A young man who claimed he had verbally agreed to rent a car for Dh350 per day instead of the Dh750 stated in his signed contract was ordered by the Abu Dhabi Commercial Court to pay Dh105,424 for 146 days of unpaid rental fees, including VAT.
The dispute began when the car-rental company filed a lawsuit seeking Dh105,424 plus Dh917 for alleged traffic fines and Salik charges. The company argued that the renter breached the signed agreement, which clearly stated the Dh750 daily rate.
The defendant insisted that a verbal arrangement with a company representative set the rate at Dh350 and offered partial payments totaling Dh28,500, proposing to settle the remainder in installments. However, the court dismissed the verbal claim, ruling that a signed contract cannot be contradicted by an unproven verbal agreement.
The court also rejected claims for traffic fines and Salik charges due to lack of evidence. In addition to the outstanding rental fees, the defendant must pay a 3% delay interest, legal fees, and court costs, while all other claims were dismissed.
