Been lurking for a long long time but this is the only time i’ve been driven to post really. So I’ll get the drinks in.
I had an accident back in Feb. A car pulled out about 10 yards infront of me and wrote off the bike. No big deal, I wasn’t much hurt, that’s what insurance is for right?
So I’m third-part with legal cover. Legal cover was great and (eventually) got me the money for the bike.
Carole nash offered a hire bike at the time and said again and again that as long as i was honest and it was non-fault that they’d recover the cost from the third-party. I have a letter with this on it.
Well today I got a letter asking for just under 10k in hire charges. Presumably the third-party is refusing to pay up and they’re now chasing me
It’s not great as I simply don’t have that kind of cash. I don’t think I could raise a loan for that sort of money either.
Anyone else had anything similar. I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do really. I’m going to call them tomorrow but I’m already feeling very despondent about this. I don’t want to loose my home over something like this, which is what it might boil down to
If you were never billed nor told you’d have to pay for the hire bike I fail see how they can pursue this against you.
£10,000! For how long exactly was it hired?
If it was hired on their behalf without you requesting it this is their issue not yours, if you have this in writing also they don’t have anything on you so don’t worry.
If they have settled the claim, the other party taking liability; then they should have pursued these costs against them (which is normal practice). If they haven’t done that for whatever reason then that’s their fault and not yours - its entirely their responsibility.
They offered you a hire bike, free of charge to you, which they supplied rather than you arranging yourself at your own expense so its their responsibility to deal with the costs. You haven’t signed anything as to a hire agreement have you?
It doesn’t matter as its their mistake in supplying the hire bike. If he has a letter stating that he would not be required to foot the costs of hire then that is all he needs, its not his responsibility.
Carole nash got a solicitor on the case who sorted out the third-party paying the full cost of my written off bike.
The letter I have from carole nash says that they would recover the costs from the third-party. They say I’m responsible for keeping them up-to-date with the claim and keeping my costs to a minimum. I’ve done all that.
I had a conversation over the phone with a guy there who said repeatedly that as long as I was honest with them that I wouldn’t be responsible for the hire charges. I even went over it with the solicitor who said he’d not expect Carole Nash to come after me for hire charges.
The claim took best part of 9 months to settle. I had the bike for about 4 or 5 months. It as an '04 bandit 6 which I could buy two of for that money.
Oops! Well that I would not have done if I was offered a hire bike as it wouldn’t be worth the expense.
How has the claim been settled though more to the point?
They should have attempted to recover these costs against the third party - have they?
If they have failed to deal with the claim properly I’d suggest the shortfall is their fault, though personally I’d be very sceptical of taking a hire bike knowing I’d possibly be liable to pay for it.
Did the other side take liability? Has liability been established?
They should have come to a settlement where your costs were met by the third party if he was at fault, so what exactly have they done?
Oops! Well that I would not have done if I was offered a hire bike as it wouldn’t be worth the expense.
How has the claim been settled though more to the point?
They should have attempted to recover these costs against the third party - have they?
If they have failed to deal with the claim properly I’d suggest the shortfall is their fault, though personally I’d be very sceptical of taking a hire bike knowing I’d possibly be liable to pay for it.
Did the other side take liability? Has liability been established?
They should have come to a settlement where your costs were met by the third party if he was at fault, so what exactly have they done?
I always warn anyone on here about this, whether it is your fault or not.
We were hit with a similar predicament a couple of years ago when our van was sliced apart, it was parked and not our fault. We were given a hire van as it was our company vehicle that was off the road, the van was fixed within a few weeks but we were told to keep the hire van. I constantly phoned them to arrange collection but they said the other party still hadn’t settled so we were to keep the hire van. This went on for 10 months! then we were hit with a bill for £23,000!!!
The other persons insurers were disputing it and so were we, we stuck to our guns… we even had a court date and our insurers had arranged a cab to pick us up at 5am to take us up the court in Liverpool the following morning. It wasn’t until 8pm the night before that we eventually got a phone call to say the other parties insurers had settled.
Hire scams on insurance are increasing. Ask Carole Nash how much they get as a cut of the £10k? Don’t be surprised if they are in for a significant proportion and therefore have no interest in quick settlement of claims etc. With cars this has become well known as a way of insurers and hire companies conspiring to pass huge costs onto to their customers.
That really suck!
I’ve had a bad experience with Carol Nash settling a claim for an accident I had 2 years ago. I will never use them anymore and advice everybody against using them. They’ve got good prices and are very friendly when you talk to them, but when you need them most, for a claim, they’re useless.
Obviously that doesn’t help you at this stage. I really hope it gets resolved and you won’t have to pay a thing. Good luck with it!
I feel like I’m over a barrel a bit with this one. I was suspicious of it from the start but the letter and the guy on the phone put my mind at rest a bit that I wouldn’t have to pay.
