Wear and tear or damage on a rental car?

Updated 16 October 2026
General information, not legal advice. The outcome depends on the facts of your case.

You are being charged for a small scratch, a stone chip or a scuffed wheel, and it looks like the kind of mark every car picks up. Is it damage you have to pay for, or normal wear? The honest answer: there is no single European size rule. But there are clear rules that normal wear is not chargeable, and some rental companies publish their own limits.

Normal wear is not chargeable

• The industry guidelines. The Leaseurope Guidelines, which the free ECRCS dispute service uses to decide cases, say damage price tables must reflect real repair costs and must not be used for damage that is properly fair wear and tear.
• German law. Section 538 of the German Civil Code says the renter is not responsible for changes caused by normal use under the contract.
• Spanish law. The Civil Code says you return the thing as you received it, except for what wore out over time or through unavoidable causes.

So the question is not only whether there is a mark, but whether it goes beyond normal use.

Is there a size limit?

Not one that applies to all European rentals. You may read online that scratches under 25 mm or chips under 5 mm are always fine. Those numbers come from elsewhere: 25 mm is from the BVRLA's fair wear and tear guide for leased cars returned after years of use in the UK, and 5 mm is from a South African guide. They are not rental rules.

What does exist are limits that individual companies publish:

• Europcar Germany says scratches under 2 cm and dents under 5 cm count as normal wear and are not charged.
• Hertz says, for its European rentals, that its criteria vary by country, and points to the back of the vehicle condition report.
• Outside Europe, Hertz Australia and Europcar New Zealand publish their own limits too, which shows the companies can say where the line is.

For other brands we found no published limits. So ask.

What to ask the company

When you dispute the charge in writing, ask:

• what the company's own definition of chargeable damage is for your rental country, and where it is published;
• the size of the mark, measured, with photos taken close up and with a scale;
• the condition report from pick-up, to check whether the mark was already there;
• the repair quote or invoice, or the line of the price table used, and why that level was chosen.

If the company uses a price table, a fixed price is not proof of a real repair cost. In 2016 the Italian competition authority fined Goldcar after finding that its damage levels had no objective criteria.

How to argue it

1. If the company publishes a limit and the mark is under it, quote the limit.
2. If it publishes none, say that the mark is consistent with normal use, cite the Leaseurope Guidelines, and ask the company to show why it is more than wear.
3. If the mark could have been there before, compare with the pick-up report and your own photos.
4. Challenge the amount separately: a small mark rarely needs a full panel repair.

Our guides to Europcar and key drop-box returns cover the rest of the dispute.

Where to take it

• ECRCS for cross-border rentals booked direct with its 12 member brands. Wear and tear arguments fit well there, because it decides on the guidelines that exclude it. Read how ECRCS works.
• BVRLA for UK rentals with its members.
• The European Consumer Centre in your country, if you live in the EU, Norway or Iceland.
• Your card issuer, if the money was taken and the company skipped the card rules. See our card dispute guide.

Honest limits

Whether a mark is wear or damage is partly judgement, and a body or bank may see it differently from you. Clear, close photos from pick-up and return decide most of these cases. Nobody can promise an outcome.

If you want the letters written for your rental, our pack does that for a flat fee after a free check.