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Hello everyone,
We are four interns from Haryana currently interning in Chennai. Recently, we rented a self-drive car through Zoomcar for a short trip to Kodaikanal. Unfortunately, on our return journey, the car met with an accident and the front portion was damaged. Thankfully, no one was injured.
We had opted for Zoomcar’s insurance coverage at the time of booking. Immediately after the accident, we raised multiple tickets, contacted their support system through the in-app chatbot, and emailed them. It took approximately 1.5 days for their insurance/towing team to respond. Eventually, the car was towed by Zoomcar, and we were charged Rs. 3000 as part of the standard procedure.
Now, here is the complication:
The car was privately owned and listed on Zoomcar’s Host program.
Zoomcar informed the owner that they would be scrapping the car and offering him Rs. 3.5 lakhs as per their insurance/assessment process.
The owner has refused this settlement amount and now claims that the car is still at a mechanic’s garage. He is demanding that we personally return the car to him and pay for full repairs.
Additionally, he is threatening to file an FIR against us if we do not settle with him privately.
Given that:
We had valid insurance from Zoomcar at the time of the accident,
The car was damaged accidentally, not out of negligence or reckless behavior,
Zoomcar took responsibility for towing and has offered a settlement to the owner,
What is our legal standing here? Are we liable beyond the Rs. 3000 already paid? Can the owner legitimately file an FIR against us? What should we do if he does? Any guidance on how to protect ourselves legally would be deeply appreciated.
We are in a different state (Tamil Nadu) and unsure of how to proceed.
Thanks in advance.
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DYou rented car through zoom. Your relationship is to zoom.
He rented his car to zoom. His relationship is with zoom.
You and the car owner are not related. So you can calmly tell the owner to go ahead with whatever legal recourse he sees fit. Don’t get scared and pay a dime more.
FIR filing is not relevant in this case as this is not a criminal offence. That itself shows the legal ignorance from part of the owner and he is trying to intimidate you.
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SZoomcar takes too long to respond we have sent multiple mails to them regarding they responded after 2 days on mail saying that explain to owner to contact zoomcar we are not liable etc but the ground reality is different he is harassing us saying our career will end we will have no future in corporate listening to this we are scared and willing to pay at max 2-2.5 lakhs. Lawyer told us that fir will end our career and he is local has connections in police so he can trap us in false cases well.
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Doh my god. please block everyone and move on with your life.
lawyer is also trying to scam you.
Why do you have to contact zoom car at all.
Everyone is watching too many movies. trapping in false case it seems.
This whole thing is a civil case. He can also pay some police man to call you and threaten you. You have to remain calm and ask the policeman what all sections can be charged in this case.
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SRemember lawyers are the biggest scammers. of course lawyers are saying that because then he will make money when you engage him to represent you.
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MDude chill, he can’t do shit legally.
You are not liable to pay anything to him. What you owe to zoom cars is already paid.
Even if you pay out of fear, what’s the guarantee that he’ll not blackmail you again for the entire price of a new car?? Or not put false cases???
Stop worrying unnecessarily and block his numbers, deactivate your social profiles for a while. Forgot about it.
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HThese are all tactics to make you give in under pressure, ignore all these and simply ask him to contact zoom as you have paid zoom. Also if you want fir against him for harrasment.
The thing is very few people understand what a business is in this country. Everyone wants just the profit and not the loss. These zoom car owners are often middle class or upper middle class family who want passive earning from their assets and happily take the profits but when the incidents happen they are not ready to bear the loss.
Zoom car is an asshole too. They literally want to charge you but will provide you no support if things go south. The give shit valuations to these owners that’s why they don’t accept and harras the renter to cover up the losses
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DNAL, but whatever insurance or claim he needs, an FIR will be filed. He will have to say that he had rented it to zoomcar and you were driving it, that’s just stating the facts. You and the owner are only connected via the app. Just ignore it and move on, all these ride app companies already have these rules and policies in place for such situations. You shouldn’t have to pay anything for this. If you’re still feeling threatened, you can go file a complaint for harassment.
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FNow you got to read all the fingerprints of Zoomcar and see what’s there. You can take the help of a lawyer to understand this.
You can calmly keep telling him that you hired via Zoomcar and already paid the assured amounts to them. Sonif anything should happen it should be Zoomcar not to you. Hopefully you are recording the conversation with ower.
