The decision: no compensation

I often wondered about these small back yard car rental firms and how their insurance cover works. This failed so does the decision effect the third party should he/she have an accident?

http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/a ... 10480.html

The decision: no compensation.

“The company has already written an official letter informing Ms Somjit that she is not entitled to compensation… She should get it [the letter] on Monday,” said Mr Pongpan.

“The policy clearly states in its main body that the company is not responsible for losses to a vehicle while it is on rent to a third party. We would advise car rental operators to study the terms of their policies carefully.

“We had already told her, unofficially, that she might not get any compensation,” he said.

“After she gets the official notice, if there is anything she doesn’t understand she can take legal action and we will explain everything to the court,” Mr Pongpan added.

“After she gets the official notice, if there is anything she doesn’t understand she can take legal action and we will explain everything to the court,” Mr Pongpan added.

That sounds like a bit of "abdication" going on there. What's wrong with them, saying that if she doesn't understand anything she should contact us and we will explain everything. (After all we are a caring customer service orientated organisation - not!). Instead he simply says if they don't understand anything they can take us to Court!

Hi,
I've always said check the agreement for rental fully, before you sign. Not just the front page. Let the buyer beware.

Looks like the insurance company has decided they no longer want to take up their time with this customer. Probably a good business decision considering the car was not insured if rented to a third party, as it apparently was.

I like their style. They have explained, “The policy clearly states in its main body that the company is not responsible for losses to a vehicle while it is on rent to a third party." As the policy holder doesn't seem to undertand this, they offer to explain it to a court should she decide to sue them.

JimboPSM wrote:It is not particularly unusual for insurance companies (in all countries) to deny claims and it is also not particularly unusual for some of those denials later to be found to be unreasonable by the courts.

Much will depend on whether (on detailed examination of the insurance policy/contract and how it was sold) the contract terms are deemed to be unfair and/or misleading.

Without knowing all the facts of the case (as opposed to just those that were included by the press) we can only speculate

I seem to remember that all my policies in the UK excluded not only renting the vehicle but excluded anyone from driving not named on the policy .Here at least , anyone can drive. providing they have a license. ha ha , but it still forbids the hire for reward. So try to save by getting the wrong insurance is not a good "policy"

So try to save by getting the wrong insurance is not a good "policy"

Well said Trubrit

Some, is not all, of the auto insurance companies offer named driver policies that are cheaper than the policies for any driver. It is also possible to get policies with deductibles. A 5,000 baht deductible will knock a good bit off the cost of a policy.

A normal insurance cover with rental vehicles is not always enough and customer need to take extra cover. Like in Germany cover is so small that in the case of personal injure driver can be forced to sell his house to pay all the hospital cost etc. They have so called Mallorca-insurance for that kind of cases. To be sure that not paying any cost related to rented car, customer need to have at least CDW (collision damage waiver) or similar super one. For driver and passengers you need PAI (personal accident insurance). There are some other insurances related to theft, personal effects etc.

I have changed from rental company to rent a car and a driver just because they did not offer a possibility to buy CDW (in Samui). Car and driver did cost 1200 thb. Renting vehicle without insurance 1600 thb.

I have been in business and same matter has been related to test driving a vehicle. Normal so called stocking insurance or company insurance covers damage only if someone working for the company drives a car. In all the other cases customer need to take so called short insurance. No cost if nothing happens, if something happens, everything is covered. We had one sad case where driver get a car for a test drive, drove it to bridge center pylon and there were several persons injured, vehicle damaged and of course no insurance at all. Just save some minutes... it takes 2-3 minutes to fill the form needed.

Why to do so and rent vehicle without full cover?

Money! It cost money and rise rental price if company takes an insurance for all days even there are no customer driving the vehicle. That is why they need to offer extra insurance when someone drives the car. Companies should tell to customer that insurance does not cover everything or is almost nothing, but they do not.