high hire car charges.

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
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Tue 10 Apr 2012 21:48
high hire car charges. - JoeJoe88

Hi all,

I was involved in a RTA back in March 2010 where the 3rd party crashed into the back of me.

He accepted full liability and therefore I used a 3rd party claim company (Help Hire) to deal for me.

They gave me a hire car which is equivalent to my car being repaired (4drs, saloon, etc).

The repair took 49days, mostly due to more damages found, which lead to waiting for verification from insurance company and parts import from Japan.

Cut the story short. It has taken over 2 years and the 3 rd party company have made an offer.

They are willing to pay for the damage repair, compensations, expenses and “some” of the hire car charges.

Reading all the documents carefully, it would appears that the hire car company put me on credit as I was not able to afford the hire car charge (pretty much OD every month, personal loan and high credit cards) but there is nothing mention about cheaper options of the hire car.

The 3 rd party is only willing to pay a 3 rd of the hire charges, leaving the remaining unsettle.

Currently there is a court date set. My acting solicitor thinks the amount offered is fair. Even at this current financial stage, I am not able to pay the 2/3 of the remaining hire charges.

What options do I have at this stage and what can I/my solicitor do?

Many thanks in advance and thnks for reading.

Best regards,

JOE

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Wed 11 Apr 2012 00:17
high hire car charges. - tony g
Hi joe ,the issue resolves around the car hire charges.I would guess that the hire company would have had you sign an agreement ,that allows them to charge you for the hire fees if the third party is unwilling to pay .

So how do you get the other party to pay ,first do you need a car to get to work ,is a car essential rather than convenient .

Second is the hire car charge reasonable when compared to other hire companies ,from your post you seen to have had the use of a similair car to your own ,is that correct ?

If both of the above points are correct ,then you should be entitled to the use of a car for the length of time you were without your own car .

The third party admitted liability ,providing that you were reasonable in your use of the hire car ,the third party should pay .

Ask your solicitor to agree to settle the claim but not the car rental bill .prior to that have your solicitor write to the third party telling him that you will pursue him through the small claims court for the whole of the car hire fee .

The point in this is that you're not obliged to deal with the third parties insurance company.His insurance company didnt cause the damage to your car he did .

If you put pressure on the third party by issuing a claim via the small claims court .He will pressure his insurance company to pay.

If they don't pay and you win your case ,he will have to pay you if his insurance company don't .


Do get back in touch with the forum if you need to know more about the small claims court .

Good luck


Tony g













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Wed 11 Apr 2012 10:40
high hire car charges. - JoeJoe88

Hi Tony G,

Thanks for coming back to me.

What is the chances of me winning the small claim court case?

As the 3rd party insurance is willing to pay for a 1/3 of the hire charge, by not accepting this and go for the small claim, if I loose, I would have to fork out the entire amount?!

Regards,

JOE

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Wed 11 Apr 2012 11:02
high hire car charges. - JoeJoe88

Forgot to mention, I have provided my bank statements, personal loan and outstanding creidt card bills to my solicitor to speak to the hire car company. All the documents clearly show that I am not able to pay for the hire car at the point when my car went for repair nor I can pay for the hire car charge aferward...

Is there any other ways to reduce or wirtten off the remainings?

Edited by JoeJoe88 on 11/04/2012 at 11:12

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Wed 11 Apr 2012 11:28
high hire car charges. - tony g
Hi joe ,pretty good I would say ,why should you be paying for somebody else's mistake .

Do you know why the third party is offering a third of the hire cost .Could it be that help hires charges are much higher than other car hire companies .

It seems that the other parties insurer is willing to accept the principal of a hire car ,so why won't they pay for the whole amount ?

The total cost of pursuing a claim through the small claims court is about £200 ,once the judge makes a decision ,the third party cannot appeal it .

Just as a matter of interest how much did help hire charge for the 49 days hire .

Regards

Tony g
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Wed 11 Apr 2012 11:36
high hire car charges. - tony g
Is there any other ways to reduce or wirtten off the remainings?

Hi joe ,reference your second post ,I dont think there is any way to do the above.

You almost certainly signed an agreement to pay help hire in the event that the third parties insurer wouldn't .

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Wed 11 Apr 2012 11:41
high hire car charges. - JoeJoe88

Hi Tony G,

3rd party insurance stated that the hire car charge is not acceptable and too high.

They only offered 1/3 of the total amount as that was the "reasonable" charges (instead of £200 per day, they believe £90 per day is reasonable), hence the reason.

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Wed 11 Apr 2012 12:04
high hire car charges. - tony g
Hi joe ,sorry to to say you've already lost ,£200 a day is a huge sum for a family car .it can't be justified ,the courts wouldn't find in your favour .

Am I right in thinking that the total cost of 49 days hire was about £10,000 ,and you're liable for £6500 .

I wonder if it's possible that the contract you signed could be considered an unfair contract ,it's possible that help hire broke the law by taking advantage of you as a private individual ,did they have you sign an agreement that you didn't understand ?

It may be that your solicitor could help you to have the agreement set aside ,but it's a complicated process and your solicitor would want paying for his services .

Perhaps your best hope is make an offer to help hire of a reduced amount ,could you raise £4000.

It's possible that help hire would accept that ,the alternative is that they would either have to accept monthly payments or pursue you through the courts for the amount .

Sorry I can't offer more posative options


Regard


Tony g







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Wed 11 Apr 2012 12:52
high hire car charges. - JoeJoe88

Hi Tony G,

I figured you will say that.

The total amount of the hire charge was £15K.

The 3rd party is willing to pay £6.5K.

That leaves £8.5K outstanding.

Is there any way for the judge to reason with the hire car company?

As at my current finanical situation, I will not be able to pay this.

Or is this something my solicitor have to do?

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Wed 11 Apr 2012 13:59
high hire car charges. - tony g
Wow ,that's an outrageous amount of money ,what kind of car was it ?

To resolve the additional cost I think you would have to go to court again as a seperate issue .

Your defense would have to be that you didn't understand what you were signing ,and that help hire didn't explain it to you .

In addition you would have to say that the cost of the hire car was way over what it should be .

There's a possibility if you present your case properly ,a judge would set aside an agreement that appears unfair ,even though you signed it .

You could try to negotiate with help hire ,however I think you would probably have to resolve it in court ,when help hire try to get a judgment against you .
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Thu 12 Apr 2012 02:15
high hire car charges. - rtj70

Not only an outreageous amount but as Tony G says - you cannot win this.

Questions to ask yourself before going any further - at what point did you know the hire car was about £300/day? Because £15k over 49 days is £306/day!! Outrageous and nobody can defend that.

If I went to National Rent-a-Car as an example, and select say an E-Class MB or equivalent for one day's rental it's £184. I wonder what car you got! Two months for it paid up front is £4130.

Edited by rtj70 on 12/04/2012 at 02:16

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Thu 12 Apr 2012 09:00
high hire car charges. - skidpan

We use Thrifty Car Hire at work. Just looked at their web site and at normal public rates you can have a Mondeo for 49 days (7 weeks) for £1108.38. £15,000 for car hire is robbery and that should be your reason for not paying.

I can understand your insurers being unwilling to pay the full amount, if I were them I would not be prepared to pay more than the going rate i.e. just over £1,000.

You have been robbed, the repairs to your car were probably less than the car hire.

Get a new solicitor and rather than argueing about who pays what argue abut the outrageous hire charge.

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