rights to sell veh on hp

[swindondave]

ok title maybe alittle obscure without details,so heres my basics in short...

 

i arranged to pay outstanding council tax with the council at £68 a month,(40 towards this yrs,rest towards arrears), and paid on time every month for a year. after the yr,bailifs started their usual threats and demands for the outstanding balance,so i went back to council who apologised and admitted they made an error,saying the agreed 68pm wasnt actualy going towards arrears at all like they said was,and was in fact just this years owed,and that now bailifs are involved they cant call them off without full payment!

 

 

anyway-i digress abit...these pages are very usefull,so all i am wondering about realy is if i should decide to sell my veh (or anything else for that matter,) for,say, a £1 to my mother (veh is on hp,years payments still outstanding,never missed a payment) in order to avoid bailifs taking it while i am sorting this rubbish out,would the sale a-be legal,b-stop them taking my veh,(or of course technicaly my mothers veh),and c-since the council wont accept payments towards arrears because say its in bailifs hands (even tho was their mistake) and bailifs wont accept less than full outstanding payments,how would i go about proving i am willing to pay the arrears since no one will accept payments from me?

 

i have pretty much resigned self to sitting in my bedsit between work with the windows closed till i get this resolved properly,but am abit worried naturaly that my veh will be taken hence the enquiry-thanx for what am sure will be helpfull advice :

[rory32]

Hi and welcome to CAG.

 

You can't sell the vehicle because you don't actually own it. You don't own it until you have completed all the repayments on the hp agreement. So basically, no it's not legal to sell it to your mum.

 

I would also point out that as you don't actually yet own the vehicle they can't lawfully take it and sell it either.

 

I'll ask your post to be moved to a more appropriate forum as this is to do with bailiffs and council tax rather than a debt collection agency - bailiffs have some legal powers DCA's have none.

[swindondave]

knew they couldnt sell it,just didnt want to pop to shops n find they took it as then have to pay fee to get it back after proved was on hp-presumably though i could sell,say,my pc to mum so they wouldnt take that if they were somehow to get in?

 

am still unsure as to what action to take reference payment?have offered £50per month,which considering was'nt even my fault that i got behind because council assured me i was paying off arrears all year seems more than reasonable on a low wage-just seems unbelievable that they would assume someone living in a 4 by 8 bedsit would have either enough goods to sell or any money saved to pay off a 900 pound debt out of blue to turn it down (and councils sending bailifs onto me when was them that assured me i was paying arrears all year,and then just giving me a verbal apology and wiping hands of matter, seems almost as unbeleivable as bailiffs refusal to accept payment offer...)

thanx again for reply

[chris600uk]

knew they couldnt sell it,just didnt want to pop to shops n find they took it as then have to pay fee to get it back after proved was on hp

 

No Dave, you don't pay for an illegal levy - which is what seizing property that doesn't belong to the debtor is. They are supposed to do checks to ensure that the vehicle is yours, and a hpi would show it still belonged to the finance company.

 

i could sell,say,my pc to mum so they wouldnt take that if they were somehow to get in?

 

You certainly could, you must have a receipt to prove that you've sold it, and your mum would have to be prepared to make a statutory declaration to claim the goods as hers.

 

am still unsure as to what action to take reference payment?have offered £50per month

 

If you can pay that online I'd pay it direct to the council so long as you can be sure it's going off your arrears and not the current years tax.

If you ask them to take payment they'll almost certainly refuse and tell you to pay the bailiff - but paying it online gets round that.

 

just seems unbelievable that they would assume someone living in a 4 by 8 bedsit would have either enough goods to sell or any money saved to pay off a 900 pound debt out of blue to turn it down (and councils sending bailifs onto me when was them that assured me i was paying arrears all year,and then just giving me a verbal apology and wiping hands of matter, seems almost as unbeleivable as bailiffs refusal to accept payment offer...)

thanx again for reply

 

They aren't interested in being reasonable - but if the bailiffs are unable to get any money out of you, they'll hand the account back to the council.