Log Book Loans took my car....

[hedgehog0045]

After receiving a notice telling me I had arrears on my car payments I then arranged to pay the arrears and bring the account up to date which I did. I then fell into arrears again a couple of months later and had started to pay extra on top of my payments. Last week I came out of the house to go to work and found my car clamped. I telephoned the number on the windscreen notice and was informed that my arrears were £270 and if I wanted to stop the car being taken away then I needed to pay £980. Obviously this amount of money was not available to me and lo and behold an hour later a recovery agent turns up to take the car.

The attitude of LBL was that once they have issued a recovery notice they do not have to issue a further one if you fall into arrears again. I would query the legitimacy of this and also the suddenness of the repo, i.e. without warning.

What can I do about this???

chris

[v_j_r]

The immobilisation of the vehicle is the final notice abiet an abrupt one!, the one hour later is in keeping with guidelines that state, a debtor is normally given a mininium of 1 hours notice that the vehicle will be removed at any time after expirey of that period.

[JonCris]

VJR Who's guidelines, their guidelines? Nothing of what they did is lawful.

Hedgehog contact trading standards & report what has happened. They will be interested & they must have quite a large dossier on this firm by now. In addition you need to see a solicitor asap before they flog it to one of their mates.

Send a Subject Access Request demanding 'true' copies of all paper work & in particular any 'bill of sale' they may claim to have.

Also if you can find out which auction it is being sold at you can take steps to secure it by notifying them of YOUR lien & that ownership is in dispute.

Also contact HPI & let them know ownership is in dispute & in order to protect themselves they should place a caution on file

Lets know what happens

[v_j_r]

Originally Posted by JonCris

VJR Who's guidelines, their guidelines? Nothing of what they did is lawful.

1.Certified balliffs guidelines thats who, it's quite normal for any type of balliff to allow this timescale or beyond it's there choice.

Hedgehog contact trading standards & report what has happened. They will be interested & they must have quite a large dossier on this firm by now. In addition you need to see a solicitor asap before they flog it to one of their mates.

2.Trust me they had a large dossier well before you think they did?.

Send a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) demanding 'true' copies of all paper work & in particular any 'bill of sale' they may claim to have.

3.The bill of sale/Security/Lien as you state is contained within the "Agreement" normally towards the back, it will be signed by the customer/debtor as in this case he/she now is!.

Also if you can find out which auction it is being sold at you can take steps to secure it by notifying them of YOUR lien & that ownership is in dispute.

4.Read my previous posts regarding the sale of vehicles?,they are sold via a chain of established private traders/dealers online on a little known website/forum of which i am still a little known and "Stealthy" member!.

Also contact HPI & let them know ownership is in dispute & in order to protect themselves they should place a caution on file

5.What another one!.

Lets know what happens

No offense @JonCris but you really dont know what you are talking about here or what you are up against!.

[JonCris]

It's their choice..............reall y!

I'm afraid I know only to well. As for my previous comments we will see if in the fulness of time they are correct. Watch this space.

As for their 'bill of sale/agreement' having seen one don't get me started.

If you really want to help, as I'm sure you do, why don't you tell us about the website, name etc:

I really DO know what I'm talking about.

As for HPI it may not be a normal part of their practice or procedure but I can assure you that if they should ignore such information & report the vehicle as being without lien or encumbrance they could find themselves the subject of damages litigation

[demon_x_slash]

Oh gods, kiddiwinks, please don't start a row again... hedgehog, do as JonCris suggests, he's dealt with 'em before I seem to recall, with regard to disputing the auction and sending off a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) with a £10 cheque/PO to get all info held on you by LBL. The template's in the library, modify it to your circumstances. When you have your info you'll be in a better position to see why they took the action they took, whether it was lawful or not, and how much money you can claim back (£900 for unclamping a car? Whaa?).

There are a LOT of threads on LBL and their dodgy practices. Have a read of those to familiarise yourself with what to expect from them, and get that Subject Access Request sent off.

[hedgehog0045]

Have just been sent copies of my paperwork relating to the incident with the car repo. Can anyone here take a look at them for legality? They are hassling me for repayment of an outstanding balance??

[gizmo111]

I have just sent you a PM with some info

[joe1471]

i trying to plaster this message to as many people as possible. its a wee bit technical. if the thugs sorry baliffs come to the door they should have a visible blue badge with the SIA logo on it + photo. SIA stands for Security industry Authority this a legal requirement that they must have. if they dont ask them if have a licence dispensation number (this is what they get when they are waiting on their badge to arrive) if the dont have ldn then contact the local police *******THEY ARE WORKING ILLEGAL************ sometimes the police are slow to get involved as they think it is a private matter. Quote - the security industry act 2001. also contact the SIA they have the legal powers to prosecute and fine the individual and company.
the SIA has been in England and Wales for approx. 2 years and only in scotland a couple of months. i had the baliffs out at 0500 to clamp the car back out at 0800 to lift and when i mentioned the SIA they gave me till 1700 to get a reduced figure from £900 to £500

[Bigbear733]

Hi Everyone

I have a way to get back at Log Book Loans (“LBL”) and Mobile Money (“MM”). I assure you, this will work - I am a lawyer.

I have read the various threads with some horror at the tactics used by LBL and MM and this is my reason for posting.

