vw - Hire car

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Tue 12 Jun 2018 14:17
vw - Hire car - Horace123

Hi,just after a bit of advice,bit of a long story so i'll try and keep it brief...

Bought an approved used vw from a garage around 50 miles away. Within a couple of weeks had an issue wth the car so took it to the vw garage near my girlfriends work They had a look said it needed £900 of repairs that weren't covered by the vw warranty. I called the garage we bought it from and after a bit of toing and froing they agreed to collect the car and repair it and provide us with a hire car while ours was being repaired. A hire car was dropped of at my girlfriends work,she signed a form to say she had accepted the car and there was no damage etc. We had the car over the weekend and on the Monday afternoon someone from the garage dropped off our car and drove the hire car the miles back to the garage where it was picked up by the hire car company.

A few days later we received a letter from the hire car company saying that there was a scuff to the front bumper and a thin scratch on the door and that we would be billed for the repair. I have contacted vw and the garage we bought the car and they have both said it is nothing to do with them. After speaking to the vw complaints people they told me that they hadn't even insured the car while we had it and that we were drving it all weekend with no insurance. We were never told any information about insurance,damage,excesses etc we were just told we would be provided with a car and had one dropped off. I had hired a car from the same company around a month beforehand and had took out the extra insurance so I only had £100 excess pay in case of any damage.

Where do I go with this? Am I just going to have to pay for the repair to the damage we weren't aware of or have I got any chance of getting vw to pay?!

Thanks

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Tue 12 Jun 2018 18:03
vw - Hire car - Palcouk

The form signed by the GF would have shown who was providing the car.

The person collecting the car, when it was returned, should have inspected the car and made a note of any damage at the time, and provded a record of this at the time.

Since someone collected the car and took it back any damage could have been done during their journey. When a similar thing happed to me I simply pointed out that no damage had been reported on collection, they were claiming £2.5k. That was the last I heard from them

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Tue 12 Jun 2018 20:30
vw - Hire car - Bromptonaut

Was the hire company Green Motion?

www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jun/09/green-motion...s

Leaving you without the legal minimum insurance without making it 100% clear it was up to you to organise it might be close to offence of causing or permiting driving while not insured.

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Sun 17 Jun 2018 19:52
vw - Hire car - HGV ~ P Valentine

Ok, First of all under no circumstances do you pay anything.

1

The person who collected the car should have marked any damage and got you to sign to say the damage was there, since you did not I would suggest you tell them that the damage was caused by the company driver and not you.

2

You might be in trouble with the insurance, it is always up to the driver to check they are insured, genuine hire companies will give you a copy of the note or email if you hire online to say you are insured in case you get pulled by the law, it is never a good idea to assume.

3

They could threaten to report you to the police in order to get money from you over the insurance if it turns out you are not insured, usually you have to sign a form separate from the hire agreement, if the insurance is not included, in most genuine hire companies there is a box to tick to state if you are under their insurance or your own, if you state your own a genuine company will insist on seeing a copy of that before allowing you to drive of with the vehicle.

4

if it turns out you are actually not insured, tel them company it is not just you that will be in trouble, as stated allowing someone to drive your vehicle without making sure you are insured will land them in as much trouble as you will be, and they know it, so call their bluff.

5

the fact that you have used the hire company before, and got yourself insured first time around does not do you any favours.

6

Finally, what does the paperwork say, if there is an excess it will say so on the paperwork, it all depends on what paperwork you have/ have not got, word of mouth has no legality in the eyes of the law unless you recorded the conersation.

Edited by 30 yr's a Professional Driver on 17/06/2018 at 19:57

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Sat 23 Jun 2018 12:14
vw - Hire car - The Apothecary
Lots of problems with car hire companies charging for items after the car has been returned. This happened to me when a company claimed I had damaged an alloy despite me having invited the agent to inspect the vehicle, which they declined. I referred this to my credit card company who refunded the charge.
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