Please Help Emotional Wreck!!!!!

[housewife23]

Can anyone give me some advice on this matter please??

 

My husband got a car on finace in oct 2007. The finace was through GE MONEY.

Some time last year our finace was taken over by Santander. We werent given anything to sign.

 

In febuary this year we had a new addition to the family, which caused us to some finacial difficulty, due to my husband taking paternity leave and receiving a basic benefit. I'm self employed, so on maternity benefit through the government.

We struggled to keep up with everything, and missed a payment. The following month we missed another payment. As my husband had returned to work full time, our plan was to make a double payment over the next two months so that the account could be brought up to date. However, we recieved the following letter from Santander requesting return of the car:-

 

13th April 2010

 

Dear ---------

 

NOTICE OF TERMINATION

 

You have disregarded our previous notice of default and as a consequence we give you notice that we hereby terminate the hiring and agreement forthwith.

 

You are therefore no longer with our consent in possession of our property as scheduled below, and we now formally request its return.

 

AGREEMENT NUMBER ----------

DATED 23rd oct 2007

VEHICLE ----------

REGISTRATION ------------

 

 

This put my husband and I into complete "meltdown" and we made the decision not to make any further payment on the car, as we presumed the notice meant it was being re-possessed.

We phoned and asked where to return the car, and were told we couldn't return it. Despite the earlier correspondence, Santander informed us they had to send a letter out for us to sign saying we were voluntarily surrendering our vehicle. This letter read:

 

6th May 2010

 

Dear ----------

 

You have recently contacted us to express an intrest in voluntarily surrendering your vechicle. In order to return the vehicle, you are required to fully complete and sign the enclosed voluntary surrender document and return it to us.

Please also include the £70.50 uplift fee required.

 

You must enclose your registration document (V5), to enable the sale of the vehicle. Failure to do this may result in a reduced sale price for the vehicle, thus increasing your liability. If you are not in possession of the V5 you must contact the DVLA on the telephone to obtain a replacement.

 

On receipt of the fully completed and signed and witnessed voluntary surrender document, an agent will issued to uplift the vehicle. The vehicle must remain in your possession until uplifted by the agent and must have a current M.O.T. (if over 3 years old) and V5.

 

The vehicle will be sold at auction to obtain the best market value and the net sale proceeds will be credited to your agreement. You will then be notified of any remaining liability and will be required to pay this balance immediately. Failure to make this payment, may result in your agreement being passed for further action.

 

If you have any further queries, please contact us on the number below.

 

 

Then on the 13th May we recieved a letter from dc code red collection services. They were demanding the full balance of the car and charges. This reads:-

 

13 May 2010,

 

Dear Mr ---

48HOUR NOTICE

Telephone Number 0844 848 8943

 

We have been instructed by our client to collect the sum of £3778.32 plus charges of £120.00 on your agreement.

Creditor: Santander Consumer Finance

Agreement Number --------

Balance £33778.32

Arrears including charges: £618.52

 

Please contact this office within 48hours of receipt of this letter, on telephone number 0844 848 8943 to resolve this matter. Failure to satisfy the Terms of your Agreement may result in court proceedings being taken against you.

 

All correspondence and communications should be directed to Code Red Collections Services, as we are now dealing with your agreement. This should be treated as a matter of urgency.

Please do not ignore this letter.

Yours sincerely

 

My husband rang the company and offered to pay £50 per month to pay off the arrears and charges, but this was refused as they will only accept a significant amount above regular payment.

 

We are so confused by all this. There seems to have been a lot of contradiction, especially as we have not been voluntarily surrendering our car.

 

Is there anyone out there who could help us sort out this mess, and make a suggestion as to the best way to proceed.

 

A very worried housewife24.

[dx100uk]

ok

don't do anything rash like VT the car etc

 

look on your agreement and find the bit that says levels of payment with the car etc

 

typically you dont need to do this and there will be holes in the agreement too.

 

don't pay anything either to anyone yet.

 

can you please scan up the agreement [removing pers info] but leave figures.

 

if you use our search in te blue bar above foe GE money there are other threads you can read to get some info too

 

i'll get someone onboard to help better

 

for now sit tight dont do ANYTHING rash and scan that agreement up.

 

dx

[Pinky69]

They cannot take the car without a court order if you have paid at least one-third of the agreement. They also cannot take a car on your property without your permission unless they have a court order. Obviously they have no intention of going to court and have passed it in to a DCA.

 

Did you receive a Notice Of Assignment from the original creditor saying they had assigned the debt to the DCA? If not, you have no proof that the DCA has any lawful right to ask you for payment on this at all. Insist on a copy of an NOA from the original creditor.

 

Make a request to the DCA for a copy of the original agreement. They have 12(+2 for admin) days to reply. If they don't reply in that time, they go into default of your request and you don't have to pay them until and unless they produce a copy.

 

CCA request letter.

 

Enclose a £1 postal order and print, don't sign, your name. Scan whatever they send and post it on here, covering over your personal details, and we will have a look at it to check for enforceability.

 

There is nothing to worry about at all. If the paperwork happens to be in order, you decide at what rate you will pay, not the DCA. They have now power to do anything at all. Only a court can make an order for you to pay and they would never order you to pay more than you can afford. The DCAs know this and know a court would take a dim view of any proceedings when you were paying regularly so the possibilty of court action is minimal. Ignore their threatening letters - they are all gob and trousers - and if they had more than one brain cell they would be dangerous. You are in control of this, not them. Golden Rule - NEVER speak to them on the phone. They will only try to bully you into payment. If they call hang up, setting the phone beside a very loud telly. So enjoy the nice weather this weekend.

