Add me to the list…. Crashed by a rental client

[JamMackey]

Sorry to see this...Curious about the rental/insurance details. Will this be a claim on your personal insurance or will it be from a service like Turo? Seems that there should also be a claim for diminished value.

How did the driver say it happened?

I am taking a loss on diminished value. He says he hydroplaned during a storm we had that weekend.

He wanted to pay out of pocket to avoid an insurance claim. He is a local artist and has the ability to pay the amount needed to cover the repairs. He offered to buy the truck. I didn’t want to do that.
I rent on Turo; but this was a direct rental.
I realize my exposure but I want to believe he will honor our agreement. He was willing to sign a payment agreement after the crash. And he has made his first payment.

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[JamMackey]

Is it still drivable? I would still be driving that sucker.

Physically it’s drivable. It’s pulling to the left; and it’s embarrassing to drive. The parts have been ordered and they said to bring the truck to the collision center on Aug 16th. So at the moment it is strictly a back up power wall for my solar panels in case we lose power.

 

[HaulingAss]

I have the rental agreement and time stamped photos of the damage and the responsible party has signed a payment agreement with a timeline and acknowledges that if we have to go to court he becomes responsible for court cost and lost revenue. So far he has ponied up the cash.

I find this baffling. Look at the facts:

1) You rented your vehicle as a business.
2) The renter crashed your vehicle.
3) The renter is insured.
4) The estimated damages are $27K, but neither you or the renter have a good idea what the actual damages are or how long it will take to return to service.
5) The renter wants to bypass reporting the event, and pay out of pocket.
6) You are fine with that.

What am I missing here? What would have been wrong with telling him you preferred to go through insurance? Isn't that why we all pay insurance premiums? Isn't that the entire purpose of insurance?

OK, it's your life, your decisions. Just know that it's a lot easier to learn the easy way from other people's mistakes (rather than having to make all the mistakes yourself). In this case, you are making the learning first-hand. Good luck with that! No one lives long enough to make enough mistakes to become wise, only by observing others mistakes, and applying that knowledge to situations in your life, can one make good decisions.

 

[Friday]

Does this show up on a Carfax-type record in the future in case the truck does go up for sale? Unsure of how this type of payment/repair situation works without the normal channels of insurance coverage.

 

[RandyS]

I am taking a loss on diminished value. He says he hydroplaned during a storm we had that weekend.

He wanted to pay out of pocket to avoid an insurance claim. He is a local artist and has the ability to pay the amount needed to cover the repairs. He offered to buy the truck. I didn’t want to do that.
I rent on Turo; but this was a direct rental.
I realize my exposure but I want to believe he will honor our agreement. He was willing to sign a payment agreement after the crash. And he has made his first payment.

I wish you the best with your situation. On a much smaller scale, I had a person back at low speed into my Tesla Model 3 and damage the front bumper cover, one of the front headlights, and one of the front fog lamps. The $2,700 repair was able to be done at a regular Tesla service center because it just involved replacing parts and no body shop work was needed.

Similar to your case, the person that caused the damage to my car also wanted to keep it out of the insurance system. He was an Uber driver and didn't want the "Black mark" on his driving record. He seemed very sincere and I wanted to give him a break. He was very willing to take responsibility and pay for the repairs. When I got the estimate for $2,700, he still said he would cover it, but I could tell there was less enthusiasm than before. Against my better judgement, I said I would cover the upfront cost of the repair and allow him to make payments.

He did make monthly payments, and was pretty diligent for the first few months. He had paid me back about $1,800 when the payments started to be less frequent and for less money. Finally, at about the 11 month mark, he still owed me $300. I kept after him with texts and he ultimately did pay me for the remaining balance, but I had to hound him and remind him about his promise to repay. It took about a year to get the money back.

I learned my lesson, and wouldn't do this again. His attitude changed from the beginning over time. I should have filed a claim against his insurance...Live and learn, I guess...

I hope it goes well for you in your case and your truck gets repaired in a timely manner and you get prompt payments back on the repair costs...

 

[JamMackey]

I find this baffling. Look at the facts:

1) You rented your vehicle as a business.
2) The renter crashed your vehicle.
3) The renter is insured.
4) The estimated damages are $27K, but neither you or the renter have a good idea what the actual damages are or how long it will take to return to service.
5) The renter wants to bypass reporting the event, and pay out of pocket.
6) You are fine with that.