Owner is frustrated because 3.5L might be way less than what he is expecting.
Also, how there is no police intervention in accident as big to scrap the vehicle. As far I know this is mandatory to rule out no was hurt.
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SAfter accident we made CSR and damage certificate with the help of local police it was necessary to claim zoomcar insurance and only then they would have towed the car we waited 1.5 days on the accident location for zoomcar to tow the car in the middle of nowhere and thought our tension is no more but we couldn’t be more wrong. And in the csr it states no one was hurt. So local police was involved.
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SEdited the post, when we took the car from the owners place but paid money on zoomcar then owner took aadhar card photo and company I’d photo and laptop (not that valuable) as security and took phone numbers of 3 people.
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SNo personal laptop we would never risk company asset, personal laptop isnt worth much hardly 5-6k.
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SI think they are paying based on the insurance amount tdv or something. Insurance cover was upto 3.5L only ig. This information we aren’t supposed to know as this is between host and zoomcar but know only coz the owner brought it up.
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Cdoesnt the owner have insurance on the car ? he should be getting that amount too … unless there is some clause . coz technically he is using a private vehicle for commercial.
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SYeah he said that he can’t claim it coz of this reason only. As it was being used for commercial purposes.
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Cwell thats a him problem not a you problem. Coz if you maintain a 1st party insurance .. Its generally a decent amount you will get coz 3.5l is quite low … I get why he is upset but thats his problem. you took the car from zoom not him. I always wondered how this platform worked in a situation like this. But I would file a FIR against him just incase he does try something off.
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MAs a Lawyer I can advise you the following:
1. The Owner is just trying to intimidate you to extort money from you, since you are students.
2. You are absolutely not liable to pay to the owner because you did not have any contract with the owner directly.
3. Whatever the dispute is, it is between Zoom Car and the owner.
4. Let him first take legal recourse. Accordingly take action. In any case, no need to pay any amount to him.-
STalked to some lawyers all said that FIR can be filed against us and it’s better to settle outside court.
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MIn my experience, No FIR can be filed against you. Cognizable offence needs to be committed by you. Police needs to show that you were negligent in driving which caused the accident. Both are absent in your case. It is really a civil matter and police shall not intervene. Do not let these people browbeat you. They are using fear to make you settle.
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HFIR for what ? It’s not a criminal offence in any way – you have followed the policies of Zoomcar and they are the ones to deal with it.
Also, an accident case doesn’t impact your career / office at all.
It was stupid of you to give a laptop and company id to an owner – those IDs ideally should be submitted to Zoom.
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IDo not do anything as ur relationship us with zoom car. Do not get intimidated by the car owner to pay the amount.
It looks like u do and u will pay it.
But we are telling u it is all between car owner and zoomcar. Even in court you wont be liable to pay anything. DO NOT GET SCARED.
if u pay ur loss and later u will realise that the court would have ruled it out in favor of u.
It is the risk car owner took to list his car in zoomzar not u. -
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STell the owner to do whatever he wants. You had a contract with Zoomcar and bought the insurance against theft and accident. Once the car is totalled, the owner is being payed according to the insured amount of the car that owner had showed in his insurance policy. You guys aren’t liable for anything. You might have to visit the police station once to clarify things and that would be the end to it all.
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LInstead of paying 2lakhs to him, hire a good lawyer for 20-30k. Put mental harassment case on the owner and may be file a FIR from your side that he is threatening you.
He has to deal with Zoomcar directly for all the complaints. Not you guys.
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KForget everything and take a peaceful nap. You did your business with Zoom car, not with the car owner. You don’t know who the owner is, and that is not your concern. Just block him, and don’t share your location with him. Police can do nothing here, and if by chance he manages to get some corrupt cops involved, you should tell him, that you have borrowed car from Zoom car and not from him. You didn’t return his car, zoom car did. Tell them not to bother you, and rather raise the issue with zoom car.
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EYou have no legal liability here. You rented on zoom and he rented his car to zoom. Zoom is the one with whom that owner would have to work or negotiate or have legal battle.
Since you have intimated accident, had insurance, paid what was asked. If there was no rash, negligence or DUI, then nothing can be done to you by any means and legally as well.
