Car Rental

[datathomas]

My friend was offered to rent (borrow) a car from a Thai person he knew from before. He paid what she asked and everything was fine until about 2 weeks later. She called him and asked if he was intrested to buy the car. He said no as he was going back one week later and the price was to high.

The same night the car was stolen.

Now it seems that she did not have enough insurance to cover the cost of the car. She went wild and accused my friend for stealing the car as well as demanding him to pay for it. (Downpayment, monthly payment and what is left on the financing. If not she would make sure he can not go to Thailand again.

Notable is that her husband (farang, for the moment not in Thailand) have made all payments on the car and she is furious everytime my friend asks to speak to him.

Is it really possible that she can make him pay and make immigration keep him out of Thailand?

There is no paper written for the rent between them.

Does anyone of you have any experience in this?

/thomas

[Loz]

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

If there is no contract between them it seems he was borrowing her car and the fact that it was "stolen" doesn't make him liable for losses arising from this. If she failed to insure her car properly that is on her, not the friend who borrowed the car.

A word of warning here though. If you do drive someone elses car, it would be prudent to be clear what insurance you have, if indeed, any.

My best guess is she is trying it on. Depending where in the Kingdom you are, it might be worth a word with the tourist police.

If I had to hazard a wild guess, she got behind with the payments and was looking for ANY way out. Any signs of broken glass where the car was stolen or did it look like they had a key?...

wouldn't want to have anything to do with insurance fraud so best be sure your friend is clean and clear of this.

Good luck

[Tanaka]

Do the thai way. Deny any contact with the car. Your friend can say if questioned by police or other authority, that he borrowed the car once but does not know about it being stolen. Like been said, if no written contractst, no rental and no culpa on your friend. And, ofcourse, the lady does not have anything to say about his visiting Thailand!! My guess is that the lady had the "theft" conviniently organized. Tell your friend to just walk away. No harm if he has a talk with the tourist police, though.