deposit for car

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mrmint
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deposit for car

Post by mrmint »

Hi everyone
Our gite guests have the use of a car , but we need to have some kind of security deposit. I don;t have a card reader to take a pre- authrorisation. I can not find a card reader that i can use in France with uk bank account. paypal says no.
Any ideas how i could obtain a deposit or an alternative deposit?

regards
peter
Ecosse
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Post by Ecosse »

Am I right in assuming you only have a UK bank account and your guests are Brits? If so, could you ask them for a cheque that would be returned to them if there's no damage? I know it's not ideal, but it's something we do with our UK guests who don't want to give us several hundreds of euros in cash for the (gîte's) damage deposit only to be stuck with them at the end of their holiday. It's a bit of a gamble on our part in that we have to wait until we're back in the UK to cash it (not that have ever had to!) and there is always a slim chance it could bounce, but presumably like you, I have all their details on the booking form, so I feel it's pretty low risk.
louloup
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Post by louloup »

Is that legal in France?

I would be very careful until you find out. I know that you can't offer to collect guests from the airport for example, without what looks to me like a lot of paperwork & expense. How does it work for insurance?
mrmint
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Post by mrmint »

Insurance is not a problem, told them exactly what we are doing and they are happy. Nearly everyone offers to collect guest from airport, Can you tell me where to find the info that states its illegal, we might need to register as a Chauffeur .
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Cassis
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Post by Cassis »

@ Louloup - if you wish to rent out your own car in France, you have to use an authorised third party site - there are dozens of sites that act as intermediaries. You can't rent out your car directly. You can collect and take people to airports etc. as well as long as you don't charge extra for it.

But if you are loaning your car to someone free of charge, that is okay as long as your insurance covers it - this is a bit different but I gather mrmint has made sure his insurance company is aware it is going to be loaned habitually and to whom. It could be argued that if the loan of the vehicle is linked to renting accommodation, then this could be regarded as renting out the vehicle, but presumably the assurance company knows what's what.

Keep the carte grise and the attestation d'assurance in the car in case the guest is stopped in a contrôle routier!

However, I haven't a clue as to how you can take a security guarantee unless you take a cheque as suggested. There are ways of taking card payment without a card machine, but not deferred payments. What's wrong with the PayPal option and then refunding - is it because the renters don't want to stump up payment in advance?
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louloup
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Post by louloup »

I can't find the long discussion that was on another forum a while ago, but there were links to the relevant legislation. Although you might not charge separately for the journey, it is done within a financial transaction and is not the same as picking up friends or family from the airport.

If you have paying guests, allowing them the use of your car is part of a business transaction. What happens if the car is faulty and they have an accident as a result?
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bornintheuk
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Post by bornintheuk »

Sounds like you could be entering a legal minefield and insurance companies are well known for finding the "small print" when trying to get out of payment.
I also wouldn't put the original carte gris in with the vehicle, a photocopy would probably be sufficient as long as you could provide the original to the Gendarmes in a timely manner. If you live in the UK this could be a problem, but leaving the carte gris with the vehicle means that your "trusty" renter could sell the vehicle or someone could steal it and sell it.
Like I said a minefield.
What would Plato do ?
louloup
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Post by louloup »

This is just some of the stuff about airport transfers, it involves training etc and then you are really restricted in what else you can do.

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/prof ... 1027.xhtml

and a bit more in English

http://www.sky2ski.com/airport-transfer ... tions.html

I don't know about hiring a car out, but I do know that you can't do the simplest thing in France without a whole raft of legislation. Also, just because a company will insure it doesn't make it legal, that isn't the responsibility of the insurance company, although as bornintheuk says they will be delighted to find a loophole to avoid paying out.
vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

Our insurance company said "no way" for even having our B&B guests in the car - charging or not! They said that we would need to be effectively registered as a taxi and the insurance would be astronomical.

What do you do about parking tickets, speeding fines etc?

As said above - minefield!
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Normandie
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Post by Normandie »

We occasionally drive guests down to a nearby restaurant and pick them up again when the restaurant phone us to say they're on their coffee.

We are insured to do it and there was no difficulty with getting this level of insurance. We don't charge for this pick up / drop off. Our insurance agent said something along the lines of it's a favour not a service so it's no different to giving friends a lift. Oh and we have dropped off guests at one spot on the voie verte to le Mont-St-Michel and picked them up 6 hours later from a different spot - having supplied them with a packed lunch.

I wouldn't consider doing airport or ferryport transfers, though.

I too find the thought of having a spare car for guests' use a scary concept but it probably can be done. To me, PayPal and the ability to refund / reverse a payment seems to be the ideal method of paying a caution in this instance.
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Found this website:
http://www.classicautoloc.com/location- ... /?dptmt=79
All the hire cars which are not new cars.
All are only for hire with a driver or someone who is accompanies the group. The rates are high because of this.
Maybe before you go down the road of hire your 2CV out you should ask advice with one of these car hire persons.
Driving a 2CV is very different to driving newer cars and I feel you will be getting a lot of mechanical problems because of this.
In your T&Cs for the car you have perhaps got some things incorrect.
First off not all non EU drivers need an I.D.P. when driving in France. There is no such thing as a international licence
as you have written.
You cannot force drivers to pay any traffic tickets. Just look on Trip Advisor and see how many drivers have got caught and just how many think not paying traffic fines will come back and bight them.
Is there such a thing as an EEC member state?
Good to think outside of the box, but the whole things is a minefield. That could be a very good reason it has not been done until now.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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Cassis
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Post by Cassis »

louloup wrote:This is just some of the stuff about airport transfers, it involves training etc and then you are really restricted in what else you can do.

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/prof ... 1027.xhtml

and a bit more in English

http://www.sky2ski.com/airport-transfer ... tions.html
Giving guests a free lift to airport or restaurant doesn't make you a VTC, though. Only if you charge.
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Cassis
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Post by Cassis »

vacancesthezan wrote:Our insurance company said "no way" for even having our B&B guests in the car - charging or not! They said that we would need to be effectively registered as a taxi and the insurance would be astronomical.

What do you do about parking tickets, speeding fines etc?

As said above - minefield!
I agree these are major pitfalls - no way would I do lend a car - but the OP says his insurance company is okay with lending it. I'm surprised they are, but there you go!
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Likes ducks, nature, gardening, furniture restoration, DIY, rugby, blah, blah.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Apologies for slight TC from the original topic of lending a car, but as the question of giving guests a lift has come up - just for clarity - in the UK, if you give your paying guests a lift you are acting as a taxi service whether you make a charge or not; the very fact that you offer the service is regarded as a hidden inducement for the guest to purchase your accommodation, much the same as offering a "free" bottle of wine and hoping it falls outside of the existing licensing laws (it doesn't - yet). You therefore need all the appropriate boxes ticked - taxi operator's licence, specialised insurance, letter from your headmaster etc etc, although you can presumably ignore all of that if you don't end up involved in an accident or incident of any description.

However - giving a guest a lift in an emergency is generally deemed okay, and insurers won't normally get nasty about it unless you make a habit of it (how do they know?) So if your guest's car had packed up and you offered to take them to the local Halfrauds to buy a new battery, you're on reasonable ground - as long as they don't pay you.
RichardHenshall
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Post by RichardHenshall »

The title bar on the OP's website's home page reads 'Citroen 2cv and gite with swimming pool to rent in Poitou-Charentes France.'

That alone seems to confirm that it's car rental and not an incidental loan.
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