Car repossessed off drive but Unregulated agreement

[shadowknight]

Hi

 

I have a similar tale to tell to the legendary Wannabedebtfreesoon, but with the added complication that my agreement was for over £25k in 2006

 

I took out an agreement in 2006 for a car over 48 months. The dealer salesman made a last minute switch of lender and told me it was exactly the same terms as Mercedes finance, this turned out not to be true and after the 48months I was held liable for the balloon payment of approx £17800.

 

Having complained about the misrepresentation to the dealer, he agreed to buy the car back for the amount outstanding if I purchased another, which I agreed to.

 

Before this could take place the Finance Co repossessed the car from my drive against my wishes, and eventually sold it at auction and claimed against me for the shortfall. They now have a charging order against the family home which is jointly owned (mortgaged) by me and my partner. She is not part of the original car loan.

 

They did not send a notice of termination, or default , but the repo agent produced one dated the 16th of the month, but the repo date was only 5 days later. There are several discrepancies between the amount they claimed I owed and the default notice; at one point I was told that the agreement terminated two months earlier despite further direct debit payments being taken on the usual due date.

 

I am aware that they do not have to adhere to the CCA but can they enter my premises without permission to repossess and call the Police to help them with a bogus accusation of assault, which was, of course, immediately dropped when the Police attended? I gave the keys to the police officer, not the agent, after I again expressed my doubts as to the legality of the repossession, and he snapped at me that he had been patient enough...

[rebel11]

Hi shadow

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

[cyril1982]

since the agreement was unregulated by the CCA i suggest you take a read over the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations, here is a link ..... http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2083/contents/made

 

take a look at shedule 2 at the bottom, it is a non exustive list of terms and actions that might be deemed unfair.

 

if non apply take a thourough read over the rest of the regulations see if you think you may have a case to argue under these regulations.

 

may also be worth contacting your local trading standards if you think the car dealer acted innapropriately.

 

best of luck.

[shadowknight]

Hi and thanks

 

Trading Standards have said that they cannot help as it has gone to the courts.

This section,

(i)irrevocably binding the consumer to terms with which he had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted before the conclusion of the contract;

may be of interest, as they dropped this change on me just as I was due to pick the car up and said nothing had changed; MB Finance agreements allowed the return of the car at the end, and they made sure all the other terms, deposit, final value , monthly payment, term etc were identical, and made great effort to point those similarities out whilst not mentioning the main difference

 

I would be interested to find out if they have a legal obligation to allow a fixed amount of time, say 7 days in order for me as the consumer to remedy any default- in this case pay the ballon payment, or whether as it is an unregulated agreement, whether they can simply turn up anytime

Edited February 15, 2012 by shadowknight

[cyril1982]

although unlike regulated agreements there is no set timeframes for default notices etc the company have to act fairly and reasonably or risk breaching the unfair terms in consumer contracts act. How far behind were you with the monthly repayments? or was it just a case that you couldn't pay the balloon? if so how overdue was the balloon?

[shadowknight]

The letter they sent to me said the balloon was due on 30/06/10. They repo'd the vehicle on 20/7/10 and the phantom default notice was dated 16/07/10. Their own terms on the back of the agreement said that they assumed service 2 days after the date of posting, ie 18/7 , which means they allowed just 48 hrs before action. The payment were either up to date, or 1.5 payment behind depending on the due date of the payments which was delayed due to a change in due date sometime during the 4 years that I paid, at £663.61 per month I may add.

 

The balloon payment came as a shock to me as I was under the impression that I could hand the car back, which is why Mercedes offered to px the car and pay off the outstanding balance when I bought my new car from them. If they had just waited a couple of weeks, I would have paid the full outstanding sum in full. This is why it didn't make sense to allow them to take the car. I would have gone to the Merc dealer the next day and taken out a deal to pay off this agreement which surely would have been better for all parties?

 

I have been looking over the letters I still have on all this. I have a letter dated 24 May 2010 which does not mention any arrears, but confirms that £17,550.00 is due on 30/6/10. And another dated 15/4/10 sayng I was £990.83 in arrears and so the agreement is hereby terminated, and that I should deliver the car to the company..... only just found this last one, so if it was terminated by them why take further DD payments at the normal rate, or send further letters saying my balloon was due in June? trying hard to make the figures add up, as the default notice handed to me by the collection agent repo guy said I owed £18565.83, but he asked for £18575.83 which is on his copy of the repo request which I kept....