car hire - tyre 'damage' and excesses

Crabman

Just a thought - does your car insurance policy have the legal protection option? Or perhaps your home insurance? One of those should have a legal helpline where you can get advice from experts, they'd be able to advise whether you could go down the route of unfair terms in contracts and possibly issue small claim court action.

wandaland

My home insurance will only cover claims MORE than £100, so can't go down that route. But I will check my motor insurance.
I suppose anyone reading this will probably think why bother fussing about £52 ....................... what do you think????????????

KeithP

"What do I think?"

I think the £52 is better of in my pocket than in Avis's.

Write another letter to them claiming the money and giving them a few days, say 14 days, to respond. Mention the Unfair Terms busines and explain to them that if they don't send you a cheque within the time specified, you will start legal proceedings to recover your money.

Review this website.

StaceyAKelly

oh dear what a pickle!

I have got to say I am all for arguing the point in these type of situations however the car company are probably aware that there is practically nothing economically you can do about it. I imagine you have already spent fair amount of time in chasing and writing to them and they are not making any attempt to respond.

The next step therefore would be to instruct a Solicitor to either write to them (which again would probably get no response and cost you about £100).

Alternatively you could make an application to the small claims Court costing you, whats the fee at the moment about £120?, you cannot recover costs back in the small claims Court so that would be lost, and then you simply have a case of one word against the other unless of course you obtain witness statements from the recovery guy who took the wheel off and said you would never hve seen them with the wheel on and/or perhaps expert reports to support you case.

Probably not what you want to hear I am afraid but the car company will know this and not expect you to take any legal action.

My suggestion therefore would be to threaten them that you are going to go to the papers! Noone likes bad press.

I am sorry that what I am saying is not what you want to hear but I hope it helps.

KeithP

StaceyAKelly wrote: »

Alternatively you could make an application to the small claims Court costing you, whats the fee at the moment about £120?, you cannot recover costs back in the small claims Court so that would be lost, and then you simply have a case of one word against the other unless of course you obtain witness statements from the recovery guy who took the wheel off and said you would never hve seen them with the wheel on and/or perhaps expert reports to support you case.

Stacey, some of this is simply not true.

The Small Claims Court is easy to use - use it online here ===>>> www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

This service is cheap to use... I think it is only £30.

You do get your court fees paid by the other party if you win the case.

StaceyAKelly

Please accept my apologies, I wasnt aware of the Court fee hence me asking the question as opposed stating the amount, I have since looked into this:

1. Starting your claim
To issue a claim form where your claim is for money only and the amount is:
up to £300

£30

£300.01 – £500

£45

£500.01 – £1,000

£65

£1,000.01 – £1,500

£75

£1,500.01 – £3,000

£85

£3,000.01 – £5,000

£108

£5,000.01 – £15,000

£225

Once again sorry about that.

I have found this information online which may assist.

There's a fee required to start a small claims case so it's important to have confidence that you can recover this amount of money before you think about going to court.

For non-monetary claims the fee is £150, but for money claims the exact amount you will be required to pay will depend upon the amount of your claim. At present, the fees for a claim are as follows:

Amount Claimed County Court Fee Moneyclaim Online Fee
up to £300 £30 £20
up to £500 £50 £50
up to £1,000 £80 £80
up to £5,000 £120 £110

Since the fees do change, it's best to have the court staff advise you what your fee will be when you issue proceedings. The defendant will be ordered to pay this fee if you win but remember that you still have to recover the money from the defendant.

Recoverable costs You can recover the following costs if you win your case:

• The fees paid to issue the case, for lodging an Allocation Questionnaire and for any applications to the court.
• If you used a solicitor to issue the case or to help you, the fixed costs for issuing. Currently these are between £50 and £80 depending upon how much you recover.
• Any witness expenses, such as for travel, and loss of earnings limited to £50 per day per witness.
• The costs of enforcing your judgment, if the debtor fails to pay.

Apart from filing fees and possible solicitor fees, you may also have to pay witness expenses. This is necessary if a witness is needed to corroborate your story, testify as to events or give an expert opinion. You must at least pay their reasonable travel expenses to and from the court and also any lost wages. If you or your witness has taken annual leave to give evidence, the court may order the losing side to pay compensation for loss of that annual leave.

Expert witnesses will often expect a professional fee for their opinion and this may easily exceed any possible recovery from the case. If you use an expert, you can only recover £200 for his or her fees if you win.

Remember that the case can be transferred by the judge out of the Small Claims Track to the Fast or Multi Tracks in circumstances where the judge feels it's too complex, legally or factually. If this happens, from that date onward the winning party can recover the legal costs of instructing a solicitor.

It is worth checking your household insurance if you are considering starting a small claim; some policies include legal expenses insurance.




I have to say, I was always of the belief that fees were not recoverable hence me not bothering to make such a claim in the past!

I hope this information helps however I am still of the opinion whereas you should ask yourself, is it really worth it because it can be a headache!

KeithP

And here is the Money Claim Online User Guide ===>>>

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/onlineservices/mcol/userguide/claimant/information.htm

Well worth reading before deciding whether a claim is appropriate.

wandaland

Thank you to all for advice ......

I have just phoned the legal advice helpline that my motor insurance provides. They advised that even if I win the case, I may not get the court costs awarded - which is £50. And as my claim is for about £52 I would effectively end up with nothing. And as there is no guarantee of winning so I am not prepared to take the risk of losing another £50.

It was suggested I make as much fuss as possible - eg contact watchdog, the regulatory body for car hire (is there one?) the AA and RAC etc etc. This obviously would not gain me a refund of the £52 but it may result in other members of the public being more cautious when hiring a car.

Incidently, the legal advice line was an 0870 number (aghhh!!) and I couldn't find an equivalent number using the saynoto0870 - but on a positive note, they took my number and rang me back immediately so I didn't incur a huge telephone bill.

Crabman

Hey wandaland, there was a similar topic yesterday where trets posted some interesting links to Times Online articles.

Definitely consider submitting your own experience for extra exposure, in some cases the companies even respond:

Wrongly charged £280 excess on car hire. Please help!!

sillywizard

just a thought, but I'd be up for a class action if you come across anyone else in our position..