Car hire costs during an accident

Hi all,

my car was recently involved in a ramraid while I was in the UK. I left it near a friend's house and it was stolen from there.

It is now waiting to be repaired but my insurers, Direct Line, say that they won't finance a hired car because I don't have a Schutzbrief. I am an ADAC member but my membership doesn't cover it either.

I did, however, see this on the ADAC site:


Does anyone know more about this? I understand it to mean that employers are liable for car hire costs if an employee needs a car and has to travel more than 25km?

Many thanks for your help.
Aidan

Your translation is wrong. your employer isn't required to pay for anything. it only means that your insurance (I assume your ADAC or car insurance) would pay for a rental car if you need it to go to work and it (your place of employment) is more than 25 km away. otherwise you need to take the public transportation. but if you've excluded rental cars when your car is being repaired, from your contracts, then you either pay for the rental car yourself or take the bus/tram/train or a taxi until your car is repaired.

12.5km away as the daily stretch is 25km
[/pedant mode off]
But if your daily commute (combined to work and back) is more than 25km you should be able to claim the costs off the opponent's insurance. However, if your commute is more than 25km and you use public transport daily, i.e. if you have a monthly ticket or similar, the insurance can say that you are not dependent on the car and refuse to cover the costs.

The problem when your car has been stolen is that the person who stole it is unlikely to have any insurance of their own so you can't simply claim all costs from their insurance.

Your insurance would normally only cover others driving the car with your permission, and the car itself in any circumstance if you have Vollkasko.

Maybe the best way forward is to talk to the ADAC again and ask what should happen when you need to make a claim on you own insurance for an accident that wasn't your responsibility. (If your ADAC cover includes Rechtsschutz, ask for a list of lawyers you can use this for, just in case the claim turns out to be more complicated than it looks at the moment. )

You are only entitled to a rental car or consequential loss expenses when you are claiming against a third party, in this case, were it in Germany, this would be against someone else's Haftpflichtversicherung assuming the accident was their fault. As I presume here you have no-one to blame then you are claiming on your own Vollkaskoversicherung for which a claim for consequential loss would then depend on the policy wording. Better insurance companies might include this, but there is no requirement that they must. DirectLine is cheap (and Scottish), so you are probably getting what you pay for. Had you taken the additional "Schutzbrief" either from DirectLine or ADAC then they would probably pay for a rental vehicle as a result of the loss of use of your own while abroad. Your claim for consequential loss would be against the driver of the vehicle who caused the accident were he known, caught, or in a position to pay. Alternatively you may have a case for uninsured loss which you could refer to the UK Motor Insurer's Bureau

Hi all

Thanks very much for your replies. I realise now there was some sloppy syntax in my original post.

I had left the car in Basel, Switzerland and flown to the UK, only to return yesterday to find out what had happened.

From what I can see the same thing applies though. The Schutzbrief would have given me extra advantages such as a hire car.

I also understand that the employer is not liable - I thought there might be something about them having to ensure that you get to work in such situations.

I guess this all has to be put down to experience and it's better not to go for the cheaper option all the time.

Aidan

While on this topic, has anybody ever heard of AXA insurance? any feedbacks or opinions?

thanks

yes, never used them but they are a large reputable company. Their UK subsidiary is called Equity & Law, iirc.

I had to claim on my Direct Line policy last year for damage that appeared while my car was parked. I was pleasantly surprised when I got my renewal details and found my premium hasn't gone up as I have a 'nix passiert' tarrif which allows one claim without going back on the Shadensfreiheitklasse.

They are very slow to answer the phone but apart from that I have no complaints.