Letter before action to moneybarn help

[CMAG89]

Sent this email to moneybarn today, to be honest don't even know if I have a leg to stand on if we ended up in court. I have removed my address and name but everything else is correct. My main grievances are the fact that when I was contacted about my account in October I offered to pay any arrears up front immediately and had returned to work and gave every bit of information I could to help at the time (I have emails showing my willingness to pay and continue with our agreement). Also after the car was repossessed they sold it in the same condition, plus a few extra miles, I bought it in for around half what I had paid for it 6 months earlier. Is that even legal?.

 

 

Thanks for any help or replies, first time poster so any help would be appreciated!

 

 

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

 

 

02 November 2016

 

 

***** ***** ********

**** ********* ********

******

********

*****

 

 

Agreement number: ******

Registration Number: *******

 

 

 

I am contacting you today to inform you I intend to start court proceedings against your company regarding the current default I have on my credit file and the way you bullied and intimidated me into repossessing my car and destroying my credit score.

 

 

I entered into a credit agreement with your company on the 12/06/2015. The total amount of credit was £7795.00, the total amount payable was £14,948.28 and the term of agreement was 60 months.

 

 

I was informed in October 2015 that my account was in default by some £470 and I informed you that I had recently lost my job but was in the process of finding work, I subsequently found a new job and informed you of such. I was in contact with a member of your staff a Mr **** *****, firstly via phone and then via email.

 

 

I informed Mr ***** of my situation and forwarded over Octobers bank statement and a letter from Ingeus who had recently helped me find a new job. I informed him I could make payment of any default sums immediately and was told that I had to provide proof I was back in employment to avoid repossession and termination of our agreement, despite my offer of complete payment of default sums.

 

 

I then informed Mr ***** on 11/11/2015 that I was awaiting another letter from ingeus confirming that I had found new employment to satisfy his need for proof of employment, or that I could send over my pay slip on the 27/11/2015 again to prove employment. I also suggested he contact my employer via phone to which he declined.

 

 

Neither of these attempts to sort out our problem amicably worked, with Mr ***** changing his mind on what information I had to provide each time I sent over what he had asked for.

 

 

On the 17/11/2015 I informed Mr ***** of my intention to request a time order from the high court, to which I received a email back stating "Do you have a redundancy letter from your old employer or documents to confirm you signed on as unemployed. We have been asking for this for ages and still not been supplied. We will re instruct the agents tomorrow if they are not received today."

 

 

As soon as I received this email I replied with a letter from the job centre, showing that I was in fact currently on Universal Credit which is a form of benefit payment which I could only receive if I were currently unemployed.

 

 

Again the information I provided was deemed to be insufficient, with Mr ***** now moving the goalposts once again and insisting I show proof I had been made redundant something which I had never mentioned or made any indication that it was what had happened.

 

 

I made a last attempt to make payment to clear any outstanding balances and late fees which was rejected on the 18/11/15. I was then informed the case had been passed to litigation and the car would be and was subsequently repossessed.

 

 

Once the dust had settled and car the was repossessed I was then informed that the car had been sold and the amount would be removed from the outstanding balance. To my absolute disgust I was informed the car had been sold for somewhere in between £3000-£4000 (I cannot remember the exact figure but I will be requesting copies later) a mere 6 months after the car had been bought for £7795.

 

 

The amount currently outstanding between both parties is £10,856.00. Firstly I want this default removed from my credit file as I made every attempt to clear any default money owed, late fees and to continue with our agreement. I want to make it clear that unless some sort of agreement is made before this is taken to court that I will also be claiming for substantial compensation due to the stress this has caused myself and the affect it has had on my ability to obtain credit and on my financial future.

 

 

I make no excuses, I messed up I entered into a agreement and entered financial difficulties almost immediately, but at no point did I refuse to pay or not try to sort it out amicably. I made numerous attempts to clear the money I was behind along with any late fees all of which were rejected which I believe was majorly unfair. I provided any information I could at the time to help sort it out. I feel your company exploited my situation to ultimately benefit yourselves and gave no consideration to the effect this may have on me.

 

 

I have copies of all emails between myself and your company showing my willingness to pay and showing my compliance to the best I could when you asked for certain pieces of information, letters from job centre and bank statements etc.

 

 

I am willing to negotiate with yourselves, hopefully this time with a bit more humanity on your behalf. Any and all suggestions from yourselves will be considered with a great deal of thought, anything to sort out this dispute and go back to trying to rebuild my life.

 

 

I expect a response within 14 days of the date of this email and will also be sending a copy via recorded delivery. I will also have a copy of the posting certificate from the post office, in case I have to prove in court this correspondence was sent.

 

 

 

I also request a copy of every note or recording you have made from our phone calls if they exist. Also a copy of every single piece of email correspondence between ourselves and any relevant information you may have regarding this issue that you may wish to bring up in court.

 

 

I also need a copy of the proof of sale of the car in question and amounts of which the car was sold for,

 

 

I remind you that if I receive no reply to this correspondence then I will start court proceedings immediately. I also remind you that both of us have to adhere to a certain set of rules in situations like this as set out in the Civil Procedure Rules.

 

 

Please acknowledge receipt of these letters within the 14 day period, if more time is needed to look over the case then please inform me either by email or in writing to my home address.

 

 

Regards,

 

 

******* ******* ********

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG

 

My immediate thought are that any default placed with a credit reference agency should have been preceded by a default notice. Did you get one?

Did you agree to the repossession? Where was the car when it was repossessed (road, driveway, private car park)

 

Now, any legitimate default will stay on your credit file for 6 years and they would rather stick pins in their eyes before removing them.

 

As no court action has been started, you should send them a Subject Access Request (SAR) to get all of the account info. If you have dates and times of any phone calls, state that so they can find them (if they still exist). Enclose a £10 cheque or postal order for the privilege of getting your data. They have 40 days to comply.

 

Your letter above needs redrafting to remove emotion. Keep things factual and to the point. Mention nothing about this.

 

I make no excuses, I messed up I entered into a agreement and entered financial difficulties almost immediately, but at no point did I refuse to pay or not try to sort it out amicably. I made numerous attempts to clear the money I was behind along with any late fees all of which were rejected which I believe was majorly unfair. I provided any information I could at the time to help sort it out. I feel your company exploited my situation to ultimately benefit yourselves and gave no consideration to the effect this may have on me.

 

as it isn't relevant or you could remove parts of it.

 

If anything you have sent them doesn't resemble a formal complaint, I suggest you do so but head any letter Formal Complaint as you would be surprised just how many companies will treat complaints as queries until told otherwise.

 

One more thing. Do not threaten court action without the resolve to follow through. Get all the information in place before you think along that route.