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#Post#: 101036--------------------------------------------------
Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under my po
ssession
By: robbieuk Date: December 4, 2025, 12:58 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Hi All,
Hopefully someone will be able to offer some advice of the best
course of action to do in my situation.
Left my car in garage on Saturday. Unfortunately, we really
needed a car, so decided to rent one. As Enterprise was closing
for the weekend, I have turned to a local car rental company
which I have used in the past when rented their vans on few
occasions. As I had no issues in the past, I did not expect to
have any this time either. How wrong I was…
My missus and I went to their office, gave all the required
paperwork, paid money for the rent and additional driver, also
left a £250 deposit. They also said there is a £1,000 excess
should I get involved in an accident.
At no time was I offered any additional insurance to minimise
the excess.
Once the payment was completed, car rental employee went outside
with us to do the vehicle inspection. We walked around the car,
made notes of scraped alloys and scraped mirror covers but there
was no other visible damage to the car. Signed the paperwork and
off we went.
As I was doing a day shift on Wednesday, my missus went to drop
the car and then to pick up our car from the garage. On arrival
to rental place she went to the office and same rental employee
came out to check the car. Within a minute alarm bells started
ringing as this time he started crawling around the car on his
knees checking the damage underneath the car. Started from the
back of the car , went round and within a minute or two, as if
magic, he shouted out – oh, this wasn’t here before!” Missus was
perplexed as there was no damage seen from the standing position
and she asked what is he talking about. Turns out there is some
sort of damage to the underneath of the front bumper. Not only
that! He then claimed that it is clear and obvious that the
whole bumper is dislodged from it’s position.
The employee then went back to the office and said to missus
that we owe them £1,000 excess. Missus phoned me in tears
explaining me what has happened. I phoned the office and
recognised by voice the same guy that gave me a car. He would
not agree that he has done a different check than the one when
we picked up a car. He claimed he was checking underneath the
car first time as how otherwise he would have spotted the damage
to alloys.
Eventually he passed a phone to his manager who was not budging
at all. I told her in no certain terms that we are not going to
be scammed and I will seek solicitors help, will tell the story
on their social media too and will not pay the £1,000 excess as
we do not agree with a damage and finished the phone call.
I then phoned my missus who started telling me that they keep
giving her some forms to sign but she does not know what she is
countersigning. She put me on loudspeaker and I could her the
manager telling her this is the paperwork to acknowledge that
car is being returned to the office as without signed paperwork
they cannot update the system that car has been returned.
I asked my missus to write ‘’Do not agree with any damage’’
before leaving a signature which she did. My missus later told
me that as she did that, manager furiously grabbed papers from
her hands, so missus could not finish writing on the second
form, ripped the copy for her and shouted that we have your
husbands account details, and you will pay for this.
When I got back home I looked at the form which was a vehicle
return form. But what they didn’t tell my missus that in the
middle of the form they wrote that customer acknowledges and
accepts the damage done to the front bumper. (exact wording to
be updated when I get back home tonight, writing this at work).
I will also show pictures of the damage that they found.
It really bugs me that I have put my faith in them from my
previous times and they are trying to play us like that.
Thinking to the past I am 100% sure they have not offered any
additional premium insurance to cover excess if anything would
happen. Everything is so fishy about this as I know we haven't
done any damage to the car, we were so, so careful with it.
I am bit lost at this moment. They have my bank details but
there is no £1,000 in there so they can’t take money from there.
However I want to deal with this matter that I would have no
issues in the longer run. I was thinking to raise an issue with
the police and then request a copy of CCTV footage which would
clearly show how differently vehicle was checked on both
occasions. Is there anything else that I could currently do? Any
advice would be greatly appreciated.
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#Post#: 101037--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: Southpaw82 Date: December 4, 2025, 1:25 pm
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And what exactly do you expect the police to do?
#Post#: 101047--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: mickR Date: December 4, 2025, 2:54 pm
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extortion?
#Post#: 101061--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: Southpaw82 Date: December 4, 2025, 5:05 pm
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[quote author=mickR link=topic=9032.msg101047#msg101047
date=1764881647]
extortion?
[/quote]
I mean, it’s a word…
#Post#: 101064--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: robbieuk Date: December 5, 2025, 1:47 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Southpaw82 link=topic=9032.msg101037#msg101037
date=1764876307]
And what exactly do you expect the police to do?
[/quote]
I suspect they rental company will be reluctant to issue a CCTV
footage, however with a police report they would be more
inclined to do that?
#Post#: 101067--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: Southpaw82 Date: December 5, 2025, 2:51 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=robbieuk link=topic=9032.msg101064#msg101064
date=1764920878]
[quote author=Southpaw82 link=topic=9032.msg101037#msg101037
date=1764876307]
And what exactly do you expect the police to do?
[/quote]
I suspect they rental company will be reluctant to issue a CCTV
footage, however with a police report they would be more
inclined to do that?
[/quote]
If the police think a crime has been committed and if they
investigate then they might ask for CCTV footage. The company
might comply. Or it might have been deleted. Who knows.
#Post#: 101077--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: DWMB2 Date: December 5, 2025, 3:59 am
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Did you take any photos of the car (and those areas) before your
hire period?
The photos you have shown us seem to contain damage that
wouldn't require "crawling around the car" on your knees to
spot, so if you took photos beforehand if you're lucky this
damage might be visible in some of them...
#Post#: 101083--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: robbieuk Date: December 5, 2025, 4:26 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=DWMB2 link=topic=9032.msg101077#msg101077
date=1764928759]
Did you take any photos of the car (and those areas) before your
hire period?
The photos you have shown us seem to contain damage that
wouldn't require "crawling around the car" on your knees to
spot, so if you took photos beforehand if you're lucky this
damage might be visible in some of them...
[/quote]
I didn't take any photos at all prior to renting. In the past,
whenever renting in europe, I always did. Have no idea how I
failed to do this time.... Was it element of trust having rented
from them in the past and not expecting this practise to happen
in UK, not sure.
I know the photos are not the best and hard to say. But the
damage was impossible to see from standing up level. Missus had
to squat down to take the picture of the bumper as it is bottom
of the bumper. The bumper itself is angled and the bottom of it
even more angled towards underneath the car.
#Post#: 101095--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: robbieuk Date: December 5, 2025, 5:18 am
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I took this image of the car when I needed registration number
to pay for Dartford Crossing. There is no way you would be able
to see the damage unless you had to squat and check form
underneath.
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#Post#: 101388--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car rental company claims vehicle was damaged whilst under m
y possession
By: mickR Date: December 7, 2025, 3:58 pm
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can the hire company show evidence there wasn't any previous
damage to that area?
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