Hastings/Principia/Auxillis - Tricked into a car hire when told it was a courtesy car!

[SuperVillain]

Hi OP. 
 

Just as a bit of background I’ve spent several years working on the Defendant side of the credit hire fence. 

Auxillis and Principia Law have the same company directors. The companies are linked. You’ll almost certainly have to go with them under the terms of the hire agreement. 

 

You’ve signed a credit hire agreement. You believed it was a courtesy car based on the email from Hastings.  Did you read it? I know that Auxillis get you to sign these things electronically. 
 

9 times out of 10 as stated above, you’ll not get as far as trial and the two sides will settle. 
 

In the run up, you’ll have to assist Principia as they go through the stages of litigation.  Nothing to worry about immediately. 
 

The point it will affect you is the disclosure and witness statement phase. They’ll likely want to see your bank statements from the time of the accident and disclose these to the other side.

 

They’ll also need you to sign a witness statement.  They will prepare this so read this statement very (I can’t emphasise that enough), carefully before you sign it.  Make sure it’s true. They’ll use a standard witness statement as a template which will say things like ‘Auxillis contacted you and explained it was a credit hire agreement‘ etc etc.  Don’t sign anything that’s not true.

 

Edit: Apologies, just read that there’s a possible liability dispute. That slightly increases the chance of this ending up at a Court hearing. 
 

Do you know how much the total hire charges are? Are they below £10k?

Edited February 19, 2020 by SuperVillain