Hi,

With ref to : https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?483974-ADVICE-required-Defendant-insurer-refusing-to-pay-for-credit-hire-vehicle

I was just reading up on hire company car issues and have found myself in a similar situation described earlier this year in the forum.

I had a car accident a few weeks ago and I was not at fault and my insurance company have referred me on to the solicitors and they offered to repair my car and give me a hire car to use, which I accepted as I believed this was something I was entitled to since I was not at fault. I am now being asked to provide all my bank details and find this very bizarre. I have called the solicitors and they say that they plan to get all costs covered by the other person's car insurance, which brings me back to why am I providing my bank details??

I came across this forum and began reading your posts on the forum to get advice and see if other people have been in this situation. May I ask what happened with your situation? Did the solicitors manage to claim back costs from the other insurance company? Did you encounter any other further problems/costs? and were you happy to pass on your bank statements? I have never dealt with an insurance claim before and thought this was going to be a simple to ensure my car is repaired, but have realised there is a lot more to this. I read in the forum that you did pass on you bank details to the solicitors. Did you find this was a safe thing to do or did they make you pay for anything?

Is this all a normal process???

Many Thanks.

Ok firstly credit hire is different to a courtesy car. It is a hire car and when you sign the agreement you effectively sign to say that you are ultimately liable for the hire charges, and furthermore that you authorise the hire company and any solicitors they instruct to pursue recovery of those charges from the at fault party.

In the most simple terms, the legal position with recovering credit hire charges surrounds 3 issues - did you need a hire vehicle, did you hire the vehicle for a reasonable time, and did you hire for a reasonable rate.

The first two are usually non-issues and the rate is what is very often challenged because the cost of credit hire is often so much more excessive than direct hire (e.g. had you just hired a car from enterprise or thrifty etc). As with any claim in tort there is a general duty that the claimant must keep their losses to a minimum (i.e. mitigate their losses).

The legal position with the rate is that if you do not have the money to hire a vehicle directly from a mainstream provider, you are entitled to recover the full credit hire rate. If you did have the money to hire directly, you are only entitled to recover the lowest rate from the range of mainstream providers. Depending on the types of vehicles that we're talking about the difference between the credit hire rate and the direct hire rate could be from the tens to the hundreds of pounds per day plus VAT.

So the reason your bank details are required is to evidence the above in any litigation that may ensue.

Obviously this is sensitive personal data and the solicitors on both sides will have obligations under the GDPR to process it appropriately.

As I said in the other post, if you don't provide your bank details the impecuniosity argument will automatically fail at court, and furthermore if the solicitors/hire co decide that you're being uncooperative then you may be in breach of the terms of the hire agreement and leave yourself open to them chasing you for any shortfall.

Supervillain explains it perfectly