Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

[orion113]

Hi,

I have a problem with a car rental company, that unfortunately is abroad, which complicates things. Hopefully someone may be able to help me!!

In July we rented a 4x4 vehicle in Namibia. Halfway through our trip we heard a loud noise coming from the engine. We immediately stopped the vehicle and phoned the car hire company. They told us to keep driving to the nearest city, which we did. However the car didn't make it that far as it broke down completely. Now apparently, having continued to drive the car made things worse. Now the company is charging us for the repairs as they consider that driving the vehicle although we could clearly hear the noise in the engine was "negligent", although they were the ones who told us to drive to the nearest city. Is this legal? How may we prove that our attitude was anything but negligent?

Thank for your help!

[CleverClogs]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

In July we rented a 4x4 vehicle in Namibia. Halfway through our trip we heard a loud noise coming from the engine. We immediately stopped the vehicle and phoned the car hire company. They told us to keep driving to the nearest city, which we did. However the car didn't make it that far as it broke down completely. Now apparently, having continued to drive the car made things worse. Now the company is charging us for the repairs as they consider that driving the vehicle although we could clearly hear the noise in the engine was "negligent", although they were the ones who told us to drive to the nearest city. Is this legal? How may we prove that our attitude was anything but negligent?

How did you call the hire company if you were in the middle of nowhere?

How the hell does the hire company expect you to have got their jalopy fixed in the middle of the veldt?

[stevokenevo]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

How did you call the hire company if you were in the middle of nowhere?

How the hell does the hire company expect you to have got their jalopy fixed in the middle of the veldt?

I think the OP was looking for answers rather than daft questions :beagle:

[teaboy2]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

I do not see why this is such an issue for you, your based in england, they are based in Namibia, the contract is probably not even legal or enforceable here in the UK. They would have to take you through a UK court now that your back in the UK as any court order in namibia would have no jurisdiction over here in the UK.

These guys are simply pulling a fast one and trying to pass the cost of repair on to yourself, i would honesty cancel any card they have the card details of and if they have bank details i would close that account and set up a new one.

Also their should be insurance on the vehicle that they can claim the cost of repair on.

Can you give any further details as to what happened to the vehicles engine, like what went wrong with it? (I used to work in the motoe trade)

How much they are asking from you?

And can you confirm your back in the UK and if you still have a copy of the agreement can you paste it up here minus your personal details?

[CleverClogs]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

I think the OP was looking for answers rather than daft questions :beagle:

You may choose to consider my questions to be "daft", but I consider them to be pertinent.

If the OP had telephoned the hire company from a town or other settlement rather than using a satellite phone, there might have been some garage nearby that could have made an emergency repair and hence the hire company would itself have been negligent.

[stevokenevo]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

i believe 'how' they phoned is irrelevant. The fact they phoned, and were advised to continue i would suggest absolves the OP of responsibility for damage.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

i believe 'how' they phoned is irrelevant. The fact they phoned, and were advised to continue i would suggest absolves the OP of responsibility for damage.

True - and then there's the question of whether anything a kaffir court might decide could be enforced over here. :tinysmile_grin_t:

[teaboy2]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

True - and then there's the question of whether anything a kaffir court might decide could be enforced over here. :tinysmile_grin_t:

Very unlikely that it would be enforced over here. Put it this way even if it was a criminal conviction from Namibias courts they would not extradite you to Namibia (UK has no such treaty for extradition with Namibia) and as far as i know civil proceedings (wehich this claim falls under) must be issued in the court local to the defendant, that being UK Court - so UK law would most likely apply rather than Namibia law, so chances are the Contract is full of pot holes and any such claim based on such contract would likely fail. Though without seeing the contract ourselves we can only assume that it would fail. Plus i serious doubt that the car higher firm would have the cash flow to even finance such a claim via the UK Courts. So any claim they make in the Namibia courts would be worthless to them, just do not ever go back their incase you get arrested for breaching a Namibia court order lol.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

Plus i serious doubt that the car higher firm would have the cash flow to even finance such a claim via the UK Courts. So any claim they make in the Namibia courts would be worthless to them, just do not ever go back their incase you get arrested for breaching a Namibia court order lol.

