Van Hire Insurance Excess

[anonymous-user]

Very briefly, a truck driver damaged a rental van I'd hired. There were witnesses; he was clearly in the wrong and admitted liability (for what it was worth), we phoned his office there and then to explain to his manager what had happened. I filled out an incident form at the hire desk and a day or two later the witness sent their account in supporting my side of events.

The hire co. had a look at the damage and charged me £150 excess.

This happened nearly a year ago. Should I expect that £150 back as they'll be making the claim against the other parties insurers? If I was at fault I would happily accept the charge. I've only just remembered to chase it up with them as I was moving at the time and coincidentally I've found myself hiring another van to move again, which jogged my memory.

Thanks in advance.

[matjk]

I doubt it , I bet the T&C are bring it back damaged then pay the excess. You could call and ask them but they will probably claim to have lost a lot more than £150 they couldn’t get back in uninsured loses , the surprising thing is it only cost you £150 , that’s a good result with rental vehicles

[KungFuPanda]

The excess is an uninsured loss. The hire company would have claimed for their losses without including your excess.

It’s down to you to recover that from the at fault insurer.

[anonymous-user]

matjk said:

I doubt it , I bet the T&C are bring it back damaged then pay the excess. You could call and ask them but they will probably claim to have lost a lot more than £150 they couldn’t get back in uninsured loses , the surprising thing is it only cost you £150 , that’s a good result with rental vehicles

I was expecting them to charge a lot more. The guy checked some sort of chart and arrived at the price based on a broken rear light but the bodywork had taken a gouging too.

KungFuPanda said:

The excess is an uninsured loss. The hire company would have claimed for their losses without including your excess. It’s down to you to recover that from the at fault insurer.

Thank you, I can see how that would work. Right, I've got some phoning around to do.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

KungFuPanda said:

The excess is an uninsured loss. The hire company would have claimed for their losses without including your excess.

It’s down to you to recover that from the at fault insurer.

That could well be right. But also, it might not be. The £150 could be a fixed fee for returning the vehicle with damage, regardless of blame, to cover the hire firm's extra admin in dealing with the matter. Most hire firms run their policies with a far higher excess than £150. If it was £500, I'd say it's far more likely to be an excess, and recoverable.

It all depends on the wording of your hire contract.