Length of car hire after accident?

tiny_d

Hi there
I have a question that I'm hoping someone can help me with. To cut a long story short, I was in an accident a few weeks ago. No one was hurt, my car is a write off and the other guy admitted full liability. His insurance company provided me with car hire but, through their own incompetence, they've taken ages to process my claim (e.g. it's taken them weeks to internally get the engineers involved). Anyway, they still haven't sent me the cheque and my car hire runs out in a couple of days . They say that 16 days is the maximum they can provide, but even once I receive the cheque, it's still going to take me a week or so to source and buy another car. Does anyone know what my rights are in this case? To me, it seems entirely reasonable that they should cover my car hire until I've had a reasonable time to get a replacement. However, they're pushing back hard on this so I was wondering if anyone has any advice. This isn't just a matter of principle for me - I need the car to get to and from work so I'll be genuinely stuck.

Thanks for any tips!

holdmybeer

Last time I was in an accident they gave me a week then started charging me per day but seeing as the other guy is at fault I would say your insurer is going to charge the guy at fault for the rental car. Never assume this will happen though, call them and make sure.

doopa

tiny_d wrote: »

Hi there
I have a question that I'm hoping someone can help me with. To cut a long story short, I was in an accident a few weeks ago. No one was hurt, my car is a write off and the other guy admitted full liability. His insurance company provided me with car hire but, through their own incompetence, they've taken ages to process my claim (e.g. it's taken them weeks to internally get the engineers involved). Anyway, they still haven't sent me the cheque and my car hire runs out in a couple of days . They say that 16 days is the maximum they can provide, but even once I receive the cheque, it's still going to take me a week or so to source and buy another car. Does anyone know what my rights are in this case? To me, it seems entirely reasonable that they should cover my car hire until I've had a reasonable time to get a replacement. However, they're pushing back hard on this so I was wondering if anyone has any advice. This isn't just a matter of principle for me - I need the car to get to and from work so I'll be genuinely stuck.

Thanks for any tips!

Couple of weeks would be a lot for most of them. But its all negotiable. So phone up the accessor for the other side and try to get more time out of him/her. Definitely worth clarifying with the other side.

You could start looking for another car now, before the rental runs out in order to reduce the number of days without a car.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Id be on to them giving it socks that its their insurees fault your without a car and can't afford another one until you get the check and demand you have a car until the check arrives etc.

Id push it and make them pay for tbh.

tiny_d

Thanks for the reply. In my case, I'm dealing directly with the other guy's insurance. I should have put it through my insurance and let them deal with it, but I didn't know that this was an option

I'm getting the feeling that even though they've caused the delay, I'm going to have to fight them on getting extra car hire. It's funny, you hear horror stories about incompetence/greed from these companies, but it never really hits home until you have to deal with it in person....

tiny_d

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

Id be on to them giving it socks that its their insurees fault your without a car and can't afford another one until you get the check and demand you have a car until the check arrives etc.

Id push it and make them pay for tbh.

Yep, that's what I'm doing alright. I keep reminding them that I had a perfectly good car that I could use until their client hit me. I'm currently fishing around for the email address of someone more senior at the company as the call center people I'm dealing with don't seem to have much of a clue.

bazz26

tiny_d wrote: »

Yep, that's what I'm doing alright. I keep reminding them that I had a perfectly good car that I could use until their client hit me. I'm currently fishing around for the email address of someone more senior at the company as the call center people I'm dealing with don't seem to have much of a clue.

Tell them you wish to speak to a supervisor if the call centre person cannot answer your questions. If you get nowhere then you need to be calm but firm and explain that you will be forced to get a solicitor involved as you need a car until the claim is settled, you are not responsible for the accident or the delay in processing the claim and that you will be forced to add their legal fees to the cost of the claim. Explain that all you want is them to extend the hire car until the matter is settled.

Some insurance companies can be a right pain to deal with a claim but normally they become more co-operative with the mention of a solicitor.

whippet

Have you given your credit card or anything to secure the rental car? If they have no way of taking payment from you just don't give the rental back and make sure you put it in writing to the insurance company that you won't be giving it back until you receive full settlement

tiny_d

bazz26 wrote: »

Tell them you wish to speak to a supervisor if the call centre person cannot answer your questions. If you get nowhere then you need to be calm but firm and explain that you will be forced to get a solicitor involved as you need a car until the claim is settled, you are not responsible for the accident or the delay in processing the claim and that you will be forced to add their legal fees to the cost of the claim. Explain that all you want is them to extend the hire car until the matter is settled.

Some insurance companies can be a right pain to deal with a claim but normally they become more co-operative with the mention of a solicitor.

Thanks for the advice - this is pretty much exactly what I've been doing but this crowd are so useless that even this hasn't really shaken them as much as I'd like - thanks again.

visual

Once they give a cheque then the car hire ends nothing stopping you looking for a car now.
Yes it might take you a day, a month, a year to buy new car but that is totally down to you.

I think you would be within your rights to have hire car until they settle but no longer.

tiny_d

visual wrote: »

Once they give a cheque then the car hire ends nothing stopping you looking for a car now.
Yes it might take you a day, a month, a year to buy new car but that is totally down to you.

I think you would be within your rights to have hire car until they settle but no longer.

Thanks for the reply - I take your point - I am looking for a car now. But until the money is in my hands I'm not going to be in a position to buy a car so I'd have thought that the hire should run until then.

MissyFit

A few years back in ye same situation as yourself where the other driver was at fault , I was given a hire car and told i could have it for 2 weeks . Now as I was over 8 months pregnant at the time and hasn't received the cheque from them to buy a replacement car , I rang them and told them that I had hospital appointments that I needed a car for and requested to keep the hire car until the sent out the cheque . That hurried them up a bit and I had the cheque about 2/3 weeks later . When the cheque arrived I rang them up and told them I no longer needed the hire car an they could arrange to have it picked up . My partner was working at the time and there's me 8 months pregnant with my first/only child 7/8 miles from town . And I certainly wasn't going to be in that situation without a car , in case of an emergency . They understood an were very lenient regarding their hire car period . I was told 2 weeks but was given almost 5 . And it was a sweet 08 Opel Corsa , almost brand new at the time . Wish I could have kept it instead of the 02 fiesta I ended up buying

tiny_d

Thanks @MissyFit - that's pretty much the same situation as me (apart from the pregnancy!). I'm hoping that they'll see that extending the car hire is reasonable in this case. I'd much rather be driving my own car around the place.....