Business lease v personal ownership of vehicle- Strange circumstances please help

[jssandy01]

Please can someone help with this situation.
We had a Ltd. company unfortunately went into liquidation October 2008. We had a vehicle on lease finance and the 3 year lease was due to expire June 2009. The leasing company did not arrange to collect the car in October and refused to deal with us directly refering us back to the finance house in ireland who owns the vehicle. The finance company never contacted us despite our repeat requests as we wanted to purchase the vehicle privately or lease it direct. We had 1 email quoting some figures to rent it which we rejected and no agreement was made. We kept vehicle with their permission and repeatedly requested them to sell it to us. In the meantime we have kept it on the road and looked after it. The finance company have never written to us and have acted with complete apathy and dis-interest. They recently finaly mentioned a purchase price which we rejected and we made a counter offer they also rejected. They are making no effort to collect vehicle. Tax and MOT now due end of June. During this period we have serviced and paid for repairs approx £1,100 looking on auction sites the vehicle is probably worth around £9k. We would like to keep the vehicle and have offered £5k. Is there any way we can claim ownership? They have no idea where we live and in the time since October we have had only 4 emails from them as they have not replied to our many requests. The car is on our property at the moment. I was going to charge them storage and claim back for repairs etc which would leave the balance the same as our offer! We would like to keep the vehicle any advice would be grateful.

[jssandy01]

anyone got any ideas?