Who pays for a "courtesy car"

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
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Wed 16 Jun 2010 00:16
Who pays for a "courtesy car" - Carolina Croaker

In February 2008 I was involved in an RTA. Rear ended from behind and pushed into the car in front. The car in front was stopped at a green light.

My insurance company got me in touch with a well known company that supplied me with a courtesy car. I asked both them and the insurance company who would be responsible for payment. They told me it would not be me under no circumstances.

Fast forward two years, the engineers report suggests that I hit the car in front first, and then was rear ended. I have since moved from England and could not attend the court hearing. I done as my solicitor suggested and agreed to settle 50/50 with person that rear ended me, for all costs.

3 months later the company that supplied me with the courtesy car rings me up out of the blue, demanding I pay £2056. Apparently because my initial statement was false, I am liable for all payments. They can not go after the third party insurance, i.e the car that rear ended me because my inital statement of events are different from those that were suggested in a poorly written engineers report.

They have suggested I have 7 days to pay. The bill is for 35 days rental at £37/day. Which does not come anywhere near £2056!

Where do I stand on this issue. My insurance company says it is between me and the car company. I am sure they got a commission for referring me.

Is there any legal way I can escape without paying them?

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Wed 16 Jun 2010 12:59
Who pays for a "courtesy car" - LucyBC

Three car shunts are always complicated in liability terms as the sequence of events can be particularly difficult to evaluate. If you were rear-ended from behind and pushed into the car in front then you are not liable at all. If you rear-ended the first car then you are liable for their damage but the car behind should have been able to stop in time.

In these circumstances it is very likely that unless there was an independent witness no one (including the reporting engineer) is quite sure what happened so the insurers agree to settle 50:50 rather than argue it out.

You may have been badly advised to accept this but now it seems to have been stamped by the court..

The complication is the credit hire - which is what this is. Most credit hire agreements require you to sign an agreement which indemnifies them. However often they do not warn you that you are signing an agreement - you think you are only signing for the delivery of the car.

In some cases the agreement provides for them to recover their hire fees if the insurer will not pay up for any reason. Some offer a £10 insurance policy which covers the loss if they are unable to collect and some will only charge you if your version of events is shown not only to be wrong but deliberately so.

You seem to fall into the middle one but without the benefit of the insurance policy.

The first thing to do is to do nothing for the moment.

You have had a telephone call demanding payment of a fee which you dispute and which does not accord with calculations.

However a public forum is not the best place to discuss the details of the case.

I may well be able to assist further but you need to contact me directly at lucy.bonhamcarter@qualityanswers.co.uk with further details of the case so we can go through your options in detail.

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