Motonovo Finance Illegal? car repossession

[queendudette]

Hi all, I'm new to this and really need advice.

 

Ill try to keep this short as its a very long story, so I'm just going to put the end part of it.

 

Last Wednesday two men turned up to repossess my dads car (ill put pointers at the end of how it got to this stage)

 

We had no warning of them coming and

my dad told them to go away as the car is parked on private property (he knows his rights)

 

they said they had every right to take the car as the left hand rear tyre was an 1in on the pavement (he parks it behind mine on the long driveway).

 

my dad calls the police and so do the collection men.

 

4 of them turns up at our house,

they then inform my dad that they can take the vehicle because of the tyre touching the pavement,

to which my dad tells them that as long as 3 tyres are on the driveway (plus 17in of an 18in tyre) they need a court order.

 

However the men start spouting a load of BS saying

"Yeah we can, we know the law, we have a warrant" and all that

 

however when asked to show a court warrant they turn around and say we only have this from the company.

(Which you can probably guess not a court order)

 

now the police turn around and say "Well this is a civil matter, we cannot get involved, we are just here to stop a breach of the peace.

 

my dad is left in a no win situation,

these men then call a tow truck to drag the car off the driveway to which the police won't stop as they say they cannot get involved.

 

my dad has to stand there and watch he car get dragged away.

 

As you can imagine my dad is very upset and very angry.

 

He has been told by debtline, the financial ombudsman and his solicitor that what they did was illegal

and not only did they not send a repossession order,

they haven't sent a termination notice

nor did they have the court order to take it off the driveway

and that the car must be touching the road not the pavement.

 

They have also told him to put in a formal complaint to the police as they let them take the car.

 

Now this is where I need advice as my dad really does not want to put in complaint as he has high regard for the police,

but doesn't he have to cover his own back??

 

And can the police actually get involved with it being a civil matter??

And if they can't they do they call it an illegal repossession??

 

This all start when my dad got two payments behind after losing his job,

 

he had been in contact with the company the whole time offering them a payment plan to which they refused,

on the advice of debtline and the ombudsman (he has been in contact with them since this started)

he started paying the arrears off online.

 

He has paid them £1354 and as of last Monday two days before this happened he was fully up to date.

 

Also what do you think will happen now?

 

His legal team are saying they must return the vehicle but

the finance company are just saying they are putting the account on hold??

 

If they send the car back should he accept it?

 

I mean why on earth would you want to stay with a company this does something this disgusting,

 

I'm in disbelief at all this.

 

Thanks again for reading any advice would be great.

[theoldrouge]

hi and welcome to CAG

 

who are the finance co

 

what type of agreement eg hp, cond sale etc

 

total of agreement, without any ins addons

 

amount paid to date inc deposit

[dx100uk]

name and shame please

 

has he paid more that 1/3rd

 

if he has they NEED A COURT ORDER WHEREVER ITS PARKED.

 

section 90 referes here

 

he should entitled to ALL his moneyback AND the car

they have broken the CCA.

 

There are specific circumstances in which a finance company must obtain a court order in advance in order to be able to repossess your car.

 

 

For example, if the car was repossessed by virtue of a hire purchase agreement and you have paid more than one third of the total price of the car under the agreement then this means that the car becomes protected goods.

 

 

The consequence of this is that a lender is required to obtain a court order to repossess the car

– if they do not then you may well have a valid compensation claim as a result.

 

Where the value of the car finance is less than one third paid or if you gave valid written consent for the car to be taken then this protection may not be available to you.

 

 

The relevant section of the legislation is section 90 of the consumer crediticon Act 1974 and this applies to repossessions that have taken place within the last six years.

 

In addition to being able to claim compensation for an unlawful car repossession,

where a car has been taken without a court order in circumstances that require one then you might also be able to obtain a release from the liability in the contract

(for example the hire purchase agreement),

which effectively means that the debt ceases to exist.

 

 

Compensation can include the amount you have already made in hire purchase payments to the finance company,

as well as the cash received by the finance company if the car was sold on after it was repossessed.

[queendudette]

Hi that's for replying.

 

The company is Motonovo Finance,

 

It's on HP I don't know the total figures but I know its around £16000 and he has paid £3500

 

I know this is not more than a third but the car was parked on private property.

 

We was never informed of them coming nor did they have a court order to remove it from the property.

 

I know they need this and am also aware of what they must send you before they can send collection men to your house.

 

What I really need to know is the civil areas this and the police because we are being told to put in a complaint but my dad keeps saying well it is a civil matter what can the police do? But shouldn't they have stopped them? They did not have any warrant, court order, no legal papers what so ever. All they had was one piece of paper from Motonovo saying they are there to repossess the car. Also my dad did not sign anything either when they took the car.

[theoldrouge]

there are a few issues here

 

did they actually come onto your property to remove the car

 

technically they should have been prevented from doing this

 

but unless any damage was caused, then the only remedy

 

is a claim for trespass, barely worth the bother,

 

except for licensing issues

 

The important matters are what he received prior to the repo

 

default notice, with 14 clear days to remedy

[dx100uk]

under 1/3rd if its on the road [and the pavement is part of the highway]

they can take it court order or not

 

but as the master TOR says

 

they must have issued a dn with a complaint date in the dd/mm/yyyy format giving +14 days prior to removal.

 

who was the collection agents

 

also how are you gauging the 1/3rd?

 

we need to see the agreement

[queendudette]

Yes course they did the car was parked on it they had to, to remove the car.

 

The police just said they wasn't going to get involved and my dad would have to sort it out after.

 

A default notice was sent but my dad had offered them the payment plan which they kept refusing and he made payments and has paid off the outstanding areas.

 

No termination notice has been sent nor repossession order.

 

The account isn't terminated still they have put it on hold until they have "looked into it" is what they are saying.

 

So now my dad has paid for this car and doesn't have it. The whole things a joke.

 

Also what happens about the V5?? I know a car cannot be sold without this so what will happen if they try and sell it now? Because after all the sneaky crap they have done so far I wouldn't put it past them

[theoldrouge]

did he pay the arrears in full before the expiry of the default notice?

 

sadly as said as regards the repo

 

yes you could have ordered them off your land

 

but as the car has been taken

 

the only remedy on that score is a claim for trespass

[theoldrouge]

if he did not pay the arrears in full before expiry of the dn

 

I would suggest that you request that they return the car

 

and if he is still having problems with the payments

 

that he looks into a time order

 

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/06C%20EW%20Time%20order%20-%20hire%20purchase%20or%20conditional%20sale/Default.aspx