Car hire deposit

[patelmas01]

Hi all
I hired a car from a company who then refused to return my security deposit on the grounds that I had breached one of their terms. I had paid the deposit by credit card and I successfully made a claim under section 75 of the CCA against the Credit Card company, who then returned the deposit to me.

I have now received a letter before action from a firm of solicitors representing the car hire co. and they are demanding I pay them £xxx for breach of contract. They claim I have mislead the credit card company and have included proof of me having breached their terms (essentially speeding-they claim their tracker system shows I drove the car over the road speed limits and that a term in their contract allowed them to retain the deposit.)

Can anyone give me some advice as I strongly contest these scumbags trying to use these tactics to extract money from me. I have no way of veryfying their allegations of speeding. They could have made all this up. Can I revert this back to the Credit Card company and their lawyers and does UCTA come into play.

They're giving me 21 days before issuing a claim.

All help and advice is highly appreciated.

Thanks

pat.

[des8]

Re: Car hire deposit

If you are to obtain any meaningful advice I think you will need to post up:
1) copy of hire agreement
2) copy of your section 75 claim
3) copy of solicitor's letter and their "proof"

Redact all documents so identity is protected. This will include removing file references, account numbers etc.

If you can do that we'll have something to look at

[patelmas01]

Re: Car hire deposit

Many thanks for looking will do so tonight.

[patelmas01]

Re: Car hire deposit

Please see the correspondence to date.
Regards

[patelmas01]

Re: Car hire deposit

Letter from Car Hire Firm Solicitor.

I await your kind reply.

Regards

Pat

[des8]

Re: Car hire deposit

Hi
After a very quick look at your postings I should think you have very little to worry about from these people.
The solicitor is talking about "Breach of contract".
IF they intend to pursue you on that basis all they can claim are the losses they sustained because you breached the contract.
The bit about additional rental charge seems to apply only to allowing another person drive, and possibly isn't enforceable anyway.
It seems your card issuer agrees.

Others will probably be along to give their advice. Read it carefully as I'm no expert.

PS could you post up when you intend to be on the road next, :car:so I can stay clear

[des8]

Re: Car hire deposit

Regarding your next step:
I would ignore until and IF I received a letter headed "letter before claim".
You could write and dispute it, but you will probably find yourself playing letter tennis with them, and they sending ever more threatening letters.

[patelmas01]

Re: Car hire deposit

Thanks Scottie,

I certainly wont be driving their cars...so no need to worry

The shameful thing was that they knew this was a treat for my wedding, so I think they thought they could CASH in.

I did hear they managed to retain quite a few deposits of other less fortunate souls but thankfully for me my hero 'Section 75' came to the rescue, along with a bit of complaining to the Bank to actually get them to refund my money back.

Many thanks, and I think I'll ignore any letters until they do send a proper letter before action.

Any more advice would be gratefully received.

Pat

[ictguy]

Re: Car hire deposit

I know I am a newbie on this site, but I will state the obvious - the GPS tracker in their vehicle is not a home office approved device for the monitoring of speed. They wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court! You could have a fun game of letter tennis, asking them for government approved calibration certificates.

[patelmas01]

Re: Car hire deposit

That sounds very VERY tempting ��.

[Lucifa42]

Re: Car hire deposit

Does it have to be home office approved though if it's not related to a criminal prosecution of a motoring offence?

[des8]

Re: Car hire deposit

I wouldn't waste my time or money.

[patelmas01]

Re: Car hire deposit

Please can you read the following letter from Natwest. Its very distressing and the 'alleged evidence' is the same as that sent to me by the car hire scums.

Please can you advise me on the next course of action.

[des8]

Re: Car hire deposit

Can you post up a (redacted) copy of your copy of the hire contract.
The copy in their solicitor's letter as in your first post is, because of poor punctuation, meaningless.
Good to see the original.

[des8]

Re: Car hire deposit

Have looked back through postings and found copy of contract, which does say if the vehicle is driven in an unlawful manner the hirer accepts full responsibility for the total loss of the hirers security deposit.

Whether or not there is a loophole in that wording which you can exploit to recover your deposit, I regret I am not qualified to pronounce upon.

Hopefully others will be along soon to advise.