Tweet
Advice needed re: dealing with car hire company (based in Sicily) claim against us
Hi - I am really hoping that someone on this forum can offer some advice on mine and my partner's rights on something.
We hired a car through Interrent - a company owned by Europcar - last September - to cut a long story short, we got the impression from the moment we arrived that they were a bit iffy, but we filled out the necessary paperwork, left a card imprint for a deposit of €800, marked up any scratches - everything someone sensible would do. Looked after the car perfectly, for the best part of a week - not a single scratch or dent - the last morning of our holiday, we woke up to discover the car stolen. We were due at the airport in a matter of a couple of hours, and we were in some distress. Some of our belongings were in the boot and had been taken, as well as the paperwork itself. We were stranded and I was distressed.
We then:
- Attempted to report the stolen car to the hire car company - all the tel numbers were wrong, so we couldn't get through. We didn't have time to physically go down there (based on an ind. estate outside of Palermo)
- Attempted to report it to the Sicilian police at a nearby police station. They literally wouldn't deal with us unless we spoke Italian.
- We attempted to report it to the police at Palermo Airport. Again, they wouldn't help us. They also said we needed to report it to the city police, which we had already tried (above).
- We had to catch our flight so we couldn't do anything else at this point. On our return to the UK, we had a missed called from Interrent who basically scoffed at us when we told them the car had been stolen. They said something like 'ahhh you're in trouble now'. This was generally their tone with customers and we had witnessed some rudeness to others when we were picking up the car. I was in floods of tears, and like any normal person, we were in shock that this had happened.
- On our return home, I immediately called a further 2 police stations in Sicily from the UK to report the crime (within the 24 hr period) - one answered and then went completely silent - the other answered and wouldn't help again.
- I rang the British Embassay who were sympathetic (the first people who were through this whole ordeal), but they said they couldn't do anything- just send a list of laywers our way. We even rang Thames Valley Police in case there was a liaison point there -but nothing.
- We then proceeded to fill out the paperwork for Interrent, and they were intently demanding regarding the return of the car keys, which we did post back promptly + tracked. We could not give them a police ref as no police would help us. We had basic insurance which didn't cover theft.
Throughout the whole thing, we just smelt a rat - felt like it was a bit wonky somewhere. They didn't deal with us at all professionally. We even thought perhaps they'd nicked the car - surely they must have had a tracker on there? Surely noone could get into a new Fiat 500 without the right key - and certainly without attracting a lot of attention in such a built up area of Palermo? We cancelled the credit card they had a record of that evening.
We were too late -they had already taken €800.
Nearly finished, so thanks for perservering if you're still reading.
We literally heard nothing for 4 months - until late Jan. We received a letter from Intrim Justita - a collections agency - with their letter coming from a St Albans office. Demanding we pay €2,500 immediately. We did not respond. We were mortified.
Last Friday, we received another letter from the agency - this time stating that they were 'preparing the legal paperwork' against us.
We are now anxious and totally clueless about what to do next or where to go - what are our rights? This wasn't down to a fault of our own, we did our best to report it, we literally made all efforts bar missing our flight back home to try and deal with it - but to no avail. I guess I'm desperately hoping that someone on this forum can offer some guidance on our position.
Do we have any rights?
Is the €800 they immediately 'took' from us - theft? (note: no paperwork / notification / comms received about this)
Can they really charge us that and take us to court?
Surely the car hire people are insured and it's not reasonable to charge us that much, even if it's in the small print of their paperwork?
We have been the victims of crime, already lost €800 and received threatening letters - this seems totally unfair. On top of that, we are two regular hard working people, we work hard, we can't afford to pay this. For example, as well as my FT job, I freelance, and paying my half would wipe out most of my earnings for last year. It's a massive thorn in our sides right now.
I would be so grateful for any insight you can give. I am happy to answer any questions if I've missed anything obvious out in my retelling of the situation. Best wishes to you all.
We hired a car through Interrent - a company owned by Europcar - last September - to cut a long story short, we got the impression from the moment we arrived that they were a bit iffy, but we filled out the necessary paperwork, left a card imprint for a deposit of €800, marked up any scratches - everything someone sensible would do. Looked after the car perfectly, for the best part of a week - not a single scratch or dent - the last morning of our holiday, we woke up to discover the car stolen. We were due at the airport in a matter of a couple of hours, and we were in some distress. Some of our belongings were in the boot and had been taken, as well as the paperwork itself. We were stranded and I was distressed.
We then:
- Attempted to report the stolen car to the hire car company - all the tel numbers were wrong, so we couldn't get through. We didn't have time to physically go down there (based on an ind. estate outside of Palermo)
- Attempted to report it to the Sicilian police at a nearby police station. They literally wouldn't deal with us unless we spoke Italian.
- We attempted to report it to the police at Palermo Airport. Again, they wouldn't help us. They also said we needed to report it to the city police, which we had already tried (above).
- We had to catch our flight so we couldn't do anything else at this point. On our return to the UK, we had a missed called from Interrent who basically scoffed at us when we told them the car had been stolen. They said something like 'ahhh you're in trouble now'. This was generally their tone with customers and we had witnessed some rudeness to others when we were picking up the car. I was in floods of tears, and like any normal person, we were in shock that this had happened.
- On our return home, I immediately called a further 2 police stations in Sicily from the UK to report the crime (within the 24 hr period) - one answered and then went completely silent - the other answered and wouldn't help again.
- I rang the British Embassay who were sympathetic (the first people who were through this whole ordeal), but they said they couldn't do anything- just send a list of laywers our way. We even rang Thames Valley Police in case there was a liaison point there -but nothing.
- We then proceeded to fill out the paperwork for Interrent, and they were intently demanding regarding the return of the car keys, which we did post back promptly + tracked. We could not give them a police ref as no police would help us. We had basic insurance which didn't cover theft.
Throughout the whole thing, we just smelt a rat - felt like it was a bit wonky somewhere. They didn't deal with us at all professionally. We even thought perhaps they'd nicked the car - surely they must have had a tracker on there? Surely noone could get into a new Fiat 500 without the right key - and certainly without attracting a lot of attention in such a built up area of Palermo? We cancelled the credit card they had a record of that evening.
We were too late -they had already taken €800.
Nearly finished, so thanks for perservering if you're still reading.
We literally heard nothing for 4 months - until late Jan. We received a letter from Intrim Justita - a collections agency - with their letter coming from a St Albans office. Demanding we pay €2,500 immediately. We did not respond. We were mortified.
Last Friday, we received another letter from the agency - this time stating that they were 'preparing the legal paperwork' against us.
We are now anxious and totally clueless about what to do next or where to go - what are our rights? This wasn't down to a fault of our own, we did our best to report it, we literally made all efforts bar missing our flight back home to try and deal with it - but to no avail. I guess I'm desperately hoping that someone on this forum can offer some guidance on our position.
Do we have any rights?
Is the €800 they immediately 'took' from us - theft? (note: no paperwork / notification / comms received about this)
Can they really charge us that and take us to court?
Surely the car hire people are insured and it's not reasonable to charge us that much, even if it's in the small print of their paperwork?
We have been the victims of crime, already lost €800 and received threatening letters - this seems totally unfair. On top of that, we are two regular hard working people, we work hard, we can't afford to pay this. For example, as well as my FT job, I freelance, and paying my half would wipe out most of my earnings for last year. It's a massive thorn in our sides right now.
I would be so grateful for any insight you can give. I am happy to answer any questions if I've missed anything obvious out in my retelling of the situation. Best wishes to you all.
