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Car hire company has made a claim for damage, what can I do?

I've just discovered that without my knowledge a car hire company has made a claim on my insurance policy for alleged damage on a courtesy car provided to me whilst some repair work to my car was being undertake. I didn't damage the courtesy car but it was delivered to me with existing damage to a door and wheels. I took photographs of the damage and am happy to share those with whoever will assess the claim. A further complication is that though the car was delivered to me by the car hire company, the car was returned to them by the car repairers (who had organised the courtesy car in the first place). It is apparently dated October 2021 but I've only just found out about it whilst investigating why the premium for renewing the insurance had increased three fold. I verbally informed my insurers that I dispute the alleged damage and that the claim should be rejected.

My insurer's claims department can't provide any further details and the claim hasn't been settled. I don't have a direct relationship with the car hirers so I feel powerless and disadvantaged as my insurance record is incorrectly weighted. What would you suggest I do to protect myself?

Asked on 4 July 2022 by Antony Spencer

Answered by Lawrence Allan
This is an unusual situation - usually with a hire or courtesy car you may be liable for damage cost unless you can prove it wasn't you, but we've not heard of a company directly lodging a claim against your own car insurance in this way. We would contact the insurance company in writing (recording the correspondence for future reference) and if you get no satisfactory response you can lodge a formal complaint with the insurers through their official process. If this still gets you nowhere we recommend speaking to the Financial Ombudsman Service for advice.
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