Au pair Car Use - what is reasonable

[WorriedLAC]

Our Au pair has use of our 2nd car during the week, for her personal use and run errands. She has used it on the weekend for personal use locally, if we are not using it.

She has asked us if she could borrow the car for a weekend to visit her friend, it's a 3 hour drive away. We won't be using the car that weekend as we will be away, but DH does not feel comfortable about it (it's his car) and does not want her to use it for a long weekend trip. I am okay with it.

We have just paid £500 to repair it, after she scratched it while parking, so I think he is still smarting from that.

Do you have any specific rule about personal car use?

Our au pair has her own car, the car has a curfew of 1am (she has no curfew!) Which stops anyone driving when overtired. Our first au pair had a bad crash at 4am - luckily she was fine, but the car was a write- off
We have let au pairs take the car away for overnight visits, but only when they have been with us some time. They also have to pay for petrol.

We ask them to pay towards any damage they cause to the car and also set out that they must pay for parking tickets etc.

In your case I'd say no as she obviously isn't that used to driving it yet if she managed to scratch it. A 3 hour journey is quite a long way. So I'd just say that she can't this time, but maybe in a few weeks after she's more used to the car.

Thank you Under.

We have agreed with her just local trips in the car, any damage during working hours will be covered 50% by us, and any on her personal time will need to be paid 100% by herself.