Vehicle rental vs insurance question.

[V.Rossi]

Ok, so here goes....

 

I'm in a bit of a panic right now, rented out a van this morning, an hour after collecting was driving up the M1 and a pheasant flew right across in front of me and smashed into the windscreen throwing glass shards all over my partner and daughter. The windscreen is still in one piece but has a great big spider web in the corner and cracks all over the the passenger side...cut a long story short the windscreen is going to need replacing.

 

I am not covered by my own insurance and instead took out their insurance, the excess's on the paper I was given state:

 

Damage excess: £500

Theft/Write off: £1500

 

Am I going to have to pay the £500 for the screen even though the cost of a new screen is around £130.

 

Also, while you're here and still interested, I called their insurance firm to arrange the repair myself and the insurance firm had no record of that vehicle on their database, they did have one with a similar registration but not that one, does that mean I have been driving an uninsured vehicle all day?

 

Many thanks

[HeadingNorth]

The (usual) rule is that you will have to pay the first £500 of any claim; if the claim comes to less than £500 you'll only have to pay what it is.

 

 

As to the latter question, if you have paperwork that says your vehicle is insured, then even if it isn't you can't be held guilty of the crime. The fault would clearly not be yours if someone somewhere has entered the wrong registration number into a database.