Accident Exchange - hire car charges after accident

[Feelingdownandout]

Ganymeade, yes the car was roadworthy but we cant drive it if it was in the garage being repaired? hence why we had a hire car.

 

The solicitors are saying that the third party insurance company offered us a car and we declined it as they wanted our credit card details, which we refused to give. For a start, my husband does not have a credit card!

 

The solicitors are saying that we went to AE off our own back and not because we were told to....

 

I have used AE before and they were so helpful, and everything was resolved with no issues. What I cannot understand is why we are in tis situation in the first place? My husband has done nothing wrong here, this is a straightforward non fault claim?

 

I am worried sick.....and just don't know what to do. We both work and have a family, we are by no means 'flush' with cash.

 

The solicitor made a reference to an insurance policy that comes with the agreement to cover situations like this?

[Ganymede]

if you had no credit/debit card did you tell Enterprise that?

You are still under a duty to mitigate your losses even if the accident is not your fault.

How long was the car in the garage being repaired?

I wouldn't worry yourself sick, AE will most likely recover part of their hire invoice and write off the rest. I can't comment on any insurance policy as haven't seen the credit hire agreement.

[Feelingdownandout]

We told enterprise that we would not give them card details, credit or otherwise. Cant give credit card details if he doesn't have a credit card, and our debit card is linked to our bank account so certainly wouldn't give that.

I completely understand that we had a duty to mitigate, however, AE told us that they would sort everything out, and in the event that the third party didn't pay up (as they are non regulated) that we wouldn't be liable....we asked this question of AE so many times as it worried us A LOT.

My hubby was told today that the car was sat in the garage for 18 days before they received authorisation to repair it, as they were waiting for the assessor and his approval etc. This shocked me, we knew they were waiting for the approval etc, but not that long.

The day that AE brought the hire car was the day that our car was taken to the garage, so we didn't have AE car and our own vehicle on the drive at the same time. We also told AE that we were struggling to run the car they sent us, as it was a beast of a car, and they said that was all they had in at the time. so we were stuck.

I can post the agreement later if you can take a look at it?

I am worrying so much I cant cope at all, in fact I don't cope with this type of stress, I had a nervous breakdown 10 years ago and I don't cope well.

how does my hubby bring a claim against the driver of the hire van - especially if he was driving on the hire vans insurance policy?

[Ganymede]

Seems like AE have said they won't go after you for the difference and I can't see that a Court would think you've acted so unreasonably to not award something for the hire. The problem will be how long was reasonable for the hire to last and was the daily rate reasonable.

I really wouldn't worry too much. Yes you are technically personally liable for the credit hire in full but AE will probably take a commercial decision on any amounts not recovered.

I thought you said a Court claim had already been issued??

It does not matter who insures the van, it is not relevant.

The driver is the van is the tortfeasor. He is the one who was negligent so he is liable.

[Feelingdownandout]

AE solicitors have instigated court proceedings against the third party insurance company as they have not replied to their requests for payment of the car hire invoices. In fact the solicitors told us that there was no issue really as the other side has admitted liability.

 

What I am not sure about is how to make a claim against the driver of the van? would it be a personal claim? just confused now.....

[Ganymede]

Have you seen a copy of the Court documents? The van driver will probably be named as the Defendant already. You can't also bring a claim.

[Feelingdownandout]

I cant recall seeing anything court paper wise, only letters from the solicitors?

 

why would the driver be named as a defendant if liability has been admitted?

[unclebulgaria67]

I think you need to start asking a few question of AE. What actions have they taken to date ? Is it just an exchange of correspondence and no intention to go down the court route at the moment ?

The driver can admit what they want outside of a court process. This can be used against them of course. If you and/or AE wanted to take any court action, it would be against the third party driver and they would therefore be the defendant. The third party driver would then ask the Insurers of the van to step in to deal with the court claim.

[Ganymede]

Because the driver is the tortfeasor and negligent party!! The insurance company wasn't driving...

Post #1 says Court proceedings have already been issued.

The OP just needs to cooperate with AE's solicitors. Without seeing the Court papers I would assume that the OP and the other driver are both personally named as Claimant and Defendant respectively.

I agree that the OP needs to speak to AE's solicitors for clarification.

[Feelingdownandout]

the driver wrote us a letter admitting full liability. AE as far as we can tell are chasing money for their invoices, I will go through all the papers that we have tonight and post up what I have for reading.

 

can the third party refuse to pay the car hire charges? and is it likely that AE will come after us for any money?

[Ganymede]

It doesn't make any difference if the van driven wrote to you admitting liability he was still negligent and the Defendant to the claim.

As UB said the van driver will be named as the Defendant but his insurance company will be the ones dealing with the claim and paying out.

Yes the insurers can refuse to pay and let the Court decide how much is owed for hire.

Your last question is impossible to answer. It is unlikely but we don't have a crystal ball to tell you what AE will do in the future.

[Feelingdownandout]

I will take a look to see if we have had court papers.

 

On the other point, its horrible this waiting game, the stress that we are under is terrible.

