Chester T. Dean 
TheCase: a new era for the car rental industry
Moving and traveling between different regions and countries has been linked to the benefit of basic services provided to the visitor, including car rental services.
With the growing demand for car rental services and the influx of many beneficiaries into rental agencies of varying sizes, some rental agencies are suffering from beneficiary procrastination in payment or even lack of commitment to -Vis to auto insurance procedures and requirements.
The beneficiary sometimes complains of the poor quality of the rental cars and even of a certain intransigence on the part of certain offices and institutions in the recovery of their contributions and the invoicing of unexplained or declared additional costs to this beneficiary.
Therefore, a new phase and a modern era will begin in the car rental industry as the Public Transport Authority has confirmed the official start of the implementation of the first phase on July 25, 2021 of the decision to oblige car rental agencies to issue all rental contracts via the “Leasing Contracts” Service on the Naql electronic portal, where these authorized car rental entities will issue a unified contract that meets all legal requirements and clauses, to contribute significantly to the preservation of the rights of the lessor and the lessee and to the clarification of the duties of each.
On the other hand, this dematerialization of contracts will strengthen the beneficiary’s confidence in the quality of the services provided to him and will also protect the lessors from any procrastination likely to disrupt the operating and operating mechanism.
This unified contract will help to alleviate the burden on the competent judicial authorities resulting in particular from disputes and claims, whether in respect of payment or compensation raised by one or other of the parties, the beneficiary and the legal persons who are tenants. whatever their size.
In order for establishments and companies in this sector to benefit from the electronic vehicle rental contract service, it must be ensured that the following conditions are met, namely that the renter must be a Saudi national, and the age of the vehicle must not be more than five years old from the year of manufacture, and it is not permitted to rent more than one vehicle per person.
It is also necessary that the driver’s license of the vehicle is valid, as well as the certificate of periodic technical inspection of the vehicle, and that the type of insurance coverage of the vehicle is complete.
Accordingly, car rental contracts will be considered by enforcement courts to be evidence-based contracts and will be ready for direct performance.
• Dimah Talal Alsharif is a Saudi lawyer and legal consultant. Twitter: @dimah_alsharif
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