We were referred to Auxilis by Admiral

[Cornwall123]

I am so pleased but also worried sick to find this forum.

Briefly, my son was driving my husband's car last year and a third party ran into the side of it resulting in it being written off. It was a classic automatic Mercedes (this may be important). As my son required to travel 50 miles each way to his work location and my husband works in a rural location we required a car asap. We were referrred to Auxilis by Admiral and despite feeling uneasy about it all we agreed to the contract. The following day we were contacted and told that they would deliver a premium automatic car the following day to our home address. I said an auto was not necessary nor a premium and as my son was not in a position to work at this time we agreed for a car to be delivered to our home the following day as we could use the only other car available to us for a day or so.

 

I made a separate call to Admiral and asked very specific questions regarding the hire and cost of it and our liability. I even said that I realise it is very expensive and surely it would be better to get a cheaper hire ourselves. I was told that if we did that then we would be unlikely to get our money back and as it could go on for months before being settled we would be saddled with a big bill, probably thousands. That is exactly why Auxilis is recommended and people like us are referred to them I was told.

 

The following day I phoned Auxilis to see what time to expect the car (as they even suggested that I could choose what type) and was told that the car was already on its way. A brand new 4 x 4 auto thing because our car was a 'premium' car so they provide a premium car as a replacement. This was not agreed to or suggested by me.

 

Cutting this short - the car arrived, it took 6 weeks to get the pay out for the car and we waited to replace it until all was sorted, as we were told we could. The cost of the hire car for 6 weeks is around £7K to my horror. Obviously even though the accident was deemed completely no fault of my son's and the excess was covered in the claim and NCB is unaffected the other insurers are refusing to pay. The court date is set for end October and my husband has to attend (as the insurance is in his name). He is actually unable to attend as he has business travel at that time.

 

I have a few concerns. The paperwork mentions wage slips, credit card details etc. Theoretically we could have put the cost on a credit card or paid from savings - I was told not to. How will this all play out in court? What will happen because he cannot attend, does that look like he is not cooperating, as he agreed he would? We were asked months ago to provide dates he could not attend for the next 6 months. This we did. That brought us to the beginning of September. No questions were asked about any period of time after that so he was not able to tell them that October would not be possible. I am really stressed over this. Any advice please? If we tell the truth in court as above I suspect we would be seen not to try and recover Auxilis' losses.

[Ganymede]

Hi, you should have started your own thread but hopefully the Mods will sort it for you.

 

Tell your solicitor that your husband is away and unable to attend Court and that the trial date needs moving.

 

Sounds like there wasn't a need for the hire car as there was another one in the family, you had funds to buy your own replacement car and/or hire a car using your own money (so you were not impecunious).

 

Speak to your solicitor and tell them the above, Auxilis will probably be keen to settle the bill at a heavy discount.

[Cornwall123]

Thanks for the reply. There was not another in car in the family that was available for use and we were told by Admiral not to pay for a car ourselves as we would not get the money back. It would have sat on our credit card for sometime.

[SuperVillain]

Hi, you should have started your own thread but hopefully the Mods will sort it for you.

 

Tell your solicitor that your husband is away and unable to attend Court and that the trial date needs moving.

 

Sounds like there wasn't a need for the hire car as there was another one in the family, you had funds to buy your own replacement car and/or hire a car using your own money (so you were not impecunious).

 

Speak to your solicitor and tell them the above, Auxilis will probably be keen to settle the bill at a heavy discount.

 

Agreed, OP speak to the Solicitors (I assume they are Principia Law).

 

They will at some point prepare a witness statement for your husband to sign. This will have a Statement of Truth at the end - to verify to the Court that it's content is true. The statement they will prepare will be a fairly standard pro-forma statement which they copy/paste from claim to claim and add in new details. If your husband is concerned with the content of the statement he needs to raise this with the solicitors and only sign it if he truly believes what is said within is true.

 

When all is said and done, the Defendant's lawyers won't know half of the detail in your post (which suggests that credit hire should never have been obtained in the first place). They will receive a tick box form signed by your son or your husband saying that you needed a car, you didn't have another available and that you needed a premium vehicle.

 

 

As an aside:

 

"Theoretically we could have put the cost on a credit card or paid from savings - I was told not to."

 

"I said an auto was not necessary nor a premium and as my son was not in a position to work at this time we agreed for a car to be delivered to our home the following day as we could use the only other car available to us for a day or so. "

 

"I made a separate call to Admiral and asked very specific questions regarding the hire and cost of it and our liability. I even said that I realise it is very expensive and surely it would be better to get a cheaper hire ourselves. I was told that if we did that then we would be unlikely to get our money back and as it could go on for months before being settled we would be saddled with a big bill, probably thousands."

 

Frankly companies like Auxillis (and Accident Exchange/Easidrive/Kindertons etc etc) operate underhand tactics like this all the time, but as frustrating as it is, from the other side of the fence you can only realistically challenge what you can prove to be untrue - which isn't often a whole lot (credit hire litigation is something I do a lot day to day).

 

From your point of view, don't worry - your solicitors know what they're doing (they do this a lot) and as Ganymede said - a settlement before trial is the most likely outcome.

[Cornwall123]

Thanks for the reply. The fact is my son didn't work only for one day, so the car actually was needed by the day it arrived (2 days after the accident). We did not have another available. The only thing is that I suggested to Admiral that it was an expensive way of getting a hire car but was told quite categorically to use Auxillis. So are you saying we should just tell the solicitor all this now or should we submit our financial statements? I am worried sick over this. Since the accident we have had countless calls from people saying we could get compensation for my son etc. We have asked countless times for the calls to stop. He was not injured, merely shook up and so we do not believe in compensation for something not necessary. We are honest people just trying to get through this mess.

[SuperVillain]

Just co-operate with the solicitors and submit the financials to them. They will see them before they disclose to the other side, and if they feel a need to make an offer, they will do so.

 

More importantly, tell your solicitor that your husband is unavailable for trial so they can start the process of getting the hearing date moved. You should do this asap as the nearer you get to trial, each party is incurring more costs, and the other side may kick up a fuss if you leave it late to tell them the trial needs moving.

 

And please don't worry. This is all run of the mill in these types of cases...

[Cornwall123]

Thank you - I have already told them he is away. Many thanks for your help.

[Cornwall123]

Sorry just one more thing. My husband so does not want to have to provide all financial info. What happens if we don't?

[Ganymede]

Why doesn't he?

[Cornwall123]

Just frustrated with the whole thing I think. Anyway I have just submitted. Thanks.

[SuperVillain]

Sorry just one more thing. My husband so does not want to have to provide all financial info. What happens if we don't?

 

If he doesn't, if the matter gets to Court, there will be no evidence in support of impecuniosity, leaving the Court open to awarding hire at what's called 'Basic Hire Rates' (BHR - i.e. the cost of hire if you went to a normal provider e.g. enterprise thrifty hertz etc - this is more often than not lower than the credit hire rate). So if the Court awards BHR rates for the hire, then they may award say £4-5k.

 

As such there will be a shortfall from the actual hire charges. The risk is that if you are non-cooperative in the litigation process, the credit hire company may pursue your husband for the shortfall as he prevented them the opportunity of recovering the full hire charges. Your credit hire agreement will state somewhere that the hirer remains personally liable for all the hire charges.

 

So the best thing to do is cooperate fully with your solicitors, in my opinion.

[Old Cogger]

too risky to ignore by him! chance he takes but outcome can be disatrous

[Cornwall123]

I have sent off all we can currently muster now and will see what comes back. Thanks for help.