Sit back and relax and if the owner harass you, inform in written mode to that to connect with zoom. If he still persist file a counter fir for harassment.
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RStupid of you to give company laptop or Id. At max they took photo of our dl and aadhaar in goa.
Baki others are saying correct. tell family and don’t live in fear. Kuch ni hoga.
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MBro they are all scammers trying to scam you. You move on with your life, nothing will happen to your career.
Zoomcar experience is so varied … like I took zoomcar and faced a similar experience sometime back, but the owner understood that cooly told us that do not worry, just put the claim through the zoomcar process, hell take care of it forwards, I need not interfere. But I know friends who had to go thru torture like this because of bad hosts
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BNAL..Here are a few suggestions based on my common sense. first deal with your weakest links.. u need to express confidence when you deal with ppl like this.
1) Get your parents in confidence.. so that they are not blind sided and can gather support through influence or whatever means necessary.
2) See if you can find any link with police in your home state or state other than TN. Ask them to call owner and tell them if they call or threaten you again..they will file a case outside TN and he has to deal with summons.. his local influence won’t matter much outside TN.
3) Talk to your manager and discuss how any escalation might affect them.. you never know they might lend u support or will tell u their limits..either way better talk to ur manager and management. Most corporates have legal team or links which can be helpful.
4) Find a reference for local police from your company (if they help) and talk to them. The local police can advice you how to proceed .
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MYou deal with zoomcar you don’t know the owner there is not much owner can do to you financially he is just want make pressure on you to extract some money.
Since you are an intern make sure your parents know all this.
If owner calls you tell him calmly that he should deal with zoomcar and next time he calls you will give his number to your lawyer and tell him that you will TRY to drag this case to Haryana court AND HE WILL NEED TO TRAVEL AND DEAL WITH THIS.
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P1. Stop getting scared. I know easy to say but there is nothing the owner can do.
2. Your contract is with Zoomcar. The person rented to Zoomcar. Ideally he should not have had your details.
3. The owner is trying to blackmail you into making money as Zoomcar is also trying to con him.
4. Keep all the bills and communications handy.
5. He can contact Police but no action can be taken against you as you are not his client.
6. Start repeatedly emailing Zoomcar informing of the blackmail and mental harassment.
7. For your peace of mind, take help of a local and just enquire in police chowky what can be done as the owner is harassing. Let this be an informal enquiry than anything else.
8. Corporate careers are not so easily destroyed. Senior exec with POSH cases continue to take home big fat salaries.
Lastly, please read online reviews before going on self drive rentals. Most companies practice very shady processes.
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SAn FIR cannot and will not be filed for these things. I think you are liable up to about Rs.10,000/- and not beyond that. I’m a practicing advocate from Chennai. The FIR is an empty threat, the only thing the owner can do is to file a civil suit and claim damages. And a civil suit will not affect your work in any way, it’s civil in nature and there’s nothing to worry about, your friend will get a legal notice and a summons from the concerned civil court. (I highly doubt if that’ll happen) The case can be dealt with as and when it comes knocking.
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RLawyer here. You have no legal relationship with the owner of the car. Your relationship was with Zoomcar; owner’s relationship was with Zoomcar. Zoomcar appears to have followed protocol as per your narration. There ends the matter. Ignore the owner and get on with your life, and be careful and avoid accidents to save your own life
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LI’m sorry you’re going through this stressful situation, especially when you’re just trying to get on with your internship. It’s tough enough to deal with an accident, and now having to handle such threats and confusion is even worse. I hope things get sorted out quickly for you and that Zoomcar steps up to protect you since you had insurance. Please don’t let the owner intimidate you—it sounds like you’ve done everything right, and legally, you shouldn’t be liable beyond the Rs. 3000. Hang in there, and I hope it resolves soon!
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SDid you borrow/rent/lease/take the car from this person or from Zoomcar? If Zoomcar, then your discussions, liability, settlement etc. is with Zoomcar and not with any third party.
Based on your input, this doesn’t appear to be a criminal matter – so not sure if FIR is the right approach.
What you can do:
– Don’t engage with the person claiming to be the owner
– Keep all records, documents, photos, sent email records, in-app conversations etc.. These records should be on an account controlled by you and not by Zoomcar
Disclaimer: Not a lawyer. Not legal advice. Just a random person or bot on the internet.
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