What am I missing here? What would have been wrong with telling him you preferred to go through insurance? Isn't that why we all pay insurance premiums? Isn't that the entire purpose of insurance?

OK, it's your life, your decisions. Just know that it's a lot easier to learn the easy way from other people's mistakes (rather than having to make all the mistakes yourself). In this case, you are making the learning first-hand. Good luck with that! No one lives long enough to make enough mistakes to become wise, only by observing others mistakes, and applying that knowledge to situations in your life, can one make good decisions.

Thank for the obvious insight. You are a champ

 

[Tedacules]

Is it still drivable? I would still be driving that sucker.

I would also ... ?

 

[elyliu]

I justed rented a CT on Turo as a test drive since I just couldn't wait. The front pillar is a serious issue. Its way to thick. I almost ran over someone at a crosswalk since I could not see out that front right side.

Ya, I had this happen to me a couple times...

 

[elyliu]

His insurance is responsible but to avoid his business manager knowing he crashed it; he has agreed to out of pocket reimbursement. He has already started paying toward the $9000 a month we agreed to. So the plan B is to process his insurance, If he fails to make the payments as scheduled. And a signed payment agreement saying if we end up in court we add court cost and loss revenue. It’s a hard thing to trust someone with this amount of money. But so far he has honored his agreement.
This is all part of the cost of doing business. I rent it for $500 a day or $250 for 6 hours. I love sharing the truck; that’s why I bought it.

I rent directly with a rental agreement that covers the basic expectations. And the renter has to share their full coverage insurance information

I have it posted on Turo. And I have had 3 renters from that platform. But Turo takes 25% and adds fees so the renter is paying double the amount I am getting.
Most of my renters have been Tesla owners or CT reservation holders.

You are lucky this was not a Turo rental. Dealing with their insurance is the worst.

Good to hear the renter is owning up to everything and cooperating.

 

[fritter63]

You know the deleted footage thing really had me thinking. It sure would be nice to have a valet mode that prevents deletion of footage. There is a use case with the rental situation here, but I'd like to have control of preserving footage when I loan the truck out to family or friends, hand the key to a valet, or drop the car off for tires. Is this at all possible? Like a special drive where all footage is copied to a secondary regardless of what Tesla software does to the primary drive? Just curious if this has been solved.

They could simply remove the flash drive. They could even mount it in a computer and manually delete the files, then replace the drive and you would not know (assuming they remember to "empty the trash").

So yeah, you would want a secondary location that can't be so easily accessed/removed. Seems like it should be part of a crash detection system.

 

[FrostyCT]

It was rented out; and this is how I got it back. Driver is accepting responsibility but out of commission for 2-3 months.

Estimate is $28,000 and 7 weeks. It’s been 3 weeks sorting out the estimate

Hope to have it back on the road by mid September

NO one but me driving my CT. doh

 

[CT19TX]

His insurance is responsible but to avoid his business manager knowing he crashed it; he has agreed to out of pocket reimbursement. He has already started paying toward the $9000 a month we agreed to. So the plan B is to process his insurance, If he fails to make the payments as scheduled. And a signed payment agreement saying if we end up in court we add court cost and loss revenue. It’s a hard thing to trust someone with this amount of money. But so far he has honored his agreement.
This is all part of the cost of doing business. I rent it for $500 a day or $250 for 6 hours. I love sharing the truck; that’s why I bought it.

I rent directly with a rental agreement that covers the basic expectations. And the renter has to share their full coverage insurance information

I have it posted on Turo. And I have had 3 renters from that platform. But Turo takes 25% and adds fees so the renter is paying double the amount I am getting.
Most of my renters have been Tesla owners or CT reservation holders.

I'll rent you mine for $499 a day or $249 for 6 hours if you start missing yours.

 

[FuryEV]

They could simply remove the flash drive. They could even mount it in a computer and manually delete the files, then replace the drive and you would not know (assuming they remember to "empty the trash").

So yeah, you would want a secondary location that can't be so easily accessed/removed. Seems like it should be part of a crash detection system.

Pin Lock the glove box

 

[fritter63]

Pin Lock the glove box

Good point. Our M3 is old enough the drive is in the center console.

 

[JamMackey]

Pin Lock the glove box

So simple. Brilliant. Thank you

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