I'll wait to see what they come back with! Thanks for the advice so far.

Okie doke, I'll send a generic email back to say I will wait for the SAR info. Typically, I am struggling to find more emails than I think I need to support this that go beyond the last communication above. I think my plan will be to string this out as long as possible, and throw as much argument their way as I can. They knew literally from about month 3 of the agreement that I was in trouble with money.

No, at no point was the difference between VT and VS explained properly. I'd had problems with the finance though for months, and had been in contact with them to discuss payment arrangements, lower payments for a while, and then catching up. the communication had been very consistent from me taking the finance, up until May 2018, when I started panicking. I'd been very straight with them about job changes, and had a lot of chats on the phone.

last payment would have been 1 May 2018... I'd been on a payment plan with them, and paid a big lump sum to bring me back up to date...

I got this email back from them after the botched call to discuss my options, and I'm just trying to find the remaining conversation and what I said in response. But yes, unfortunately I was under immense pressure with life and just buried my head in the sand. Good morning Thank you very much for confirming the information requested. Your agreement is currently in arrears of £1,090.01, due to a returned direct debit plus charges. Apologies for the delayed response sent the missed contact opportunity, due to being an inbound call centre it gets quite difficult for us to make follow up call and for that I can only apologise. Are you able to contact us at your earliest convenience to complete the I&E as I wouldn’t want to give a set time and not adhere to it. It appears that your next monthly instalment is due on 31st of August for £245.87, will this payment be made on time? As a notice of default has been allocated to the agreement it would provide you 21 days from date of letter (today) to bring agreement up to date, if you are unable to do so we would need to take further action to prevent the agreement falling further into arrears. We have explained the voluntary termination process below, However, you do have the option to part exchange the vehicle or sell the vehicle providing we receive full settlement. The current settlement figure stands at £8,387.25 and is valid until 03/09/2018. As outlined in your agreement you will be liable to pay upto half of the total repayable amount, If you have already passed your halfway paid mark you will be required to continue making monthly payments until your termination letter has been received, any overpayment will be used towards your liability if required. Here are a list of our requirements and charges if not present. The charges reflect the loss at auction. Current MOT certificate - £75 if missing V5 Registration document (log book) - £235 if missing Service History Book - £25 if missing Proof of regular servicing - £300 if not maintained Master/Spare Key – At BVRLA cost price Vehicle Manual - £10 Please note, this is also followed by an inspection by one our agents. They will come to inspect/collect the vehicle after arranging the best time and place with you. They will be looking for any damages to the vehicle. For example, any scratches, dents, damages to alloys etc. If any damage is found, the agent will issue you with a report. You have the opportunity to dispute any damages found, but please be assured this is reviewed by MotoNovo to ensure the inspection is fair. You will only be billed for anything above average wear and tear. If you do wish to voluntary terminate your vehicle, please confirm either via telephone or in response to this email with a handwritten letter attached and a copy of your driving licence. Once it has been received, we will pass this onto the relevant team who will start the Voluntary Termination process. You will then receive written confirmation of this and contact from your collection agents. This will be noted on your credit file as a VT “voluntary termination”, you may no longer be eligible for future finance with MotoNovo. I can note information with regards to not collecting vehicle from household however if collection of vehicle is not agreed to prior to collection and agreement is going down the route of repossession you will not be notified until arrive to collect the vehicle so it is best to work with us before it gets to that stage. Please be aware that your agreement is a fixed term contract that is secured against your vehicle. Failure to maintain payments can incur charges, affect your credit file and possibly put your vehicle at risk. Kind regards Kind Regards ****** Collector

ahhhh, what a mess this has turned out to be! desperately trying to find emails that I've sent....

Not sure I have anything concrete, they were meant to call me to discuss the VT after the option had been given to me over the phone. That phone call never happened, they forgot to make it. I dont have anything on paper that says I definitely wanted it but I do recall saying it was of interest more than once.

Another response from Motonovo: Good afternoon, Thank you for your email. I can see we responded to your email from 16th July 2018 on 6th August 2018. The advisor apologised for the delay in responding to you and then outlined your options to voluntarily terminate the agreement, sell or part-exchange, as per the request in your email. At no point did you request to voluntarily terminate you agreement, you said you would send notification within 14 days. As I advised, we are unable to action a voluntary termination without you requesting this. we tried to contact you after 6th August 2018 to chase you up on this, but you did not respond. We did not take any action to repossess the vehicle until 17th October 2018, well over the 21 days the Notice of Default gave you. We cannot leave an agreement in arrears indefinitely, as such we had no option but to repossess the vehicle when you did not contact us again. As I have confirmed, we did not receive a request from you to voluntarily terminate you agreement. In the email you have attached, you said we suggested you take one of the exit options, it does not say you wish to do this. I am unable to find any evidence that you tried to call us after 16th July 2018. I have requested our DSAR team send you all information and calls relating to your agreement. Please be advised they have up to 28 days to send you this information. Kind regards Amy ******* Customer Care

Sorry, I am a bit confused. The 50% then would be if they had agreed to the VT?

So the letter says: - Your running balance (inclusive of all fees) prior to the sale of the vehicle = £10,486.07 - Sales proceeds of £4660.00 are deduced (their typo?!) from the running balance = £5826.07 - A settlement figure was generated giving an interest rebate of £1427.54 leaving your outstanding liability at £4398.53 From the original sale: Cash Price £8695.00 Total Amount Payable £12159.76 Payments £245.87 per month 49 month agreement 18.3% APR Interest £3106.75 Admin fee A £199 Admin fee B £149

Another update: Good morning , Thank you for confirming those details. I can confirm your outstanding balance is with DWF. I can see we gave you the opportunity to voluntarily terminate the agreement after we sent you a Notice of Default. We sent you an email on 6th August 2018 confirming we had issued the Notice of Default and you had 21 days to bring the agreement up to date, or we would need to take further action. You responded to this email the same day advising you will send a letter confirming your intentions regarding the voluntary termination within the next 14 days. We did not receive any further communication from you after this point until after we had repossessed the vehicle. I can see we sent you text messages after 6th August 2018, prior to us instructing recovery agents, however we did not receive a response from you. We cannot action a voluntary termination without you requesting we do so. We did not receive any such request from you and we confirmed that we would be taking further action after 21 days. It is your responsibility to notify us if you want to voluntarily terminate the agreement, as such I cannot agree that we failed to take necessary steps. As I have confirmed, we did send you information regarding the voluntarily termination and the Notice of Default. You replied to the last email we sent you about this and the Notice of Default was sent to your address, so I am unable to agree you did not receive this information. The finance was loaned to you on the strict understanding that we would receive full settlement for it, either by the finance running the full term, or if you were in a position to pay off the finance early. While I do understand you are no longer in possession of the vehicle, this does not remove your liability to the finance that we lent you. Your agreement terms and conditions confirm you are liable for the full balance. As we have now passed your agreement on to DWF, please now refer to them to discuss your options. Kind regards Amy ******* Customer Care

right! shall get onto it and post up when things progress again....

Just wondering what my absolute best case scenario is with this matter? It just doesnt seem fair to no longer have the vehicle after paying towards it, it being repossessed, and then STILL have another £5000 to pay back!

thanks, I'll make this my next port of call. Motonovo are utterly useless with communications.

I think that's a superb idea! I have just had an automated email back from the Customer Care team at Motonovo - in terms of the SAR, I assume there is guidance on here somewhere? REALLY appreciate you taking the time to respond.