Unfortunately, first some bad new – the loans they issue, and the way they secure their interest over a vehicle, via a Bill of Sale (“BOS”), is completely legal, if they follow the correct procedure. I have reviewed a LBL case and they seem to be doing everything correctly; I have not looked a MM, but I would presume they are also following the correct procedure. Furthermore, despite some posts that suggest the contrary, they can take possession of goods which are secured by way of a BOS without a court order.

Sorry, it gets worse before it gets better – if you are unfortunate enough to purchase a vehicle which has a chattel mortgage (what the BOS effectively creates) attached to it then, even though you are an innocent party, the vehicle can still legally be taken off you without a court order.

I am surprised that I have seen another lawyer in a press article suggest that this is illegal – he referrers to innocent parties purchasing vehicles with outstanding hire purchase (“HP”) agreements and, what he refers to as “other loans” (although he does not elaborate on what other loans are), and states that the an innocent purchaser obtain the goods with good legal tile. He is completely correct in relation to HP agreements as s27 Hire Purchase Act 1964, as substituted by the Consumer Credit Act 1974, provides that an innocent purchaser without notice (ie in non legal speak - a private individual who buys something not knowing that the item was subject to a HP agreement) takes the goods purchased with good legal title. However, there is no such provision for security taken by way of a BOS. In fact, the common law position was amended by s27 and a good analogy to explain why the law works this way is to consider stolen property. If your car was stolen and sold to an innocent party do you think that if the police managed to locate the vehicle you should not be able to re-claim the car – obviously I would think most of you would think that if something is stolen from you then you can take it back once located – and this is exactly the legal position. The general rule in law is that someone can only give good legal title if they themselves posses it, and, unless there is some legislative exception, this rules applies to the sale and purchase of all chattels (in simple terms, chattels is legal speak for property which is not land and buildings – sorry if I sound patronising but I know there are some reader who are not as legally conversant as other and I just want them to understand what I am saying).

I have read a number of other posts that incorrectly state the law and give false hope but I don’t have the time to deal with each issue raised.

Unfortunately, in my opinion it will be very difficult to legally challenge LGL or MM based on the BOS.

However, now for the good news. To operate within the law lenders require a consumer credit licence. This is issued by the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) and recent legislative changes have given the OFT significantly more discretion and powers in who to issue consumer credit licences to and, where appropriate, to revoke such licences.

My proposal is that we work together to get the consumer credit licences of LBL and MM removed and this is how to do it:

The law in relation to credit advertising was changed recently by the Consumer Credit (Advertising) Regulation 2004 (the “Regulations”). I will not bore you with the details but the OFT have issued guidance to lenders on the interpretation of these regulations. Basically a lender must publish a typical APR where, amongst other things, they offer credit to people with a poor credit history or where they offer an incentive.

The OFT have stated that terms such as “No Credit Checks” or “Super Fast Loans”, or similar, will trigger the requirements to publish a typical APR. See para 8.16 of the following guidance: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/bus...dit/oft746.pdf

I have seen advertisement placed by both MM and LBL that contravene the Regulations by not stating a typical APR. I saw one today – they are not difficult to find.

This is what I propose that everyone does – look out for MM and LBL adverts. If they say anything like “fast loans”, “no credit checks”, “CCJ’s - no problem”, “Cash Loans within 30 minutes” etc then they must quote a typical APR. If they don’t then they have broken the law.

Report every breach of these regulations to your local trading standards (a letter or e-mail is best, but phone if you don’t have time). If enough complaints are received then the OFT will have to consider revoking their consumer credit licences. What’s even better, the directors of LBL and MM will face criminal prosecutions and convictions as breaching the Regulations is actually a criminal offence.

If enough people take action, as I have suggested, then LBL and MM will lose their consumer credit licences and this will stop them trading – in short, there is more than one way to skin a cat!

I hope this has been helpful and I wish you all luck.

[sludge78]

I took out a loan last June. Like others I was given a 5wk payment holiday. However the weekly amount did not add up to the 5wk sum. I was advised if I paid the loan off before the first payment was due (which I assumed was at the end of the 5wks) there would be no interest. When I called on the 3rd week £800 had been added!
I have been to the C.A.B etc as I never received termination rights in the post and no responses to any letters (just after taking out the loan my husband was made redundant and we could not afford the £119 pw loan - my wage was £749 per month and our rent was £600 - LBL saw the wage slips and rent agreement etc and were happy to lend in my sole name). CAB advised that the loan could be null and void and to offer the car as full and final settlement but they were unwilling to accept that.
We awoke on Tuesday morning to find that the car had been clamped in the night. We contacted the police who had not been informed (as the notice on the car stated) and advised that it had been clamped illegally, however they were unwilling to get involved as it was a civil matter.
In the end we let the recovery agents take the car (LBL have our spare key anyway). We have raised a query to the high court to see if anything has been lodged as advised. However, as in Scotland I believe that they have to get a sheriff court action?
We had to obtain a duplicate log book last year in order to retax the vehicle (and correct the address as when the loan was taken out we had only just moved so the logbook showed the previous address). What we were wondering is, due to the questionably legality of the contract and actions, can we go along to BCA and request our car back? My husband is the legal owner (he has documentation showing he purchased it), I was just the registered keeper for tax/insurance purposes. He never signed anything with LBL.