Damage Management Policy

What will happen if you cause damage to the vehicle during your rental?

In our experience, our renters drive quite carefully and few accidents happen. So cases of damage to the vehicle are the exception rather than the rule. But it is important to understand how we will manage the damage if it does occur.

Europcar has implemented a clear damage management policy to explain how we will charge you for any damage caused to the vehicle during your rental. For full details please see sections 5 and 12 of our Terms and Conditions of Hire (the ‘T&Cs’).

For customers renting light commercial vehicles, there is additional clarification about our policies here.

You may not be fully liable

Depending on the type of protection you bought for the rental you may not have to pay for the damage or you may only be partially liable. See the Insurance & Protections provisions in section 26 of the T&Cs.

Types of damage

Charges for damage will vary depending on the type of damage:

- "Light Damage": means any minor damage to the Vehicle, or the loss or theft of or damage to the Vehicle's keys, Accessories, or documentation that is listed in our Light Damage Charges Schedule. Examples of Light Damage to the Vehicle include small scratches, chips or dents to any part of the Vehicle (including certain repairs to the windscreen). To view or download the Light Damage Charges Schedule please click here.

- "Tyre Replacement": means any damage to the tyre which requires us to replace the tyre on the Vehicle with a new tyre.

- "Total Loss": means a situation where we evaluate damage caused to the Vehicle to be sufficiently serious that its repair would not be possible, or our Engineer determines it would be uneconomic or impractical to repair, we refer to this as "Total Loss".

- "Serious Damage": means any damage other than Light Damage to the Vehicle or a Tyre Replacement or a Total Loss.

If, when you return the Vehicle to us and we inspect it in your presence and:

- Light Damage is identified then, if you acknowledge and agree the damage by signing the statement of return of the Vehicle, we will provide you with an invoice detailing the applicable charges. Those charges will include a Light Damage Administration Charge; or

- Serious Damage is identified or we believe the Vehicle could potentially be a Total Loss and you sign the statement of return acknowledging and agreeing this level of damage then we will have the damage evaluated and send you the following documents:

- the statement of return of the Vehicle describing all damage identified

- pictures of the damage

- an invoice detailing the applicable charges, which will include either a Serious Damage Administration Charge or a Tyre or Windscreen Damage Administration Charge (whichever shall apply in the the circumstances) and (i) an Engineer’s Charge for assessment of the damage except for the Tyre and Windscreen damage, and (ii) a charge for our Loss of Use of the Vehicle due to its immobilization.

- The price for the Light Damage Administration Charge, the Serious Damage, Tyre or Windscreen Damage Administration Charges and the Engineer’s Charge can all be found in the Tariff Guide.

If you query the damage and decide not to sign the statement of return of the Vehicle then we will apply the procedure described in Section II below and you will then have to follow the process in Section III.

(For example, you leave the Vehicle at the Europcar Branch outside of its opening hours)

If we identify some damage to the Vehicle when we inspect it after you have finished the rental and departed we will send you the following documents:

- Statement of return of the Vehicle describing all damage identified

- Pictures of the damage

- An invoice detailing the applicable charges, which will always include an administration charge (either the Light Damage Administration Charge or the Serious, Tyre or Windscreen Damage Administration Charges for Serious Damage (whichever applies)) and, in case of Serious Damage or Total Loss, it will also include (i) an Engineer’s Charge for the engineer's assessment of the damage (except in the case of Tyre or Windscreen Damage), and (ii) a charge for our Loss of Use of the Vehicle due to its immobilization.

If you wish to query the damage identified or the applicable charges, you should contact us by email or letter within 14 days of the documents being sent to you. At the end of this 14 day period if we have not heard from you then we may invoice you for the applicable charges.

If you wish to query your damage invoice, you can send a claim to our Customer Services department by emailing customerservicesuk@europcar.com or by phoning 0371 384 0235 (which will be charged at the standard landline rate (or similar) but other networks will vary depending on your service provider).

You may also file a claim with the European Car Rental Conciliation Service (ECRCS) (http://www.ecrcs.eu/).