Car Finance - Illegal repossesion attempt - HELP ?

itscheapandiwantit

Back in august 2001 a friend of mine signed a finance agreement for a 4 year old car for £4000

with interest @ approx 30% apr i advised against

my friend realy needed the car and quick :-[

anyway the company seem to be legalised loan sharks  >:(

many problems but i will cut to the chase

august  2003 - a problem (major) with the car so my friend stopped payments on the car

owed approx £450

got a visit from a repossession agent wanting to repossess the car

unfortunately nobody home and another vehicle parked blocking access to the car on finance

the repossession guy stuck a piece of paper thru the door with his name and mobile number advising he was to repossess the vehicle

he then proceeded to interfere with the vehicle , let down all 4 tyres and remove the valve inserts rendering the vehicle immobilised ( could not re-inflate the tyres)

my friend returned home to find the car interfered with and the car on 4 flats that could not be re-inflated

my friend contacted the number  posted thru the door and spoke with a "person" ( in the loosest meaning of the word ) that said (the car is going , i have a court order for repossession and i will smash the window and smash the steering lock and take the f****n car !)

my friend contacted the finance company for the car and (begrudgingly) paid the balance up to date

the finance agreement on the vehicle states that if 1/3 of the total financed amount has been paid (which it had) that the company could not  repossess the vehicle without a court order , and if they did , all monies paid under the agreement would be repayable to the customer

they did not repossess the vehicle but attempted repossession


i have another friend who is a police officer who advises me the repo guy - tresspassed , interfered with a motor vehicle and committed theft by removing valves from all 4 tyres

it has since been established that the finance company had no court order for repossession of the vehicle(admitted by staff and recorded on dictaphone)

my friend has since found cctv video footage of the repo guy interfering and stealing from the car on a cctv video from home

if anyone can advise if there is any liability on this finance company to compensate my friend ?

it appears if the car had been taken , a full refund of all monies paid under the agreement would be due to my friend

i am not sure at all what the situation is with an illegal attempted repossession

all advice would be greatly appreciated

many thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings

Robert_Sterling_3

I can't help but good luck anyway.

Martinslovechild

What about talking to a solicitor? The first 15 minutes are sometimes free - you could check with a couple of local ones. It may be worth taking this case to a small claims court, although I have no experience or knowledge of what's involved with doing this.

Good luck.

itscheapandiwantit

when my friend contacted solicitors the solicitors were all more interested whethet he had had an accident in the last 3 years - no win , no fee

westernpromise

I'm not a solicitor so I can't offer much, but I would say this.

First off, I would imagine that the seller of the car and the finance company are two entirely different parties. What usually happens, whether it's a car, a kitchen, or TV set that's being financed, is that the finance company buys the goods off the retailer, hands it to you, and you then pay them off.

If that is the setup here, then all the finance company know is that your mate has suddenly stopped making payments. They don't know why because they are not part of the car deal, they're just a moneylender. So stopping payments doesn't place any pressure on the car dealer at all. They've been paid already. It just annoys the loan shark.

It's as though he borrowed £4k from Barclays Bank to buy a car. The car breaks down. Does he now not owe Barclays £4k?

Next, notwithstanding what PC Plod says, the finance outfit presumably knows its terms and conditions fairly well. I would think the agreement your friend signed allows them to do what they did, somewhere in the small print. These people are greedy but they are not necessarily stupid.

You may even find that, per the agreement terms, the car is technically theirs. In that case they cannot have stolen anything by removing the tyre valves. You can't steal your own property.

I would check those points before going any further. The apparent trespass is probably a red herring. If they've trespassed and he can prove it, fine - what was the financial consequence of the trespass? What specifically did he lose that he would claim via a court? Nothing, I would guess. Damage to or immobilisation of the car probably wouldn't count if, as I have speculated, it is their car or he has agreed in advance that they can enforce the credit agreement in this way.

In any case, if there is CCTV footage of what happened, I would make sure that it is to be kept. Apparently shops wipe their CCTV footage every few days or weeks so you need to make sure the tape is kept in case it proves useful.

Robert_Sterling_3

I agree Westernpromise.
In particular with the statement that money lenders are greedy but not necessarily stupid.  I know of a money lender who is far from stupid.  ;)

zcaprd7

A trip down to the local police station might be an idea - though you'll be lucky if they give you the time of day, they seem to only want to turn up if you're being done in (and even then I'm not sure how you're supposed to ring them?).

Robert_Sterling_3

It is quite a long time ago that the police were expected to tell you what time it was.  They were replaced by TIM some new fangled telephone system. It said "At the third stroke ... ".  It sounded as if someone was being caned.  TIM and being caned are both out of date now.