hi!

I had a vehicle finance agreement taken out in 2017 with a car dealership in Manchester, the finance company are Motonovo.

The rough figures were £8000 for the vehicle and very high APR meaning the total of credit was almost £12,000.

I lost my job in 2018, and was unable to keep up repayments, the car was eventually repossessed in October 2018, I dealt with this amicably, as I had no job and no real reason to have the car anyway.

There was a Voluntary Termination clause in the agreement, which I had told Motonovo I would like to use, Motonovo are claiming "they did not hear from me" and thus they instructed agent recovery and cancelled the finance agreement. I do have quite a few emails which highlight the conversations, but nothing formal, at the time I was hugely worried about finances, and not sure what to do.

When the car was taken away, I received a Vehicle Appraisal and Condition report from Ceatta Ltd, who marked all conditions as good.

I've since received a demand from Motonovo Finance for £4398 which they say is an outstanding liability. I complained to them about the communication and said the outstanding sum is unfair bearing in mind previous discussions and the fact I no longer have the car, and have made almost 12 months of payments prior to it being repossessed.

They have passed the debt to DWF LLP, who are now chasing me with letters and phone calls.

As I am not employed, I just wonder what the best way to deal with DWF would be?? Obviously I'd rather not pay it - I'd even consider bankruptcy.

What are my best options?

Why consider bankruptcy over this? If you told them you wanted to VT, then youre only liable for up to a set amount of the loan plus any arrears.

Did any of your emails to them state the VT? remember, sub prime financers will always lie or claim something wasnt said to them.

Because it's got to the stage where Motonovo have now sold the loan on, I dont think I have any options regarding the agreement.

You do if you told them you wanted to VT and they ignored it. And are you sure theyve sold it on? If so, who to. DWF just chase people. Not buy debts.

Why consider bankruptcy over this? If you told them you wanted to VT, then youre only liable for up to a set amount of the loan plus any arrears.

 

Did any of your emails to them state the VT? remember, sub prime financers will always lie or claim something wasnt said to them.

The final letter from Motonovo says that I had requested the VT - but that they had then tried to contact me again, and heard nothing - hence they got the recovery agent involved.

Just reading the letters again.... not sure now....

Payment details are to DWF LLP's Natwest Account. Motonovo are saying "we have passed your debt to DWF to come to an affordable arrangement"

I think i will contact Motonovo again to ask the question....

i'd SAR them and get EVERYTHING they have on your account.

i'd SAR them and get EVERYTHING they have on your account.

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.

Hi

To expand a little, send a SAR to Motonovo and not DWF as they won't have all the info on your case.

SAR is free and tells them to send everything they have on the account to you. They have a set timeframe to send you it too. I wouldnt go wading in too deep without all the facts. That way you have ammunition against them. They certainly shouldnt be ignoring the fact you wanted to VT simply because you didnt reply in their timeframe.

Hi

To expand a little, send a SAR to Motonovo and not DWF as they won't have all the info on your case.

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

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!

well. The SAR compels them to send the info you ask for. If they dont, you can take them to court and sue them for the info as they didnt comply with your legal request.

Thats why you need to sar them and get all the info you have. SO you can reclaim if possible and find out exactly what you do owe. Not what they claim you owe.

Thats why you need to sar them and get all the info you have. SO you can reclaim if possible and find out exactly what you do owe. Not what they claim you owe.

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

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

dwf just chase debts ignore them.

on VT you will owe upto the 50% mark after the auction sale price of the car is removed from the balance to 50% owing

looks ilke they pulled a fast one and did VS because you didn't reply to something that should be in writing only not a text nor email.

they will also have charged you repo fees which they cant.

so have you a breakdown of the figure you owe?

what did they get for the car?

how much was 50% of your agreement, should be listed on the reverse side.

the fact tht you didn't WRITE and demand VT is immaterial as they state they knew you wanted VT.

pers id ignore them and let them do court as there is little they'll win at there with the trail of evidence you wanted to VT, NOT VS [owe they whole lot]

dwf are simply solicitor gofers i'd ignore them and block all text/email now.

so give us the figures please

dwf just chase debts ignore them.so give us the figures please

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

looks like you owe nowt to me.

they might even owe you!!

50% of TAP is … £6079.88

so with the payments you actually made and the sale of the car that well exceeds that figure

if you have good written proof via your comms that you wanted VT not VS, pers i'd ignore them and let them goto court where by you'll prove you case and counterclaim for the excess over £6079.88 back .

upto you if you ignore or WRITE ONLY telling them the above.

pers I think they are trying to pull a fast one and see if you can be mugged.

Sorry, I am a bit confused.

The 50% then would be if they had agreed to the VT?

Doesnt matter if they agree to it or not. Once you say you want to VT, they have to do it. Not just shrug and do whatever the hell they want.

Thats why your emails and that SAR is so important.

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

in post 1

There was a Voluntary Termination clause in the agreement, which I had told Motonovo I would like to use,

if you have proof of this, gameover for them.

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.