Car Rental Damage on already damaged car

I recently hired a car which had some damage on the rear bumper left hand side. Unfortunately, I added some more damage on right hand side by reversing into a pillar in a car park. The car rental company want me to pay the total cost of repair (Euro1,000). I feel I should only pay a proportion. Any advice?

Did you not take note of the pre existing damage before you took the car out of the lot?

I know it's a bit late, but always check out the car and get them to sign off on any pre existing damage before you do anything.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie

Yes - I did and have photos of the car on return. They still maintain I need to pay for the full repair.

Tell them to sing for it. Even in the minute terms and conditions they manage to fit onto the back of your hire agreement, I'm sure there's nothing there about having to pay for someone else's damage.

Did you decline the extra insurance?

To play devil's advocate for a minute(!).
You damaged a bumper which will cost a grand to fix .Irrespective of other damage,the cost would be exactly the same because that level of quote sounds like a new bumper.

SBarrett said:

Tell them to sing for it. Even in the minute terms and conditions they manage to fit onto the back of your hire agreement, I'm sure there's nothing there about having to pay for someone else's damage.

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Telling them to go sing for it is really poor advice. They're perfectly entitled to make the OP pay for any damage they caused and loss of income while the car is off the road. Previous case history will show they can and will do this, and others have been stung for more than 1k for similar damage. We don't know the extent of the previous damage, it may just have been cosmetic while now a new bumper may be required.


OP, was the existing damage noted on the rental paperwork? That's the only evidence they'll accept that it was pre-existing. A photo doesn't prove when the damage was done.

Thanks for the advice. I'm pushing back. I did about 40% of the damage and previous user did 60%. Insurance is supposedly covered under a credit card - I'm waiting to see how they behave.

Could you clarify whether the existing damage was noted on the rental agreement?

What credit card are you using? Do you know what the excess is on that policy.

Existing damage was noted.
Credit card is Mastercard with excess of 2k

If you (and you always should) take photos of existing damage, do so at the car rental lot before driving away. Many smart phones now have geo-tagging in their phones so the photographs will stand up as evidence of a pre-existing condition.

It's a dirty trick in the rental trade to try to get an unwitting renter to pay for previous damage and they get away with it a lot.

fearghalk said:

If you (and you always should) take photos of existing damage, do so at the car rental lot before driving away. Many smart phones now have geo-tagging in their phones so the photographs will stand up as evidence of a pre-existing condition.

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Those tags are easily edited, so will not be of any value if you need to go down the legal route. Best always get any existing damage fully documented before you drive away.