Picture Cars Rental Agreement: Fill & Download for Free

In Germany, most rent car companies have a clause in the rental agreement that prohibit taking the car on a race-track, specifically, the Nurburgring.So we broke the rules, and took a C-Class Mercedes to a 3-day track school.There is a photographer in the grid area that takes pictures of the cars, especially the rear end and license plates. All of the car rental agencies subscribe to his database, from as far North at Koln, as far East as Frankfurt, and as far Southwest as Trier.At Hertz, it’s “banned for life”. With Sixt (Avis), it’s an automatic 2K Euros adder. I thought is was not addressed by EuroCar. But I was wrong. I learned a lot about German fine print.When we turned in the EuroCar rental where we got it, at Trier, the “dominatrix” behind the counter said, before I even handed her my papers and the keys: “Ve hof seen you auf de Nurburgring”. I said “Guilty” and leaned over to my driving patner and asked if this was the part where I get spanked, not that I didn’t deserve it.She said “Ve vill take it to de local dealer, and if there are any damages, ve vill assess your credit card for violating de agreement.”I said OK, and sweated it out for the next couple of CitiBank billing periods. No problem - there were no extra charges. But no spanking either! Damn!

Is it smart to purchase the insurance offered by car rental companies?YESWhatever the cost of the car rental is, take that price and double it. That’s pretty much what you can expect to pay with the “rental car “insurance”” offered by the rental company.As someone who has spent 2+ years driving nothing but rental cars in the USA, I will tell you that even though I only ever had 1 accident (where the other rear ended me on an icy road) the cost of the CDW/LDW is worth it.What a lot of people fail to realise (because they don’t actually take the time to read their rental agreement) is that you are not actually buying insurance to cover the cost of the car. You are buying insurance against stress. When you go to a 3rd party, the full balance of whatever charges are incurred are down to YOU, the renter. Not your 3rd party insurance company who you now have to try and claim the money back from.A lot of people will give you a bunch of info about how you can buy the insurance cover cheaper elsewhere, or how you potentially already have it with either your own insurance or as a perk from your bank account / credit card etc… But… When you take out the rental companies CDW/LDW(Collision/Loss Damage Waiver) + ALI(Additional Liability Insurance) etc… all you have to do is hand them back the keys and whatever is left of the vehicle, fill in a few forms, pick up a new car and continue on with your life (assuming you walk away from said accident / event unscathed).I made this exact mistake and it cost me an extra $2,500 in additional fee’s that I was not able to recover from the other parties insurance provider. (Ludicrous to me, but apparently shit like that flies in America and is A.Okay.) The rental company (Avis in my case) did virtually nothing as far as I can tell in order to claim back the money from the other drivers insurance company, until I got them both on the phone and talking to each other (which is no small feat!) Up to that point, they just expected me (the renter) to pay for any and all damages (about $16,000 or so) and fees (~$4000) (as per the rental agreement) and kept chasing me and hounding me for the money (made worse by the fact that they kept sending all the letters to my UK address even though I was staying in the US and had told them so). Just FYI, the whole mess took about a year to sort out and I was still left out of pocket even though I was not at fault for the accident.P.S A piece of advice. Take 10 minutes and photograph EVERYTHING to do with your rental. Take pictures of the car (inside and out), take pictures of the keys, take pictures of EVERY piece of paper involved in any “transaction”. Doing this will save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Don’t worry about how stupid and un-trusting you look.P.P.S And most important. If the car isn’t “up to spec” DON’T DRIVE IT OUT OF THE LOT. Park it back up and tell them you need another one. Rental car companies don’t want to deal with the logistics of fixing anything not in their possession, they just want to give you another car and move on.

Drugs made me fo it. I rented a room in my home to an 18-year-old college student who was living with his mom and grandma. They both gave him the most glowing references, “He’s such a sweet boy.” A few weeks after he moved in, I told him I’d be out late for the evening; instead, I came back home within 45 minutes because I was not feeling well. When I arrived home, there was an unfamiliar car parked in my spot in the driveway. I didn’t have a problem with my renter having guests, it was football season; but I was irked I had to go park on the street in front a few houses down.I walked into my home and my renter had two young buddies with him huddled at the coffee table in my living room. The two buddies, who both looked to be teenagers, were not the problem; however, three lines of powdered drugs drawn out on my coffee table were a big problem. Since I hadn’t driven into the driveway, they hadn’t heard me come in. They all immediately began scrambling around to hide their drugs. I told them all to stop and drop what they had in their hands; so, a baggie of pot was dropped onto the coffee table. I told the two young visitors that I had given their vehicle license plate number to the neighbor and all I had to do was to flick the front porch light and the police would be on their way. I reminded them the police station was only 8 blocks away. I suggested they leave right now. His two buddies ran out the front door and their car peeled out of my driveway.I am so glad a put a provision in my rental agreement about drug use and a 24-hour eviction. I detest drugs plus I worked for the federal government. I called my renter’s mother, put her on loud speaker and explained to her that her son had just broken his lease by bringing drugs into my home. I told her that if she did not remover her son within 24-hours according to our rental agreement, I would have no choice except to call the police and turn him in.His mom didn’t say much except for her initial gasp and then a few mumbles to acknowledge what I was saying. When I stopped talking, she told me she would be there within an hour and told him to start packing his stuff. After we hung up he tried to start removing the drugs from the coffee table. I told him “No, we will deal with that later, go pack.” He gave me an angry look, but I reminded him I could still flick the porch light.His mom arrived within 20 minutes. She was shocked when she saw the drugs on the coffee table. I described his guests and I’m glad I have a good memory because I also gave her the license plate number of the car. After that, she helped him load stuff into her car and into his. While they did this I took a few pictures of my coffee table.I told them both that he was forbidden to ever enter my home again. His mom agreed and asked me if it was okay to flush all the drugs down the toilet. She and I stood there watching him flush all the powder and the bag of pot down the toilet. We discussed that whatever property they couldn’t remove tonight, she would come and get it within 2 days. I reminded her his violation forfeits refund of the remaining rental days and security deposit and she shook her head yes. I then reminded her that if her son were arrested or convicted for drugs, he would lose his college scholarship. She put her hand over her heart for a moment, shook her head in understanding and they both left quickly after that.His mom did come back and pick up the rest of his stuff the next day. The funny kicker to this story is the grandma. She called me up a few days later and cursed me up and down for “throwing out her sweet grandson.” To be honest, to this day; I’m not sure if grandma was that much in the dark about her grandson’s drug use or if she was just pissed off that he had come back home.