Thanks Uncle B - good advice. I am waiting for their formal claim and will do as you suggest when I get it.

I'd be really grateful for any advice. I'm currently living in Australia but am returning to the UK in about 7 weeks. Recently, I had an incident with a hire car and am now being pursued for $30k by the hire company as they believe I was outside T&Cs. I'll keep all that short as it's not really relevant but I strongly dispute the fact that they wrote off the car and also that I am outside the T&Cs. However, they are not being very cooperative in terms of discussing and I fear that I will be leaving the country before any agreement is found. I'm trying to understand the range of options, including worst case. One option I'm considering is to write to them before I leave, with a cheque for $5k (repair amount estimated by Toyota mechanic) in full & final settlement. I have read all the great advice re companies pursuing Oz debt in the UK and the limitations of that. Most of that seems to be about credit cards and where the individual has signed up to a credit agreement. I guess this is different - the hire company is claiming against me for money. When I return to the UK, what happens? Do you they have to pursue their claim in the Aus courts, and maybe then try to transfer it to the UK under the Reciprocal Enforcement Act, or could the hire company (multinational) simply pursue me from their UK office? For supporting info, they don't actually have a UK address for me (neither do I yet!). I'd be very grateful for any help. I want to get this settled before I leave but I want to pay a reasonable amount.