Rule 1 of renting/hiring/leasing: Make sure you get an accurate condition report, note all damage, all missing items and accessories supplied. Take photo’s where appropriate and do the same when handing back. On short term stuff, it’s all too common for minor damage to be re-attributed to multiple customers by unscrupulous companies who make more on the damage than they do on the rental.
I did a VT on a Leon Sport some years ago, it was sold to me by a non franchise local chain using a 3rd party finance provider. I notified them of my wish to terminate and returned the car as agreed. Months later I get a call out of the blue demanding £600+ for damage/missing items. I offered to provide evidence of the condition as returned, but they refused, so I printed photo’s covering items they had said were damaged/missing and sent them recorded delivery with a letter including a link to the album/HD video and geolocation data showing the time/date/location as the auctioneers car park with all docs present etc. I asked them to issue proceedings, explained i’d apply to transfer them to a local court and then counter claim for my costs. They folded like origami.
Compare that to the hand-back of a 2y/o leased Fabia a few weeks back to a franchise dealer, they didn’t even look at the car and were more interested in the Porsche I was heading back home in.