Or, worse, get "necklaced".

[stevokenevo]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

Hi,

Now the company is charging us for the repairs as they consider that driving the vehicle although we could clearly hear the noise in the engine was "negligent", although they were the ones who told us to drive to the nearest city. Is this legal? How may we prove that our attitude was anything but negligent?

Thank for your help!

what you have not told us is how they are 'Charging' you for the repairs/damage?

Have they charged your credit card, have they sent you a bill?

[orion113]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

Hi all, thanks for your answers!

First of all, I found out about this when I saw on my bank account that they charged my card without any notice, or bill, a month and a half after we left the country....I'm not even sure this is legal, as they released the excess, bank authorization etc. when we returned the replacement car. They never told us that perhaps the repairs would be charged. When I asked on what policy they based their right to take money from my bank account, they said they were allowed if it was clear that we had shown negligence...this is only clear to them of course!

Secondly this is an issue for me as the company is South African based, with a branch in Namibia, and as a South African citizen, I do regularly go back to the country.

I have contacted my bank and have contested the charge as fraud, which means I should be reimbursed by insurance, but this won't have an impact on the company whatsoever, which is probably what they were counting on.

So what now? Should I leave it at that or continue harassing them until they accept that they are responsible (not likely)?

[teaboy2]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

Now you have reported it to the bank as fraud, then the bank will take it up with the company involved. One thing is for sure, they can not charge your card willy nilly without your prior authorisation which means AGREED dates where they can take payment. Without having an agreed date for taking payment, it is fraud or in simplier terms theft.

i assume you have got your money refunded to your card?

Remember the onus of proof is on them to Prove you were negligent.

Plus regardless as to them being based in South Africa, the fact of the matter is it happened in Namibia not in south africa. And south Africa hasn't signed though they have negotiated an extradition treaty with Namibia, so until its signed you would not be extradited to namibia, plus its a civil case so you can not be extradited anyway. So if they did what to pursue, which is highly unlikely now they would have to pursue you through the South African courts, if your in south africa, or uk courts if your residing in the UK.

[orion113]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

I actually cancelled the credit card to be sure they wouldn't make any other charges, because I presume that they took an imprint of the card which allowed them to charge it directly without authorization. I haven't yet been refunded as I only made the claim 2 days ago, but should be. Theoretically the insurance company should take it up with the car hire company...but for about £200 I'm not sure they will.

It's pretty much over on my side as I will be getting the money back, I'm just angry that the company will also get away with it, and most probably repeat the process with other costumers, who won't always have insurance. This is obviously what they were planning on, and I'm not sure how I could stop them.

[orion113]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

Concerning the fact that it is on them to prove we were negligent :

- They claim to have kept all the old engine parts which can be viewed with their engineers...this will prove that running the car whilst a loud noise was coming from the engine caused further damage to the car, leading to more repairs. This we agree on.

Our defense is that is was their employee who told us to continue to drive despite the noise. I highly doubt the call was recorded (but who knows...). If the call was not recorded and they claim that the call never happened, it will be our word against theirs...In this case will they have to prove that the call never happened, and we decided on our own that we would drive further? Or will we somehow have to prove that the call did happen.

[orion113]

Re: Please help with rental car repairs wrongfully charged

"The hirer’s signature on the Rental Agreement and the terms and conditions constitutes an authorisation by the hirer to *** to debit his credit card accordingly. This authorisation extends to payment of all or any amounts payable in terms of this agreement including amounts which may become payable subsequent to termination of this agreement such as, but not limited to, traffic fines."

This was taken form their Term's and Conditions. Does this make their charge legal???