Accident Management Company -urgent advice needed

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Fri 23 Oct 2015 12:34
Accident Management Company -urgent advice needed - MaggieS
My daughter was recently involved in a non fault accident and her insurance company Zenith arranged a replacement car for her through a company called CCL which they said was normal practice in non fault accidents. When the car was delivered we were surprised that it was a new Mercedes C class. As it was such an expensive car she phoned her insurance company to check there was any possibility she would be liable for the costs of the replacement car and was told there wasn't, that CCL would recover the costs from the third party. She was not asked to sign anything on delivery of the car and was not given a copy of terms or conditions. After she had driven the car for 12 days she was sent a hire agreement to sign. The costs of hire were £1,200 per week and the terms stated that she would be liable for these if they were unable to recover costs from the third party! She immediately phoned CCL and said she wasn't willing to sign this and so wanted the car returned, and Hertz collected the car the following day. (CCL are a Hertz company!) As her own car is only worth £4-5,000 we didn't think the third party would agree to such excessive hire costs in addition to vehicle repair costs. CCL have now threatened legal action against her if she does not pay £2,361 for the 13 days she drove the car, unless she signs the agreement which could also make her liable for these costs which she cannot afford to pay.
Can anyone please give any legal advice?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 Oct 2015 14:11
Accident Management Company -urgent advice needed - skidpan

By accepting the hire car it could possibly be inferred that you accepted the T & C's the company imposes. Its highly unlikely they simply give out Merc's without some 100% garantee of getting paid for them.

If it comes to court remember that Zenith, CCL and Hertz have far more money than you and would fight the case. Legal costs could be way more than the hire costs.

Think very carefully.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 Oct 2015 16:36
Accident Management Company -urgent advice needed - daveyjp

For such a small amount the only option is small claims track and costs are capped for both parties.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 Oct 2015 14:29
Accident Management Company -urgent advice needed - Palcouk

She has no option but to sign, and hope hire costs are recovered from the third party, anything else would leave her liable to legal costs, and the hire to date

She might want to phone her insurace company and complain in the strongest terms that they placed her in the hands of a credit hire company, which she only found out 13 days later (the agreement) that she would be liable if the third party didn't pay

You can Hire a C class direct from Hertz for about £800/week

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 Oct 2015 18:07
Accident Management Company -urgent advice needed - concrete

DON'T SIGN. Let them huff and puff as much as they like. They provided the car so it should be included in insurance cover, so examine the policy wording carefully under 'replacement vehicles'. They should have gotten a signature when the hire car was delivered. That would have tied you to Hertz T&C's. As it stands you are NOT. There is no contract between you and Hertz, your contract is with your insurer and just leave it at that. Let them know you expect them to sort this out, not you. It is their responsibility to recover the hire costs from the third party, not yours. I bet you thought they were great when they arranged to deliver a nice new Merc for you. BUT they don't do it because they are nice people: they do it because they make money at it by inflating the hire charges they then try to recover. You are now a much wiser person and aware of the scams these so called respectable companies are prepared to pull to make money. When you renew your insurance do not elect to have a replacement vehicle. You will save money on your premiums. If another accident occurs and it is not your fault you can hire your own car with the savings, then recover the costs from the other party insurer, or better still get a courtesy car from the repairer free of charge until your own car is repaired. Stick to your guns. Cheers Concrete

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 Oct 2015 19:51
Accident Management Company -urgent advice needed - gordonbennet

I have no advice for the OP at all as i have no leagl knowledge at all, other than as Concrete suggests, this is a valuable lesson to learn from, and should be applied to the usual forked tongue spiel from sales people, ranging from politicians ( and their media lackeys) to the lad trying to sell you an extended warranty on a washing machine, believe nothing they say.

Compare with son and DiL's recent experience.

DiL's CRV gets hit in the child nursery car park, third party honest and owns up, third party insurer contacts asap, please can we collect your car and supply you a courtesy car madam, yes but it can't be a little standard car due to rear facing car seat which we only fit in the back, no problem madeam we'll drop off an equivalent rental car (at our expense) and collect yours, fine.

bear in mind this is all the third party's insurer, DiL's insurer only notified for information purposes

new Rav 4 turns up, CRV goes to repair shop, returned in about 5 days and Rav 4 collected, everyone happy, third party insurer have mitigated their costs, innocent party have been only slightly inconvenienced and not one low life shark has made a bean from the mishap.

how it should play out

As regards the frankly ridiculous £1200 a week hire rip off, i'm not surprised that at fault insurers who end up paying for this scam are fighting back and refusing to pay, i support those who will not play this silly game, what with deliberate delays to milk the hire charges then a handy injury claim on top.

We all have a duty IMO to mitigate our losses when an accident happens, just because someone else is most likely (but you never know) to be at fault does not mean that it should be looked on as a nice little jolly for the innocent party, with bonuses of a new upper market car and ahandy bit of compo just for a bent wing or bumper.

We all end up paying for this nasty little racket in the end.

Edited by gordonbennet on 23/10/2015 at 19:52

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 25 Oct 2015 00:30
Accident Management Company -urgent advice needed - No_FM2R

As concrete says, you deal with your insurer;

Go back to them, find out who arranged the car. Demand to know why they organisaed such an expensive car. Demand to know why they told you that you would not be liable (I hope she got a name, but if not just make sure you know time/date. They'll probably have a record).

If CCL call and insist, ask them to confirm the name and organisation of the person who arranged the car. Ask them to confirm what basis they were given for the supply of that car. (make damn sure your daughter has not signed anything and forgotten) Then insist that they speak directly to that person.

Take no crap, insist on dealing direct with your insurance company. Also insist on knowing the current status of the claim.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

We give you the low down on how to save on insurance, little-known tricks and tips, what insurance groups mean and how to use insurance aggregators to beat insurers.

Insurance group finder and how to save on insurance