personall guarentee help please!

[loppey]

please can anyone offer me any advice????

 

I was down a a company secretary, the company has ceased trading since June 09, Resulting in vehicles being repossessed etc,

I was aware of a personal guarantee i had placed on one of the vehicles and have spent the last 4 months trying to resolve it which i settled with the company 2 weeks ago,

 

Just when i thought i could breath a sigh of relief i recieved a letter on Thursday saying that one of the other finance companys had changed hands in July 2009 but this would make difference to my guarentee, On Friday i recieved a letter from the finance company asking my payment proposals for 20k which is the outstanding ammount.

As you can imagine this came as a total shock as i was not aware of a PG other than the one i settled, I have not personally recieved any letters for late payment issues before the vehicle was repossed etc, The ltd company recieved letters from solicitors in Nov 09 saying the company had 14 days to make full payment or court action would be taken We were advised to let this happen. Interestingly the solicitors was the same as the ones used when i settled the PG,

I rang the finance company and was informed that there was a guarentee in place, they have sent this to me and it does appear that i have signed something, but this was for a vehicle we purchased in 07, sold and repaid the outstanding amount we used the same company to finance to buy a new vechile, surely that can not us that and if so should i not of been made aware, I honestly had no idea that i had signed a Pg in the first place i was told i was a second signature as it was a ltd company so required 2 signatures, All these " deals" were done in car parks. stupid i know but at the time .....

I have settled one PG and paid expensive solicitor fees to do this can anyone please give me advice on what i can do by my self and how i can tackle this and get any other info they have on me

j

[MrShed]

Are you saying that a totally new finance was taken out after the finance that you signed was settled? And it is this finance you are being chased for?

[loppey]

Yes, Original finance was settled and we used the same company to finance another vehicle, the new finance has a complete different agreement number, Although the guarantee i signed has no agreement number on it is clearly dated as the same date the first finance was taken out, i had no idea this was a personal guarantee.

 

where i signed it says " signed as a deed by the guarantor and indemnifier, if the guarantor or indemnifier is a ltd company 2 directors or a director and secretary must sign on behalf of the company"

 

I honestly thought i was a second signature what do i do

[MrShed]

Right, two things.

 

First and foremost, I would tell them to FO with two fingers firmly in the air. They cant transfer the guarantor agreement between agreements.

 

Secondly, I thought the whole point of a LIMITED company was that the company is that exposed, NOT the individual.

 

It even specifies as you have said above that you have NOT signed as a guarantor, but ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY.

 

They are trying it on.

 

I would be inclined to write back to them and simply state you owe them no money, their agreement was with the limited company, and you will not enter into any further correspondance.

 

ALL THAT SAID - await other posters, as this is way outside of my field of expertise.

[loppey]

Thank you Mr Shed will do

[loppey]

Can anybody else suggest what i should do or give me names of a solicitor etc that can help

 

many thanks

[palomino]

I would be a little cautious about telling the solicitors to go away.

 

The wording of the guarantee might allow it to be used with any loan or credit agreement - as you have said yourself it doesn't have an agreement number on it.

In any case you have not said that the guarantee was discharged when the first loan was paid off.

 

If you have signed the guarantee as the guarantor then there must be two other signatures on the document which must both be directors because you were the Company Secretary and you can't sign as both Guarantor and CS. If you did then you have unwittingly dug a big hole for yourself.

 

In response to MrShed's point : it is quite common for banks and other financial institutions to require a personal guarantee when lending money. In business situations it is also quite common for the creditor to be very hard-nosed about enforcing the guarantee.

[MrShed]

Bear in mind palomino the quote above by the OP:

 

where i signed it says " signed as a deed by the guarantor and indemnifier, if the guarantor or indemnifier is a ltd company 2 directors or a director and secretary must sign on behalf of the company"

 

IF its a limited company, they are signing on BEHALF of the company.

 

However I freely admit that I am way out of my comfort zone on this one.

[palomino]

MrShed - I agree it is ambiguously worded (and I went the wrong way).

 

If the OP signed in his personal capacity then his own, single signature fulfils the requirements. I believe this is the situation here.

Alternatively the guarantor could be a limited company (guaranteeing the loan to another limited company) in which the two-signatures part applies.

 

Hence we now need to ask where the OP signed the form : presumably as an individual guarantor.