Woman who rents moving van in Toronto shocked to get $2,000 bill for damage

When a Toronto woman rented a moving van in November of 2021, she said the move took only six hours and she dropped the van off the same day.

While Khanh Nguyen thought the move went fine without incident, two months later, she got a bill in the mail that said she was responsible for $1,961 in damages to the van’s roof.

"I was extremely shocked and angry," said Nguyen.

Nguyen was also surprised because she had paid extra for damage waiver insurance coverage.

"It was my first time renting a U-Haul. So, I thought I should pay for the damage liability waiver insurance in case anything happened to the truck without my knowledge, and it would be covered," said Nguyen.

U-Haul told Nguyen that a black moulding on top of the van at the back was missing when it was returned.

"The investigation confirmed these damages are the responsibility of this customer. Overhead damage is an exclusion to collision damage waiver,” Jeff Lockridge, Manager of Media and Public Relations for U-Haul International told CTV News Toronto.

Nguyen said she didn’t know that damage to the roof wouldn’t be covered by the insurance she purchased. She also doesn’t believe she caused the damage to the van.

“As a regular consumer I just sign the terms and conditions and I was not aware that overhead damage was not covered,” said Nguyen.

“I did not drive into any parking structures at that time. How a piece of metal from the rooftop came off, I have no idea," she added.

After U-Haul reviewed Nguyen’s case, they dropped the damage amount owing to $505.

U-Haul does offer insurance in the United States called "Safe Move Plus" which does cover overhead damage, however that coverage is not offered for U-Haul rentals in Canada.

“SafeMove Damage Protection is available in Canada. SafeMove Plus is not available in Canada. The customer issue that we discussed concerned the customer’s purchase of our Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) on her cargo van rental. Overhead damage is an exclusion to CDW protection,“ said Lockridge.

“SafeMove was not relevant to this customer’s situation, as SafeMove is available for rentals of box trucks but is not available for rentals of cargo vans and pickup trucks.”

“As a courtesy, we will contact our insurance group and erase the $505 fee that the customer owes. We always aim to do right by our customers. We trust this action will provide a satisfactory resolution to the customer’s situation” said Lockridge.

That came as a relief for Nguyen who had been trying to resolve the issue for almost a year.

“I’m just really grateful that this miracle happened," said Nguyen.

When renting a moving van or truck, you should pay close attention to insurance policies as companies may offer different levels of protection. Even if you purchase insurance there may be limits and exclusions.