Damaged a tool hire bit. Who's liable?

[davidmiller]

I hired a concrete breaker and the pointed chisel broke after an hour . Just sheared off a few inches down. Then the spare one did the same. The flat chisel has lasted a week fortunately.
Just wondering if anyone thinks I should put up an argument if they make a charge. As it's happened twice I'm thinking I've got to put my hands up and pay but I've used these for thousands of hours over the years and never had one break on me. What do you think?

 

[conny]

I used to work in a hire shop, (repairs dept), and we would get broken accessories back. These were covered in the hire charge but, if someone broke/damaged more than a reasonable number, we would add an extra charge and deduct it from the deposit.
This was about 20 years ago and a small 'family' firm so not sure how the big guys operate. Just be honest with them but don't offer to pay unless they say you have to. Check the T&C's on your hire slip to see if it's mentioned in there.

 

[noseall]

I hired a concrete breaker and the pointed chisel broke after an hour . Just sheared off a few inches down. Then the spare one did the same. The flat chisel has lasted a week fortunately.
Just wondering if anyone thinks I should put up an argument if they make a charge. As it's happened twice I'm thinking I've got to put my hands up and pay but I've used these for thousands of hours over the years and never had one break on me. What do you think?

I've seen this before in pairs or multiples. Faulty batch. Those tools are very difficult to break, normally.