Campervan self-drive hire insurance issue

[born2bongo]

Hi

We recently hired a motorhome through a company specialising in this. We knew there was an excess to pay in the event of damage, and there was no option to take out collision damage waiver insurance.

 

The worst happened while we left the van parked in a car park and we were gutted to realise we had to pay the excess. What we didn't expect was a bill for 50% more than the excess.

 

The invoice is itemised, and includes the excess, loss of income during repair, costs of taking the vehicle to be repaired, a £200 Admin fee for the insurance claim and a credit card fee. The invoice was enclosed with a quote for repair, which was only slightly greater than the excess. Buried in the small print is reference to associated costs. My questions are:

 

1. Shouldn't their insurance policy include these costs?
   
2. Isn't there some kind of legislation around what is a reasonable charge (I'm thinking of the 'Admin' charge)?
   
3. Should we write and say we are prepared to pay the excess only, or we will put the whole amount in dispute?
   
4. Should we tell them we do not want to pay it by CC; tell the card company not to accept the debit, and send them a cheque for the excess only?
   
5. We have the policy number and details. Should we make our own representations to the insurance company?
   

I guess we feel that the insurance company has probably not been involved, given the size of the quote for repair, and that the company is using the opportunity to make more money out of us. If we do have to pay the massive admin charge, do we have a right to see the paperwork we are paying for? The van owner told us that there are no imminent bookings, so it galls us that they are also adding on 4 days 'loss of earnings'. Can we ask for proof of this loss?

 

Totally aside to this, we paid an extra amount because we were taking the van to Europe. Although it wasn't pointed out at the time, we were responsible for providing the equipment needed to make it legal in Europe. When we checked the small print it told us to buy it at the ferry port. This feels pretty unreasonable, but while we could just about accept the need to buy a warning triangle, first aid kit and high-vis vests, surely spare headlight bulbs should have been included? They were not. Did they not have a duty of care to point this out to us in time to purchase the bulbs and other items, rather than leave us to wade through a hefty hire agreement?

 

Sorry about the length of the letter. Just trying to give you all the information I can think of at the outset. Thanks in advance.

[sailor sam]

Most of your 'problems' will be dependant on what the T & C's are on the rental agreement which you would of signed. Normally CDW (Collision damage waiver) 'waivers' your liablity in the event of a 'collision'. The actual premium you pay for this goes into the rental companies coffers so they have a 'pot' they can untilise for such incidents. Its a bit like them 'betting' on you not having an accident, if you don't they 'win' the amount you have paid. However, if you do then they have to pay towards their excess which, as you say is normally 50% of what the excess is. In reality, some rental companies will inflate the excess on the agreement to leave the hirer paying what they BELIEVE is 50% in such circumstances.

 

You have obviously had an incident which has resulted in damage but you havn't provided any details on what dameage has been caused, who was at fault ect . Regarding the £200 admin fee, well this is a new one on me. The usual admin fee in my experience is £35 to cover the likes of dealing with traffic offences like speeding tickets ect. £200 is certainly excessive but if thats what you signed for then you will be little you can do about it.

 

Regarding taking it to the continent is concerned; I would imagine you would have discussed this with the comapny when you booked. Unless we are talking about one of the major rental companies, I very much doubt that you have any comeback here. I would guess that the comapny concerned dosn't experience hires outside the UK very often so you can hardly expect them to be equipped as such.

 

I think the best thing to do is to post a copy of the RA showing both sides (T & C's normaly on the rear side) after washing it of any personal details.

Also, give us the circumstances of the damage and how it was caused. Following this, we may be able to advise you further.

 

__________________

Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my scales at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice usefull.

Edited April 4, 2010 by sailor sam

[born2bongo]

The details of the accident were that someone collided with the van while it was parked, and didn't leave any contact details. We discovered it with a dent and a scratch when we returned. Not our fault, but our responsibility as the vehicle was in our charge. Hence we were expecting to pay the excess of £1250, as there had not been the option of CDW.

 

The paragraph they are using to charge us the extra is "Fully Comprehensive insurance is included within the hire charge. The vehicle is insured for the period of hire contracted ONLY, thus late return of the vehicle may incur a traffic offence under the road traffic act. Hirers are advised to take out additional personal holiday insurance. A £1250 excess payable per incident by the hirer, is applied to all vehicles if the cost of repairing damages in relation to any given incident should exceed this amount. We reserve the right to any amount up to the insurance excess along with any associated costs against the drivers’ or hirers’ credit/debit card provided. Accepting these Terms indicates authorisation to the Lessor to be able follow this process if required".

As stated originally they are charging us for the extra days rental hire while it is off the road (although there are no other bookings), a £200 fee for Insurance claim administration and further costs for taking it to the repairers.

We are not disputing our obligation to the excess, and I guess we are stuck with the 2% credit card fee, but we think the other charges should be covered by their insurance, and the the sizable admin fee is unreasonable in relation to the costs incurred by them.

We think they are adding these charges so they don't have to go to insurance, and we also wonder if they will fix it at all, since it doesn't affect the use of the vehicle.

Thanks for the prompt reply and hope this extra information helps

[sailor sam]

Ok, I've read the T & C's on theire web site. Most of the 'Vehicle Hire Terms' are standard to the industry and they have added a few extra terms of their own. Obviously we are talking about a specialist vehicle here so it will have a few additions to a normal car rental agreement. I note that they rely on 'other' terms as described on their web site. Well I reckon those will not applly unless they are written into your rental contract which you signed. According to these T & C's (assuming they ARE included within the signed agreement), your liability is damage UP TO £1250 (being the excess) plus the 'adnim' fee. Do you think the damage is going to cost as much as the excess?

 

We have a good cagger on here called Mossycat who knows the ins and outs about the insurance game so hopefully he will pick up on this.

 

I'm not too sure where we stand about the adnim fee because as I mentioned previously, if you signed the contract which included this clause then you may be stuck with it although I do agree that it seems disproportianate. The only way of testing whether this is reasonable or not is in court.

 

__________________

Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my scales at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice usefull.

[Mossycat]

I'd agree with what sailorsam has said regarding what is actually in their terms and conditions, but I would add the following caveats.

 

In order for them to claim loss of hire, they need to prove that the vehicle was hired out to someoen else and also that they had no other vehicles to offer the other customer. If the damage is cosmetic only and not detrimental to safety or against road traffic laws to use then the repairs should wait until it is not booked out, they have a duty to mitigate their losses. It is not sufficient to simply calaim loss of use/loss of hire charges just because the vehicle will be getting repaired, they need to prove that they have lost rental income as a result of it.

 

I'd also seriously query the 'admin' fee, it seems very high to me, ascertain exactly what they did and how long it took to do that, again they have a duty to mitigate their losses.

 

Like yourself if I hire a vehicle with CDW that is ALL I would eb expected to pay if anything untoward happened, so have a very close read of their terms and conditions and see exactly what is stated.

 

Also as sailorsam has stated, they cannot refer you now to other terms and conditions that you were not aware of at the time of making the contract. (There was a famous case in contrcat law where terms and conditions were printed on the back of a parking ticket, but the defendent claimed that he had no reason to look at the back of the ticket and so was not aware of them, and that was upheld in a Court of law, so unless you were aware of them at the time they cannot now refer you to somewhere else to read them and accept them).

 

Mossy

Edited April 5, 2010 by Mossycat

[born2bongo]

Thanks for all your advice folks. I'll challenge some of these charges, and let you know how I get on