Reporting Minor Collision to Rental Company

[driverinca]

Hi there - any advice on this potentially tricky situation would be appreciated.

Driving a rental car in CA, I ended up causing a minor collision, hitting the back of another car. Both fenders were a bit scratched up and there were a couple of side panel dents due to the angle. We didn't get the police involved, but agreed it was probably my fault.

After we exchanged contact and insurance details - where I gave him the rental company's insurance details from a paper in the glove compartment - I figured it would be better to just pay out of pocket so as not to (potentially?) get a hit on my own premiums down the line. The other driver seemed fine with that, and we parted ways with the intention that he would get a couple of quotes from body shops and get in touch about a cash payment.

The following day, I return the car to the rental company - they noted the damage to the bumper but didn't make a fuss about it - said that the CDW should cover it either way. I feigned ignorance, as it seemed an easy way out. In that regard, I also never filed an accident report with the rental car company. I was foolish and hoped it would all just go away - as it seemed to be.

Day after that, things didn't go as planned. I get a call from the other driver who has in the meantime got a couple of quotes for his repairs. Of course they are much higher than what seemed reasonable, but we already agreed upfront, and I confirm I'm happy to pay. Over the course of a couple of conversations about how to transfer him the money he somehow gets cold feet, and decides he actually wants to go the insurance route instead. Says he will file a claim.

So now I'm stuck, potentially waiting for a confused/angry call from the rental company wondering why someone (who has my details) is all of a sudden making an insurance claim on the car I rented, even though an accident was never reported anywhere.

Just how screwed am I? I know it's not a trivial situation and maybe the answer is "call a lawyer", but any advice would be helpful! In particular, is there any "damage mitigation" I could do proactively, e.g. would it be better to call the car rental company and tell them what happened before the claim lands with them?

I was hoping to keep this simple, but I may have just made it a whole lot more complicated... Thanks for any help!

 

[xrac]

If you paid for the collision damage wavier what is the big deal? If not do you have any insurance coverage on the credit card you paid for this with? If not does you personal insurance cover this. Once you figure out where you have coverage you just need to report the whole story as you told it.

 

[djs]

If the rental company covers it, then its not an issue. This is why you bought their insurance.

But, you may have only bought the coverage for their car, not necessarily for the other car. If not, then it would go against your own car policy.

This should be a case where the insurance company will do its job and take care of things for you.

And yes, repairs are always higher than people think they will be.

Dan

 

[ReliableInsurance]

DJS hit the nail on the head. That's exactly how it will play out. Too bad, the guy didn't follow through on your gentleman's agreement. Lesson I learned a long time ago. There are NO gentleman's agreements.

 

[driverinca]

Thanks for the helpful responses!

I didn't get supplementary liability insurance through the rental, so my understanding is that since this is CA I likely have $0 third party liability coverage there. My own insurance is part of my parents' policy - I may be able to claim against that subsequently, but since I didn't have the relevant paperwork with me at the time, the claim will initially go to the rental company's policy.

I guess my real fear is that since the collision was not reported to the rental company, they can just go ahead and claim "breach of contract". That at the very least likely invalidates the CDW coverage, and may have additional undesirable side effects that I'm less familiar with.

Thanks again for your advice!

 

[djs]

You are fine as long as you are listed on your parents policy.
In the future, don't try to 'game' the system though. The system does have a way of correcting this type of stuff and it does frequently have a bigger bite.

In this case, if you told the correct story up front, the results would have worked out in the best possible scenario for you. I'm not sure what you were trying to avoid, but the playing 'stupid' at the rental car company wasn't needed at all.

Thats why you purchased the CDW.

 

[driverinca]

Thanks! In retrospect trying to game the system was clearly, as you said, a bad idea - though unfortunately it's now happened and I'm learning my lesson. It was my first time in this sort of situation and I guess I was hoping to brush it off with minimum fanfare.

Since I now want to make the most of this educational experience and there is a lot of great expertise on this forum, I'm going to throw in two additional complications:

1) For the sake of argument, what happens to the liability claim if I'm not actually listed on my parents' policy? I know they were considering taking me off it as I rarely spend time at home these days but not sure where it got to. Trying to get that cleared up with them now. I'm guessing if it comes out I'm not covered I end up paying out of pocket anyway.

2) I didn't actually think I'd purchased CDW, but the agent to whom I returned the car indicated it was included in the rate. At the time I figured it must be because of my status with the rental company (used to use them a lot for work) and didn't think twice about it. Now I'm not so sure...maybe the agent was mistaken and the charge will come back to me anyway.

Fun times... Thanks again for all your help!

 

[djs]

A lot of corporate agreements include CDW, so if you were covered under one, that is where it came from.

If you are not listed on your parents policy as a driver, then you will have no coverage there.

Dan

 

[CKSINSURANCE]

The rental company must carry state minimum liability coverage for the renter. and this coverage is the primary. Renter can purchase supplemental liability or use their own insurance as excess layer. In your case, this is just a fender bumper situation, the rental company should take care of it for you. They should not subrogate against you because you are the insured under their policy.

 

[RFMaurone]

Call and tell the whole truth, apologize for not disclosing it in the first place. Pay out of pocket.