Arrears and Debt Recover Policy

Freedom Rental Limited is a socially responsible hirer, offering hire facilities on vehicles throughout the UK for both personal and business use.

Before you complete a booking, we ask you to make an affordability statement and we will check your credit history using a licence credit reference agency.

This policy outlines our procedure for customers who have missed a rental instalment

BUSINESS FOCUS AND CODE OF CONDUCT

Freedom Rental Limited is a responsible lender and is committed to the following principles to ensure it provides quality service:

  • only offering hirer facilities that it believes that the customer has the ability and intention to repay.
  • staff at all times acting in a courteous and professional manner.
  • operating a fair arrears and debt recovery policy and procedure.
  • giving all hirer applications full and proper consideration.
  • making fair and equitable decision that have due regard to our responsibilities.

GENERAL POLICY

The over-riding policy is to ensure the dignified treatment of customers with arrears or with late payments in order to work with the customer to redress the payment failure or to recover the vehicle with the least amount of cost and disruption.

Freedom Rental Limited will engage a third-party solicitor who will act upon our instruction to handle debt recovery on our behalf should any debt remain outstanding once the vehicle is recovered.

ARREARS and RECOVERY PROCESS

  • Upon first payment failure the hirer is notified by way of telephone call and/or email asking for permission to re-submit the DD payment or to seek an alternative payment method.
  • Upon second payment failure the hirer is notified by way of telephone call and/or email asking for permission to re-submit the DD payment or to seek an alternative payment method.
  • Upon third payment failure the hirer is notified by way of email and also registered postal delivery. This final communication confirms that the vehicle will be repossessed and details any additional charges involved in doing so (subject to location and condition of the vehicle).

Freedom Rental Limited operates a responsible hiring policy should the hirer suggest they are experiencing financial difficulty at any stage in the arrears process then suitable arrangements are discussed with the aim to recover the vehicle at the customers earliest convenience, therefore preventing any further undue debt occurring.

Debt Counselling

In the case of a 12-month hirer agreement, If we are contacted by a registered debt counselling agency on a customer’s behalf

  • We will offer the customer 60 days of forbearance on their hirer agreement.
  • This means we will organise the return of the car but will not chase any arrears payments for a period of 60 days.
  • After this time period has lapsed, we will chase the payment using the process outlined above.

Shorter agreements are not subject to our forbearance policy as the vehicle can be off hired and duly returned, subject to our standard criteria.