I guess I have to talk to them tomorrow and find out what the story is. They’ve asked for payment in 7 days but the agreement says over 3 installments. I can’t afford either so it’s sort of a moot point.
If they insist I have to pay I have to sell my house
*edit - sorry to bring it all down a bit in here. It’s an un-fun subject.
“Guy on the phone” would be my first problem, for some reason whenever people make claims over the phone and I reply “Ok, e-mail me that and I’ll sign up” they tend to never materialise…
Only advice would be use what evidence you have and fight it, unless you have a spare 10 grand to give to, basically, corporate con-artists.
I am no legal expert - nor I would suggest are any of the posters who have offered their advice so far (not meaning to be rude to anyone) - given the size of the potential debt - would defo seek some proffessional advice here.
Unfortunately in my line of work, I hear of this type of thing on a too regular basis, and I have known of a few riders who get their claims settled and then out of the blue get lumbered with a massive debt for the loan bike.
2 questions.
Was the fact that you were personally liable for the debt of the loan bike explained to you when you signed the agreement?
Was your insurer/solicitor made aware of the fact that you had a loan bike and that you had signed an agreement making you liable for the debt?
Your solicitor should have claimed the costs back as part of the special damages, however it is not uncommon for the hire company to fail to provide the final costs at the time the schedule of damages is drawn up, or the solicitor/insurer simply claim that they were unaware that such an agreement was in place.
I currently have a client who was given a loan bike the day after his crash even though he made it quite clear that he was unable to ride for the forseeable future. They delivered the bike none the less and so he refused to sign the agreement, they left it behind anyway, and said start riding when you are fit. He got this in writing as he did not want to get hit with hire costs when he could not ride.
2 weeks later and first day back on the bike (loan bike) he was taken out big time and the loan bike was written off. The loan company are now whinging about their losses for the period between the bike being delivered and the date of the accideent. They have been told that the value of the bike will be claimed but as far as the hire costs are concerned they can take a running jump as our client made it quite clear he did not want the machine until he was fit to ride.
They were charging around £150 a day.
The other problem is that there have been stories of many of the courts throwing out hire costs because the charges are unreasonable (applies to both car and bike) and quite often the hire costs have been greater than the quantum and legal fees together.
Sorry, I digressed, back to the point. If you were not told that you were personally liable and you can prove it, or if itn can be shown that your solicitors were negligent in not claiming these costs then you may have a good case, but!!!
Difficult one that - I worry that if they won, it’d cost me a stack more.
I’d have to agree that I’ve been an idiot in not confirming things up-front with them. I thought it’d be a no-brainer for them recovering costs from the third party being as it’s non-fault.
I’m going to phone the solicitor that dealt with the rest of the case tomorrow. Doubtful of the use as I guess they work on behalf of carole nash.
If they specifically stated they would recover costs from the third party you need to know why they haven’t done or tried to do this.
You say you had a payment for your bike? Did this include the cost of personal injury, clothing etc? If so then bike hire should have been included in this as part of the schedule you *signed * with the solicitor?
Or alternatively they have simply made to you a ‘payment without prejudice’ meaning no-one accepts responsibility for anything but they pay out just to settle it more cheaply (if you accept what is usually a reduced amount.)
Has the other driver admitted liability or has it been accepted by his insurers??? Who is held responsible for the accident???
The solicitors on your behalf should have sought the cost of bike hire as part of the settlement, if they have not done this then you need to find out why as they should have done.
You have a legal expenses policy which should pay for the solicitors fees in reclaiming that loss against the other party, you need to press your solicitors to recover it for you. Speak to them and find out what is what.
It sounds to me as if you’ve accepted a partial pay-out with no conclusion of the claim and this is why they are trying to put the costs on to you.
If it is clear they made no attempt to recover the costs of bike hire then you can make it clear to them that they have broken their own obligation which was in the letter they sent to you.
Personally I’d get in touch with the solicitor first and find out what is what, and why he/she hasn’t tried to claim these costs. Also, what has happened with the claim in terms of liability. They should go as far as taking the other side to court to settle your costs, so do not take no for an answer.
How could you not win!?
If, as you say, the guy pulled out from a junction 10 yards in front of you then it is given that it was 100% his fault automatically as he failed to give way and there is no dispute as to whose fault it was.
Your solicitors schedule should have included every cost laid on to you for the accident - your bike, bike hire, clothing, loss of income, personal injury (however ‘small’) etc etc. What exactly did they claim for?
Your solicitor works on behalf of you, you have paid for the legal expenses policy and can tell them what you want.
Please don’t simply phone CN up, you need to protect yourself, so your should only deal with CN in writing (email counts).
But before you consider talking to CN you need to get representation, either get yourself a solicitor or go to your local CAB office.
Take note of what GSXRAng said, as you seem to be in a game of bluff, but your brief will advise you better than I can, but you will need to give them every scrap of communication you’ve had so far.
But preferably let your representative do the talking with CN from now on.
