Legal Advice needed re: Hire car solicitors letter

[BHML]

Back in December 2012 I was rear ended and my insurance company provided a Hire Car from Enterprise while my car was being fixed. My insurers held the other party liable and I did not have to pay any excess on my policy, for the rental car, or the repairs to my car.

Fast forward to today, when I received a solicitor's letter acting on behalf of enterprise, saying that they have been unable to recover the rental costs from the third party's insurance company and since it was my signature on the rental form, the court case will be in my name, and I will be obliged to co-operate with enterprise's solicitors during the case.

The problem is that beyond the incident date, I really have very little recollection of exactly when I received the rental car, and for how long. I did not keep any of the paperwork that they gave to me at that time either, as this goes back 3 years. I thought the matter was fully settled so I changed insurers and moved on.

I have not acknowledged the solicitor's letter. Obviously I'd rather not get involved - is that an option, or do I need to acknowledge and co-operate with the solicitor's request? Also, my insurance company at that time were Morethan, and I did have legal protection. Would it be better for me to contact Morethan to let them know what's going on? I am no longer with Morethan - are they still responsible for legal aspects of a policy that was in 2012?

I'm really worried so any advice would be gratefully received.

Edited by BHML on Friday 30th January 16:57

Edited by BHML on Friday 30th January 16:59

[BHML]

ralphrj said:

Contact the insurance company you were with at the time and pass the letter to them.

Thanks, I'll send the letter to my old insurance co. Should I ignore any future correspondence from the solicitor or simply refer him to my old insurance co?

[BHML]

Magic919 said:

Are you sure it wasn't an accident management company that supplied the car? Sounds like classic credit hire car from here.

An email from the insurance company says

"You have chosen to have your car repaired by one of our priority repairers. They will contact you within the next 24 hours to book your vehicle in for repairs within the following 7 days, or to arrange collection if your car cannot be driven".

I don't know whether the rental car was arranged directly by the insurance company, or by the priority repairer.

The solicitor's letter says "you used Enterprise Rent-A-Car's non fault accident credit services...etc)

Does this make any difference in terms of me sending the letter to the insurance company?

[BHML]

Sheepshanks said:

As above, pass it on to MoreThan, but if it ends up in court you may have to appear as a witness. You'll have agreed to this when taking delivery of the car.

Thanks, understood. If it does go to court I can obviously confirm what happened in the accident, and that I had a hire car from enterprise for a couple of weeks or thereabouts. But I won't be able to confirm the exact dates of car hire, etc. Will I get into trouble in the court for not remembering all the details?

[BHML]

Magic919 said:

Sounds like you've done the standard credit hire. Means you are liable for the bill if they fail to recover their money from the TP Insurer.

Can't my insurance company at the time help with this? or does liability fall solely on me? It seems unfair that the third party's insurers can just refuse to pay and my insurance co. does nothing to recover the cost.

[BHML]

Magic919 said:

Your Insurer will be interested in recovering their costs. I wonder how they got on. Maybe they got their money back and it's just the hire car charges being disputed. You can ask them. I presume you haven't paid a policy excess.

No I wasn't asked to pay any of my excess.

[BHML]

LoonR1 said:

Op, you need to read what's been written already as quite a few have explained this for you.

The hire car you had was not "free". It was hired by you on a credit basis ie the cost of the hire was deferred, so is considered a loan (hence the "credit" bit). As part of the overall agreement for this hire, you will have signed to say you will help the hire car company to get the other insurer to pay, so that you don't have to.

What's happeend is that the other insurer has taken issue with some part of the hire, which could be length, cost, type of car or a few other reasons. The court case is NOT to do with the accident circumstances or liability, as this issue would be argued out but he two insurance companies and not by the hire car company.

You have to help Enterprise. If you don't then you're in breach of the contract you signed with them amd could end up paying the hire costs out of your own pocket.

If you want more help, then ask, but please ask in a way that's a question rather than the "it's not fair style" that you've resorted to. You enjoyed the higher value hire car, now you have to do your bit to help them get paid.

It'd be interesting to know what car you had on hire, what car and age your own car was amd how long it took to repair it or write it off.

Thanks for that. My car was a 2 year old skoda octavia vrs and I was given a Peugeot 3008 hatchback. My car had bumper repaired but when it came back to me the filler had collapsed and it went back to the body shop for another 7-10 days iirc. I had returned the peugeut within the first week and was given a vauxhall corsa for the remainder of the time.

LoonR1, I'm guessing that you would still recommend me to contact my insurance co as well as reply to Enterprise queries?

[BHML]

LoonR1 said:

Yes, or asked for the insurer / repairer to pay for a like for like car during the rectification repair.

I am pretty sure the Corsa was from the repairer. I only had the Peugeot from ERAC for about a week or so, and handed it back within the agreed period.

[BHML]

Small update - my old insurers asked me to send them the letter for processing & advised me not to enter any discussions with ERAC solicitors at this stage. So I feel a tiny but relieved that at least they are taking an interest in the matter...