Capital Bank (RBS) - Vehicle Hired by my Ltd Co. - Unregulated Vehicle Finance

[allets]

Hello all Cag’ers.

I have a problem with an unregulated motor finance agreement for a Ltd company.

 

In November 2006 my business partner and myself purchased two motor vehicles for our Ltd company. The credit agreement was taken up with Capital Bank (part of Bank of Scotland).

 

Due to the economic climate and circumstances, we had to return the vehicles back to the hire company.

 

As I understood at the time, once you had met 50% of the payments (including any deposit made) you had the right to return them.

 

Upon telephoning Capital bank, they sprung the surprise to us that the HP Agreement was unregulated. This meant that normal HP rules did not apply. If we surrendered the vehicles, then we would be liable for any resulting shortfall. At the time the finance was taken out, no mention of an unregulated agreement was mentioned.

 

I received a letter from Bank of Scotland this morning stating that we are £13,000 short and they are demanding the money. They have also placed it in the hands of BPO Collections Ltd.

 

At the time we took out the agreement, the total cost of HP for both vehicles came to £46,906.80 served on one HP agreement.

 

I am sure that I have heard somewhere that this business of unregulated HP has changed, but I don’t know when and whose policies it applies to.

I have had a look around on here, but information regarding unregulated HP is a little sparse.

 

Could somebody please advise, before I start my letter writing, as I would like to be armed with a little more information.

 

Regards,

Allets.

[postggj]

morning allets

 

to begin with can you state what is on the top of the agreement

 

some thing like this

hire purchess/credit agreement/fixed sum loan agreement regulated by the consumer credit act 1974

 

get the idea

[allets]

Hello Postggi.

I hopefully have attached the scanned images of the agreement with relevant info rubbed out.

 

 

 

First pictures are a bit small, hopefully these are better to read.

 

I cant post a decent sized image, so have provided a link.

 

http://i521.photobucket.com/albums/w331/vaz6027/HP021-1.jpg

 

http://i521.photobucket.com/albums/w331/vaz6027/HP022-1.jpg

[allets]

Images have come out fine now.

[postggj]

hi alletts

much better

ill let sequenci comment first

[bigegg]

(bit of a bump).

I believe CCA 1974 only applies to agreements up to £25,000

[ScarletPimpernel]

The 'hirer' in this case is a limited company. Is the company still trading?

[allets]

The 'hirer' in this case is a limited company. Is the company still trading?

Sort of. It is basicaly dormant now to to economic circumstances. Just ticking over, but could be wound up during the next year.

[ScarletPimpernel]

Unless the directors have signed personal guarantees, then the creditor can only pursue the company. They could seek to wind it up, but if it has no assets this would seem to be pointless.

[JonCris]

No agreement signed by a limited company can be regulated.

 

However SP is correct only if the directors signed a separate personal guarantee can they chase you for payment & if you didn't they are stuffed

[allets]

We did not sign a personal guarantee for the purchase of the motor vehicles.

The Ltd company has very little in asset value, certainly less than what BPO Collections are asking for.

Although the business address is my home address, I do not want any collectors harrassing my wife or myself at home.

Is there any form of letter I can write to them stating this fact and stopping a visit(s) to my home address?

[JonCris]

Just to be sure check the agreement as some have a small & separate signature box which is the personal guarantee

 

Assuming there's isn't a PG the only way you can bring this to an end is to wind up the company

[allets]

Ok. Bit of a twist to this.

I failed to mention that I contacted a specialist law firm that deals with matters like this, back in Nov 2008, long before I came across this site.

This was submitted to Capital Bank back then, but I will need to email the law firm dealing with it to find out the progress. This was after submitting the copies of the original finance document to them.

A little embarrased regarding what they are charging me but if it gets results then I have learned a lesson to search the internet for sites like this.

 

This is the cover letter after speaking to them and emailing a copy of the HP Agreement.

 

 

This is the case letter submitted by the law firm, an SAR letter.

 

I don't know if the template used by the law firm for SAR is of any use, but if it is, feel free to make use of it.

 

As I mentioned earlier I have emailed the law firm to find out the progress of this and will post when I have the info to hand.

 

In the meantime is there anything I can add to the letter I send to BPO Collections, whilst this is in progress?

 

Regards,

Allets.

[JonCris]

Not according to the letter they sent to you. The payments mentioned in their letter are for the SAR which is perfectly normal

[JonCris]

Is this claim is against the vehicle loan

[allets]

Is this claim is against the vehicle loan

 

Hello JonCris.

Yes the claim is for the vehicle loan. I don't know what they found, but after emailing them the relevant docs, those were the letters I received from them.

They come highly recommended by a forum member on another board. who have helped them out over financial matters in the past.

[allets]

This is the letter I received from Bank of Scotland.

 

 

This is the letter I am thinking of sending to bpo. Am I leaving myself open to anything?

 

[JonCris]

but your not liable so just in what capacity are you writing is it as a director or personal.

 

Also are the lawyers acting for you to recover the approx. £5K aware that any refund might be off set against the outstanding debt & that you may be responsible for their fees

 

Also be careful if your trading whilst insolvent you could be held liable for the companies debts

[allets]

Hello JonCris.

I was just penning a letter to them to let them the situation and also as a director and company secretary. Would it be better to just ignore the letter?

If they are charging 20% as a fee, I would have thought that this would be taken from the resulting refund (if any) and the remainder passed to the finance company, or does it not work like that.

The company is not insolvent, but neither does it have that amount of money to settle the shortfall.

[JonCris]

If you can't arrange to pay & your still in business then they will keep chasing until at some point they will probably petition for your firms bankruptcy