Free car hire whilst they repair your car - Don't

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Sun 20 Jul 2008 17:39
Free car hire whilst they repair your car - Don't - Mapmaker
Talking to a barrister friend of mine who was heading to court to defend a credit hire case.

You know the scenario: "Had a no-fault accident, let us repair your car, here's a free hire car, and we'll claim it all back from the other party."

Well, apparently the car hire ends up costing the other party more as it is on credit - often considerably more. There is case law that says that if you can afford to you should hire the car yourself and then apply for a refund from the other party. You are failing to mitigate your loss if you use a credit-hire car.

At the bottom of the agreement you sign, it will say "I agree that if repair & hire company fails to recover its costs from the third party that I will pay the difference."

So the moral is, don't use these firms unless you really cannot afford to hire a car yourself.
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Sun 20 Jul 2008 18:30
Free car hire whilst they repair your car - Don't - jbif
There is case law that says that if you can afford to you should hire the car yourself


I believe the case law is the one referred to by HJ in his FAQ
www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/faq.htm?id=33
"The relevant case law is Clarke v/s Ardington in the Appeal Court, 1 May 2002, in which their Lordships said: ..."

However, I think it has been added to since by other judgements, which I do not have time at the moment to find. But these may be of interest:

www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/judgmentsfiles/j371/co...m

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200304/ldjudgm...m

utility.helphire.co.uk/pr/Statement_31_January_200...m

Edited by jbif on 20/07/2008 at 18:33

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Mon 21 Jul 2008 07:50
Free car hire whilst they repair your car - Don't - grumpyscot
Anyone know if this would be the case under Scotland or N Ireland laws?
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Mon 21 Jul 2008 19:47
Free car hire whilst they repair your car - Don't - Westpig
when i used one of these companies, they assured me that i wouldn't have to pay a bean. After having a Mercedes C200 Kompressor for a week I started to worry about it, so queried it again, they faxed me over a letter confirming i wouldn't be personally liable.

Sure enough, when the CPS dropped the matter at Magistrates Court and the insurance companies faffed... I still didn't have to pay anything...and i had the car for a month. I never did prove the other driver liable.
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