made to surrender car after missing 2 payments

[roxi2010]

Hi, please bear with me, this is my first thread.

I got into financial difficulty in 2005 and as a result I missed two or three payments. The finance agreement was with MG Rover on a 3 year payment term after which I would pay the outstanding amount in one lump some, give it back or trade it for a new one. I had no difficulty paying until the last few payments. The finance company sent me a letter saying they were sending someone round to discuss my options, by the time he came I had managed to get the money together to pay what I owed however, he said that he was unable to except anything less than the full outstanding amount and if I couldn't pay then either I'd would have to surrender it or they would get a court order and take it. I was so upset that I agreed to let it go. They then put it through the auctions and I am still paying the difference back to them.

The reason I am now posting this thread is because someone has just told me that I have been misled and I could of paid only the arrears, If this this is the case does anyone know what I should do? I still owe £1200.

Any advice would be appreciated.

carrie

[grantyblade]

Roxy,

 

Don't know exactly how it works with whatever agreement you had. Was it a PCP or HP? If it's HP you will be in a situation similar to mine. The law on HP is that when you have paid a 1/3 of the agreement, they cannot repossess the car unless they obtain a court order, if they repossessed it without one you would be laughing, take them to court. When you have paid 1/2 the amount on agreement you can just hand the car back without being liable for any other charges. The amount should be detailed on your agreement under Termination - Your rights. Did they serve you with any Default Notice or Termination Notice because as I have learnt recently, many of these can be deemed invalid and unenforceable. Reasons to this is because of incorrect wordings, insufficent time given to remedy your account etc etc. Because you have now Voluntarily surrendered your car I'm not 100% where you may stand. What paperwork did you get around this time? I would suggest you send a SUBJECT ACCESS REPORT request. It will cost you £10 but they have to send you every little scrap of info they hold on you, it can be very interesting and may hold the key to helping you out.

 

Good luck

[buzby]

As Granty suggests, your rights depend on the wording of the precise arrangement you had. A SAR only gives you access to information on YOU, you know about you and your payments. This may not give you the terms of your agreement prevailing at the time you took it out.

 

The issue is, what can you do about it? The car has gone back, and you are paying off the shortfall. It is too late to get the car back, and since the only thing you could do is attempt to sue the firm for your losses, you would need to prove they had done something wrong. Whereas they can prove to the court YOU were the defaulter and as evidence of this returned the vehicle. Faced with this, your action will not be easy, and end up costing you more.

 

Read your original agreement on the options on cancelling or on enforced termination, and use this as your basis for deciding what to do next.