Running a fleet of 460 vehicles, we regularly come across credit hire agreements.

The usual situation is where a third party’s vehicle has been off the road for a few days (and sometimes not at all) and an aggressive lawyer is endeavouring to claim a four figure sum for the hire of a vehicle under a credit hire agreement.

I fail to see how the majority of credit hire agreements are ever recoverable through the courts.

They tend to run directly contrary to the legal principle of the claimant needing to mitigate their losses.

In our experience, they are often accompanied by unethical practices such as issuing proceedings just before Christmas or when a defendant is known to be on holiday so that judgement is given in favour of the claimant by default or putting the driver rather than the company as the defendant and making threats regarding their credit rating should payment not be made.

We have actually come across one instance when the first we knew of a problem was when a bailiff turned up at our door with a High Court order.

It turned out that the claimant’s lawyer and our insurer’s lawyer had failed to agree quantum, the issue had got personal and a default judgement in a quick claims court had immediately been followed up by a High Court order for payment.

In my opinion court proceedings are often being used to extort money by deliberately threatening the damage that can be done to an individual’s or a company’s credit rating by one minor court judgement filed against them.

The very easy solution to this would be a requirement for each claimant’s solicitor to provide a personal statement to the court that, having made appropriate enquiries, they are satisfied that the claimant has made reasonable endeavour to mitigate their losses and also detail steps that have been taken to get resolution prior to going to court and why going to court is now the last resort.

John Scott, Group financial director, Carter Thermal Industries

 

 

Got a PPC experience to share?

I read with interest your recent letters regarding private parking companies (PPCs).

I am currently writing a thesis for my LLM in business and commercial law on the legalities of parking on private land.

In particular, I am looking at companies that issue “penalty charge notices” as opposed to immobilising the vehicle, and whether there is any legal basis for them doing so.

If there is (which is doubtful), I am then to examine the measure of damages they seek and whether such damages are reasonable in law.

I would be grateful if any other Fleet News readers could share their experiences with me, especially those who have correspondence from the PPCs detailing what basis in law they feel supports their claims or from anyone who has actually let the dispute go to court. Also, if any PPCs are reading this I would also like to hear their views.

Adam Bonney
Liverpool John Moores University email: a.bonnay@2008.ljmu.ac.uk