and I had absolutely no paperwork or even if there was going to be a claim until yesterday. I still haven't raised anything with them other than looking at the policy documents. I was hoping the I could somehow avoid the claim altogether as I cannot see how I am liable.

Am I better raising a claim with LeisureGuard - but even if they then paid out the full £10K I would still then be liable to pay the difference? This is why I want to avoid raising the claim at all.

MyRealNameToo

Better you get £10k towards it than £0

Keep_pedalling

Their T&C do say that they may accept claims over 6 months at their discretion, so I would contact them ASAP.

https://allpwps.insurefor.com/Branding/allpwps/docs/AXA/LeisureGuardCHE/PW_LGD_DIR_CHW_0722_V1.pdf

Woodstok2000

I'm confused - did you accept and pay for LDW? You initially said you didn't take any extra insurance, but then lower down you talk about LDW.

LDW does appear to cover water/flood damage. Based on the budget website there are only a few very specific exclusions and it doesn't mention water being excluded.

dennisear

Hi Woodstok2000, The CDW was included as part of the rental agreement, I didn't pay for anything extra at the desk as this was already included as per the below text from my booking voucher:

Collision damage waiver (CDW) Included Often referred to as CDW, this partially covers damages incurred to your vehicle. Please note that you will still be liable for insurance excess (see: Not Included section below). CDW does not cover damage or loss of keys, tyres, glass or undercarriage.

Are you able to send a link to where to are seeing on the Budget website details of their LDW (is this the same as CDW?) coverage please?

Woodstok2000

LDW and CDW are slightly different, but i still think you would be covered. This is from the Budget UK website terms and conditions:

Damage Waiver (CDW):
Damage Waiver reduces the amount you pay for each
clearly separate incident of damage if the vehicle, keys,
any accessories or any vehicle documents are damaged
or the keys, any accessories or any vehicle documents
are lost or stolen while you are renting it.

"Damage Waiver covers
The amount you pay for each clearly separate incident of damage will be the lower
of a) the cost of repair or replacement, plus any loss of use plus a processing fee;
or b) the excess stated on your rental agreement.
To the extent we legally may, the amount you pay will not be reduced if damage
was caused by or as a result of:
• water or fire damage, that was your fault
• driving the vehicle without due care and attention
• driving or using the vehicle in breach of Section 8 During the rental,"

CClearly the water damage wasn't your fault, so I would complain to budget and ask them to highlight exactly where accidentla water damage is excluded.

Also make sure you highlight this to you excess insurer ASAP, as they may be able to help too.

born_again

OP said I flew to Calgary in Canada and hired a car from Budget

@Woodstok2000 You are referring to UK T/C not the ones that OP has booked under, which will be Canadian,

Guessing the OP hired a new or nearly new car. Which now is a total write off. Then the £10K could easily be just the excess on the std policy with the hire. Not the extra voluntary waiver, which reduces any excess due.🤷‍♀️

Woodstok2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81891625#Comment_81891625

@born_again Yes - given they paid ahead of time on credit card and bought the excess insurance before leaving the UK, I assumed they also booked the car from the UK website too. Those terms I quoted are the ones that budget provide when booking a hire car in Calgary from their UK website.

The Canadian site doesn't even offer CDW that I can see, so I'm not sure how that would work.

dennisear

Thank you for all the replies. The car hire booking was made through a third-party called ArgusCarHire.com via one of those comparison holiday sites I seem to remember. It just happened to be Budget that was the cheapest so I never actually went to the Budget website I think.