Accident Mismangement

My parked RAV-4 was hit by a car that did not stop. Fortunately the incident was witnessed and on being confronted the driver admitted responsibility. I wished to take my vehicle to my local Toyota dealer, but my insurers, Aviva, said that they were not on their list of approved repairers and directed me to a specialist repairer. I was told that I was entitled to a hire car and that the hire car would be delivered to me. It was a VW Tiguan 2.0 TDI SE 4x4 manual diesel. I signed the Agreement without reading it carefully. I have now received a copy of the invoice that has been sent to the third party’s insurers. Including insurance, CDW, delivery and VAT the total for 24 days is a staggering £4,235.22. The Agreement stipulates that if insurers don’t pay then I have to-at a daily rate higher than the “trade price”. Is this a scam? Do you think that there is a serious risk of him being called upon to contribute?

Asked on 12 December 2009 by

Answered by Honest John

Yes. It's the standard outrageous ‘Accident Management’ car hire con I have been writing about for the past two years. One reader was hit for £29,000 for 4 months hire of a Mercedes Benz C Class (he could have bought one for that). Unfortunately, the credit hire operators have managed to obtain various Appeal Court judgements that assist them in their duplicity. But in your case all you have to do is prove that you could have hired an acceptable replacement for considerably less for that lesser amount to be all you can be held liable for. The case law is: Copley and Lawn v Maden and Haller, Appeal Court 17-6-2009. And Clark v Ardington, Appeal Court 19-4-2002.

Tags: hire cars insurance credit hire owning claims

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