 

Should I start to prepare our bank statements just in case?

 

Seems to me as if this third party insurance company are holding out even though they have admitted liability to AE. It also seems that at we are unable to take any action against the driver

[unclebulgaria67]

I think you should consider that AE Solicitors are serving more than one interest here.

 

You should ask AE for a letter confirming the current position of any court action against the third party and what course of action they intend to take to bring the matter to a conclusion. Ask them what information they need from you to assist in making a full recovery of all costs including the hire car from the third party. It is probably best to send a recorded delivery letter to AE Solicitors to request the information in writing.

 

I think it probably best that you keep it all in writing with AE now, asking for clear answers to questions that you have.

 

A question for Ganymede is if the third party insurers did not inspect the OP's car for 18 days and this therefore incurred extra hire car costs, is it reasonable for the third party to pay any reasonable cost for the hire car ? This delay would appear unacceptable to me and there would obviously be a consequence. It is then a case of the OP/AE and third party arguing about what is reasonable for a daily hire charge, using the court if necessary.

[Feelingdownandout]

I will draft a letter tonight and post for comment.

 

my major concern is that to date we have had little correspondence from AE Sols, in fact when a letter turned up out of the blue before Christmas we were shocked, as we couldn't believe that it was still ongoing?

 

can I take action against the driver of the van?

[dacouc]

It looks to me as if the third party were looking to repair the car themselves and offer a hire car from their own fleet.

I assume the contact from Enterprise was nothing to do with the third party

[unclebulgaria67]

Perhaps the third party was driving a van they had hired from Enterprise.

Enterprise were willing to offer the OP a hire car, but the OP had to pay for it, as there was no agreement for Enterprises Insurers to pay the hire costs.

[Feelingdownandout]

when we contacted the owner of the hire company to ask for their insurance details, he was very aggressive towards us, he demanded that we took the car to them and refused to give us his insurance details. He said he had lots of insurance policies with different companies and demanded that we provided our details - we refused as we were not going to make a claim on our insurance. This chap was very aggressive, even getting his secretary to ring us constantly demanding our insurance details, in the end we just stopped answering the phone.

 

we took advice from our own insurance company who advise us to make a claim against the third party insurance company. Next thing we know enterprise are on the phone requesting credit / debit card details for the car and we declined. We said that we should not have to give this details as this car was being provided to us because our own car would not be available to us as it would be in the garage for repair.

 

This was when we turned to AE for their help and assistance. They were very helpful on the phone and said that they would make all the necessary arrangements and liaise with the third party to recover costs, that we didn't need to get involved in essence.

 

I wish that was the case, months and months down the line we are in distress, and not to mention, this is still ongoing.

[dacouc]

Enterprise being recommended by your own Insurers in return for circa £300 commission.

 

I'm not sure on current court precedents but it used to be taken into account if the at fault company had offered their own hire car at their own expense before you went to a credit hire company

[Feelingdownandout]

they may have offered a car on the proviso that we handed over card details which we wernt prepared to do. When contacting AE they told us that we didn't and should not have to provide card details to get a courtesy car - at the end of the day we were the family who were inconvenienced.....not the third party insurance company.

 

We were not making a claim from our own insurance company, as we did not need to. We would have happily taken a car from the third party had we not had to leave our card details beforehand. That in my opinion is not unreasonable.

 

cheers dacouc - you have made me feel a whole lot happier...... not

[Ganymede]

The third party insurers (TPI) will dispute the length of the hire and the daily rate it cost.

If the TPI were the ones responsible for the delays they will have to pay for those days at whatever daily rate is agreed/ordered by the Court.

The delay in authorising the repairs wouldn't have been down to a dispute on the daily rate as the TPI wouldn't know that information until after the hire ended.

Who instructed Enterprise then?

[dacouc]

You did not get a courtesy car you were given a credit hire car along with the added potential hassle as you've discovered.

The purpose of the credit card is to cover the policy excess or other uncovered damage in the event of an accident which AE would have pursued you for anyway

[Ganymede]

i suspect you are already taking action against the driver of the van as he is the fault party and will be named as the Defendant in the Court proceedings already issued.

[dacouc]

They look to be recommended by the OP's own Insurers as a CH in return for commission to the OP's Insurer, the OP refused Enterprise due to their requirement for a debit or credit card.

My experience of hire fleet operators is they generally have in house body repair shops or a local company and tend to offer one of their own hire fleet for a courtesy car in the event of a fault claim as their policies tend to be fleet rated so keeping claims costs down makes a difference to their premiums or they have their own captive

[Feelingdownandout]

That we don't know! We presume at this juncture it was the TPI.

Please can I say again, we didn't instruct our own insurance company.

We were advised by our own insurance company to make a claim against the TPI.

the issue there was that the owners if the hire van were refusing to give us their details!!

[Feelingdownandout]

AE we're not involved at the time that enterprise contacted us.

We turned to AE for help, and they stepped in.

I'm beginning to feel like I am in the wrong here.......