burlington claim

[john bourke]

I, with some friends hired a car from Enterprise last July. We were shown the vehicle prior to taking possession and noted no damage on same,ie. from asuperficial inspection. We did not take out insurance cover for accidental damage. We returned the car a week later in exactly the same condition as we had received it. A member of the Enterprise staff inspected the vehicle and advised me that there was hail damage on the roof, bonnet and trunk. I pointed out that the car had not been driven in a hail storm and that the car was returned in the same condition that it had been received in.
I examined the vehicle and nothing was visible to the eye. It was pointed out to me by the Enterprise Rep. who had clear experience of this, that if I got down on my hunkers and viewed the roof from eye level that I would see the damage. He was right. There were tiny indentations that were possibly caused by hail.
I refused to accept any responsibility for the damage pointing out that it did not occur during our possession, that there was no hail storm in the area where we were staying. We have an ongoing dispute with the Enterprise people and refuse to pay the bill.
I am an Irish Lawyer and have rented vehicles all over the world, but this is the frist time I have come across this type of claim. I am not qualified to comment on Canadian Law, but can say that under Irish Law and I beleive UK law this claim would not be accepted unless Enterprise had warned us in advance of the rental that we could be responsible for this type of damage and required us to inspect the vehicle with a magnifying glass so as to establish that the vehicle had no defects.
As a matter of interest I hired another car during my stay in Canada, but not with Enterprise, once bitten twice shy. I told my tale of woe to the Rep. and he laughed stating that Enterprise were well known for this. I was a visitor to your Country and so I could not be sure if his comments were honestly made.
I can say however that the inspection of the vehicle both before and after the rental was the same as I have experienced in every other part of the world that I have visited.
My friends and I are people of integrity and would not dispute responsibility for damage that was caused to the car while it was in our possession. I cannot believe that Canadian Law will support the Enterprise position. If any reader of this email can offer helpful advise I would appreciate it.
PS Canada is a lovely Country to visit as are the people.
John Bourke

[ExGp2399]

Originally Posted by john bourke

I, with some friends hired a car from Enterprise last July. We were shown the vehicle prior to taking possession and noted no damage on same,ie. from asuperficial inspection. We did not take out insurance cover for accidental damage. We returned the car a week later in exactly the same condition as we had received it. A member of the Enterprise staff inspected the vehicle and advised me that there was hail damage on the roof, bonnet and trunk. I pointed out that the car had not been driven in a hail storm and that the car was returned in the same condition that it had been received in.
I examined the vehicle and nothing was visible to the eye. It was pointed out to me by the Enterprise Rep. who had clear experience of this, that if I got down on my hunkers and viewed the roof from eye level that I would see the damage. He was right. There were tiny indentations that were possibly caused by hail.
I refused to accept any responsibility for the damage pointing out that it did not occur during our possession, that there was no hail storm in the area where we were staying. We have an ongoing dispute with the Enterprise people and refuse to pay the bill.
I am an Irish Lawyer and have rented vehicles all over the world, but this is the frist time I have come across this type of claim. I am not qualified to comment on Canadian Law, but can say that under Irish Law and I beleive UK law this claim would not be accepted unless Enterprise had warned us in advance of the rental that we could be responsible for this type of damage and required us to inspect the vehicle with a magnifying glass so as to establish that the vehicle had no defects.
As a matter of interest I hired another car during my stay in Canada, but not with Enterprise, once bitten twice shy. I told my tale of woe to the Rep. and he laughed stating that Enterprise were well known for this. I was a visitor to your Country and so I could not be sure if his comments were honestly made.
I can say however that the inspection of the vehicle both before and after the rental was the same as I have experienced in every other part of the world that I have visited.
My friends and I are people of integrity and would not dispute responsibility for damage that was caused to the car while it was in our possession. I cannot believe that Canadian Law will support the Enterprise position. If any reader of this email can offer helpful advise I would appreciate it.
PS Canada is a lovely Country to visit as are the people.
John Bourke

I am sure that you have gone through the other damage threads on this site. When you do, you will find that this is actually a common claim. Not many people look at the roof. Why would they? What are the chance that the roof would be damaged?

Hail is generally the #1 cause of the indentations or "pitting" of the roof. I would suggest that you ask the Loss Control representative to review the previous 10 damage reports on the vehicle. I would even go a step further and check the weather reports for the weeks prior to the rental.

On to the legal issues. I'm not sure what kind of lawyer you are (Employment, Criminal, Family...) but I am sure you have several resources at your fingertips, the first of which would be your contract. You can request your contract from the Loss Control department if you don't have a copy of it. On the back of the contract is all of the fine print. This is where they inform you of the legal obligations to pay for any damage on the vehicle that was caused during the time of the rental, whether caused by you or another party.

Being from the US I cannot claim to know all the ins-and-outs of the Canadian Vehicle Repair and Loss Control departments. This is just what I know from the US side of those departments. Your best bet to fight the damage is to back yourself with as much information as possible.

[jaded1234]

Check the weather reports for the area for hail. I had a similiar experience with a local rental. The hail storm in the area was a month or two before my rental. When I asked for the damage reports during that period of time, Enterprise stopped calling me. This was a year ago, so I assume they gave up after seeing logic.

By the way, the inspection went the same way for me.