HELP! car rental gone wrong

[Anonymous]

ok so i made a huge mistake on being a nice guy and now im screwed. i rented a car for my son in apparently 12/2015 he was in a minor car accident and there was absolutely no damage as i know for qa fact since i was the one that returned the car back to the rental place and it was inspected on return and no problem. 

he did not tell me that there had been an incident with the car so for 2 years i had no clue untill i got a letter december of 2017 from sedgwick saying i owe $17.000 and it came with a police report from the accident. to make matters worse my son was not set as a driver. 

here is what the letter from sedgwick says

we sent you the original invoice and supports on 12/13/2017 and are still waiting for payment. if we do not receive payment by 2/14/2018, your file will be referred to a collection agency or our attorny for collection efforts or consideration of suit. you can avoid having your file sent to collection by remitting payment.

i never been sued and dont know what tomake of this letter its been 2 years and all of a sudden im getting hit with this. what do i do? i do not want this on my credit. please advice on what to do

[Anonymous]

When you returned the car did you not sign paperwork saying the car was returned in proper form? You need to send a letter asking for validation of the debt to start. That takes away ant scammers trying to get money out of you and show the debt is yours. Beyond that maybe a lawyer to help with all the legal things on this. Maybe others can do better than me in helping you on here. But I’m sure a validation of debt would be a good first step,

[Anonymous]

I work in the insurance field. It sounds like they have a potentially valid claim against you. Many rental companies use Sedgwick as their TPA (3rd part administrator) for claims. I would start with getting a copy of the police report and see what it says. If you say your son knows nothing about it, coompare the TOL (time of loss) and DOL (date of loss) and time of accident with the possible whereabouts of were your son was at that time. Find out what the FOL (facts of loss) are from the other insurance company (Sedgwick). Also ask them what their basis of their liabilty decision is and what evidence they used to come to this conclusion. One other thing to think about, your rental company aslo does an inspection after the vehicle is returned. See if you can consult with them about this. These are my suggestions to start with as a professional auto claims insurance adjustor with over 13 years of experience..

[Anonymous]

My son did tell me now that there was an accident. Sedgwick also sent me the police report from that accident. Can this go on my credit report?

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can get the police report amended.

Sorry, misread and thought you said your son was not in an accident.

[Anonymous]

Can this somehow fall on my credit report? Also the 17k seems to be for bodily injury.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely they can credit report. Doesn’t mean they will. Some companies don’t report at all to credit bureaus. I don’t think charged off bank accounts report. Some debt buyers don’t report.

[ucdcrew]

Not sure how it might change with you renting the vehicle for your son - but if you or he had auto insurance at the time it may cover bodily injury under the liabilty side.  Its been awhile but its worth a look for 17k.  

[gdtobefree]

"there was absolutely no damage as i know for qa fact since i was the one that returned the car back to the rental place and it was inspected on return and no problem."

Do you have this in writing?
When you return a rental it is noted on the final copy given to you that there is no damage to a vehicle it is signed by the rental agency and you.

Do they have photos of the damage or are they just claiming there was damage?

[Anonymous]

I don’t think they are saying damage to the car it’s more of other car involved got paid somehow with bodily injured claim. If that makes sense