Protecting a Defendant from credit hire charges

Contract & Commercial

29 November 2023

Lavinia represented the Defendant in a small-claims road traffic accident. Whilst the circumstances of the accident are unremarkable, an interesting point arose as to the credit hire claim.

The Claimant had signed an agreement with the credit hire company whereby it was agreed that, if she took out a credit hire agreement with them, she would never be personally liable for the charges. It was stated within this document that even if “the charges were not found to be owed by the Defendant the credit hire company will not pursue any claim against the Claimant”. Lavinia made successful arguments regarding enforceability of the credit hire agreement. In particular Lavinia highlighted that this document shows that the Claimant has not and will not suffer any loss. Therefore such charges cannot be enforced against the Defendant.

Whilst the RTA was found to be the Defendant’s fault, the Defendant was not liable to pay any of the credit hire charges.

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