I have rented a car and had an accident which was my fault.

The rental company after few months has sent me an invoice for the damages.

Within the documentation there was only a quote for the repairs but no actual invoice.

I have queried and they told me that the car has not been actually repaired because that does not always happen.

Is this legal? I thought you would be charged only if they had incurred costs.

Oooh lets try that on them.

"Hello car company! your car caused me an injury (airbag came up for no reason and broke a tooth). Dentist told me it will cost £200 quid to fix. Not going to do it, but can I have the 200 quid anyway? Ta!"

I am suer they would kick you out. Do the same.

Whilst I usually agree with gyzmo I find myself not doing so this time.

If your own personal car is involved in an accident you can send your insurers (or the third party insurers) a quote, usually they authorise repairs, repairs get carried out and the invoice gets paid.

However sometimes the owner of the vehicle opts for a cash-in-lieu of repair settlement where they accept from the insurer money instead of getting the car repaired. These are always paid without the VAT (if the car does get repaired at a later date then the VAT is claimable from the insurer (but only the VAT on the original amount, if repairs were more expensive the insurer is only liable for the orginal sum)).

Cash-in-lieu of repairs are quite common and for a variety of reasons. The only thing the owner has to bear in mind is that they cannot claim for the same damage if the unrepaired vehicle is later involved in another accident.

So, turning now to your situation, you have caused damage to someone's property, the value of that damage is valued at whatever the estimate was (or the lower of two different estimates). They are opting not to have the vehicle repaired but are looking for you to compensate them accordingly, that is their right and they don't have to provide you with a reason. Basically the car is now worth less then it was before you caused damage to it.

I am afraid that you do owe them, if they took you to Court you would lose. Consider this, they go to Court and claim that they didn't have the money to authorise repairs until you paid them, they sent you full details of how much it would cost and you refused to pay them until they had had the repairs done, therefore they couldn't effect repairs.

I am not saying that they would claim that (I know and you know they have sufficient funds to authorise repairs), but I was stating that to demonstrate the principal.

Usually a Company elects for a cash-in-lieu of repair settlement if they are not planning on keeping it too much longer, and in the case of a hire-car company they could also claim for loss of rental income whilst it is off the road for repairs, so they are actually making a smaller claim against you then they could otherwise of done.

Simple answer pay them but not the VAT, they are not entitled to the VAT because it isn't part of the actual repair, you only owe them the VAT if they do have repairs carried out at some later date.

Sorry, I know it's not what you wanted to hear.

Mossycat

(PS gyzmo you never did cash-in-lieu settlements?????????)

Mossy, you are very much correct. I should not have posted what I did (I was rather rushed last night and in a bit of a fould mood!). I think the point I was trying to get across is to obtain proof of actual loss. A quotation for me is not sufficient. I would want to see at least a photograph of the damage or be able to inspect the car.

However, This is an aspect of insurance I did not get myself involved in. I remember the odd one or two cash in lieu settlements, but avoided them like the plague due to the paperwork!

Thanks for the correction.

Mossy, you are very much correct. I should not have posted what I did (I was rather rushed last night and in a bit of a fould mood!). I think the point I was trying to get across is to obtain proof of actual loss. A quotation for me is not sufficient. I would want to see at least a photograph of the damage or be able to inspect the car.

 

Gyzmo I totally agree with you that if I were the claims handler I would want to see proof of damage (photographs, estimates etc), so I would suggest to the OP that they look very carefully at the estimate provided by the Hire Car Company and agree that it matches the damage that they caused. Obviously in this case the OP has seen the damage and knows it to be real.

Mossycat

(PS Gyzmo I tried to avoid dealing with them too, they are a real pain)

I have rented a car and had an accident which was my fault.

 

The rental company after few months has sent me an invoice for the damages.

Within the documentation there was only a quote for the repairs but no actual invoice.

I have queried and they told me that the car has not been actually repaired because that does not always happen.

Is this legal? I thought you would be charged only if they had incurred costs.

Why was this damage not covered by insurance? Surely, if you hire a car it is insured.

Why was this damage not covered by insurance? Surely, if you hire a car it is insured.

Persumably he didn't opt for the CDW and the amount of damage is less than the excess (and would otherwise have been covered by the CDW).

If so there is no insurance in place for the amount that these repairs total, I assume that's why CDW was mentioned in the title

Mossycat

Thanks mossycat

Thanks mossycat

I'm only assuming that because the OP mentions CDW in the title of his thread but then doesn't mention it again anywhere so it was a guess.

If the OP did pay for the CDW then as you say the car would have been fully insured and they should look to the insurers for indemnity.

Mossycat