Despite being legally bound by a contract, some self-drive car renters are always afraid of having their cars seized, or losing a large sum of money to get their cars back.
nervous
For the past few months, Mr. PT on Mac Hien Tich Street, Hai Tan Ward (Hai Duong City) has been restless because he rented his 2024 KIA 1.6 car to a young man, but it has not been returned and the rental fee has not been paid as per the signed contract. As Tet approaches, Mr. PT's worries grow as he cannot contact the renter. The device installed on the car has also been disconnected, making it impossible to know where the car is.
According to the contract signed more than 3 months ago between Mr. PT and Mr. NTC (born in 1994 in Phuong Hoang village, Cam Hoang commune, Cam Giang), the KIA K3 with license plate 34A-77... has full conditions for circulation, the vehicle ensures technical conditions. The renter is responsible for paying 1 million VND/day. The contract includes all relevant documents of the renter such as citizen identification card, driver's license...
After renting the car but not receiving payment, Mr. PT continuously contacted but was unsuccessful. When investigating, it was found that the renter was originally from Cam Hoang commune (Cam Giang) but is currently not in the area, and had rented a room in Hai Duong city but is currently unknown. The incident was then reported to the police by Mr. PT with the hope of finding the car to return home so that he could celebrate Tet with peace of mind, and if the car rental fee was good, it would be lost. At the same time, Mr. PT posted the incident on Facebook to warn.
Mr. PT said that he had been "cheated" of the entire rental fee of tens of millions of dong and had to spend more than 100 million dong to redeem a KIA car from Hai Phong. At that time, the person who rented the car cut off all contact, forcing Mr. PT to track the location, prove that the car was his and go through the redemption procedure.
Even though he proved that the car was his, to get it back, Mr. PT still had to pay because the car had been mortgaged by the renter. "Although it doesn't happen often, scams still happen. When the renter can't be contacted, the renter is forced to spend money to find the car because it is a very large asset," said Mr. PT.
According to Mr. TH - one of the earliest self-driving car renters in Hai Duong, the contract between the lessor and the lessee is the only and highest legal basis, which can be used as evidence for the lessor to report to the police when detecting signs of fraud.
However, those who intend to commit fraud often have many tricks to hide their whereabouts, making it difficult for the police to intervene. Many times, car owners have to spend a lot of time, money and rely on relationships to find the car. Mr. TH said: "In many cases, just hoping to get the car back is good enough, but the rental fee, mechanical wear and tear and other damages are borne by themselves."
A lucrative market for scammers
The self-drive car rental market in Hai Duong, especially in urban areas, is growing and expanding, with a variety of vehicles to meet the needs of many customers.
On the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2025, many people have started to "collect" cars from family, friends or rent cars from people who do not need to use them during Tet to rent them out. On Facebook and Zalo groups, many types of cars with high value and new models are available for rent during Tet such as KIA Canival, MAZDA CX8, CX5... with rental prices higher than usual.
According to Mr. TH, this could be an opportunity for scammers to target, but landlords still have to rely on "luck" because there is no way to prevent it.
"A decade ago in Hai Duong City, there were only a few people renting out self-driving cars with old cars, not as valuable as today's cars. There weren't many scams at that time. Now there are cars worth billions of dong, so if they are stolen, the renter will suffer huge losses," said Mr. TH.
In fact, there have been a number of cases of renting self-driving cars and then appropriating them in Hai Duong or by Hai Duong people in other areas. For example, Pham Cong Hung (31 years old, in Quoc Tuan commune, Nam Sach) rented a car worth over 600 million VND from Mr. NVĐ, in Thanh Hai commune (Thanh Ha) and pawned it for 190 million VND. Or Nguyen Van Dung (42 years old, in An Thuy residential area, Hien Thanh ward, Kinh Mon) rented a car in Hai Phong and then brought it to Phu Thai town (Kim Thanh) to pawn it for 150 million VND... The above cases were all reported to the police by the car renter and the offender was prosecuted.
Near Tet, high consumer demand causes some bad guys to target car rental companies to steal their vehicles, even though they know it is a crime and will be severely punished.
As for car rental companies, even though they know it can be risky, they still have to accept the business to earn income. They just want to do business in peace, and those who violate the law will soon be dealt with.
TIEN HUY