[42man]

Do you still have the default notice by chance ?

[rebel11]

DX

 

Good post

[postggj]

hi housewife and welcome

 

can you please do as dx advised and post up the agreement to begin with

 

deleate personal info but leave in the figures

 

scan into your computer and upload to your thread by googling photobucket

 

any probs and ill do it for you

 

was the agreement

 

hp

conditional sale

fixed sum loan agreement

etc, etc

[postggj]

by the way

 

code red are abbey/santander own internal debt colection agency

 

 

the account is still in house

[surprise]

With regard to the default notice you should have 14 days notice, however, if they are true to form the default notice will have been dated on a Sunday, sent second class post which means you will have received nothing like the 14 requisite days. Hopefully, you have the envelop it arrived in so that you can check all the dates.

 

They are an absolute nightmare to deal with I know from when I took up my daughter's case for her it took from Feb 07 to Sept 07 to get it sorted and it cost GEMoney a lot of money.

 

Good luck with this but you will need to have a great deal of patience as the number of bog standard letters you will get is unbelievable and they never actually respond with a direct answer.

[housewife23]

Hi Everyone,

 

Thanks for all the help. I have a feeling I'm going to need loads of it!

Hubby reckons we did get default notice, but pretty certain that got shredded by mistake with some other docs while I was in hospital.

 

Posting up the copy of Agreement.

 

HW23

Edited May 22, 2010 by cerberusalert

[dx100uk]

you need to remove the make and VIN number.....

 

oh its signed by a witness

that wasn't one of the reps at the showroom was it?

if it was the blows the agreement out the water totally.

 

and you have PPI too!!

 

i think you might be on a winner here.

 

dx

[housewife23]

Thank you.

My husband no longer wants to be involved with this company and is willing for the car to be taken away (he would deliver to a garage) as this has caused so much stress. Does anyone know where i need to go from here?

 

No idea if it was at show room. But that was where everything else was signed.

[housewife23]

Does anyone know how i take the make and vin number off please

[cerberusalert]

I've edited it for you.

[dx100uk]

Thank you.

My husband no longer wants to be involved with this company and is willing for the car to be taken away (he would deliver to a garage) as this has caused so much stress. Does anyone know where i need to go from here?

 

No idea if it was at show room. But that was where everything else was signed.

 

'if everything else' was done at the showroom then i bet the witness sig IS an employee

if thats the case the agreement is void. the car is your and so is the money.

 

you owe them nothing!

 

now i'd ping postggj and get him to confirm my thoughts

 

well done

 

dx

[Pinky69]

Not only that but they have included a fee in the total charge for credit and they cannot do that. Fees must be billed separately. This makes the agreement unenforceable.

[housewife23]

Really!!!!! Can you give me some advice on what i should do now regarding this matter.

 

I am most greatful for all the help and advice

[Pinky69]

It is even better than unenforceable - it sounds as if it is Null and Void. DX will no doubt find postggj for you and they will get back to you.

[frettful38]

Not only that but they have included a fee in the total charge for credit and they cannot do that. Fees must be billed separately. This makes the agreement unenforceable.

 

Hi pinky, does the above only apply to regulated agreements? I mean should the fees be shown separately in their own box with their own terms? and would the above info apply to un-regulated agreements too?

 

Thanks if you know the answer, if not no probs:D

[Pinky69]

Unregulated agreements under £25000 come under the same rules as regulated agreements but only from last year so if it is older than that it isn't covered by the CCA 1974. However, some unregulated agreements can be split up into different parts depending on what the loan was used for and how it was drawn up. This is called a Multi Agreement.

 

The best thing to do is to go into the Sticky on Multiple Agreements at the top of this forum and tell them what kind of agreement it is, what it was for, how it was paid out to you and what the credit included and they will advise you on whether or not you have a multi agreement.

[frettful38]

Thanks pinky, will do as advised.

[housewife23]

If the contract is void how do i go about getting this confermed. Does any one know where i go from here please.

Any suggestions would be a great help thank you

[postggj]

hi housewife

 

check back tonight and ill have a letter for you putting the account into dispute.

 

they will then have to give a full and final response before they do anything else

 

when you send it, try and do some reserch as you need to understand your own dispute

 

ill handle the regs but you will need to suply the brain power

 

midnight oil comes to mind

[postggj]

message to all

 

thats the importance of posting up the agreement

 

writing down figures is one thing but having it in black and white is a goldmine

 

the way the agreement is laid out has as much importance as the figures

[postggj]

to begin with ime running the figures

 

please confirm

 

1/ amount of credit

2/ total amount payable

3/ how many months is the agreement over

4/ acceptance fee

5/ any option to purchase fee

6/ apr

7/ cash price of vehicle (on the invoice from the garage)

8/ total cost of down payment and/or deposit

9/ MONTHLY REPAYMENT

 

 

WHEN DID YOU (DATE) THATS YOU, SIGN THE AGREEMENT

Edited May 23, 2010 by postggj

[housewife23]

Does anyone know where i go from here then? If the contract is void how would i go about proving this?

Thank you