Car Finance and returning the car

mountainofdebt

Now I always thought (but correct me if I'm wrong) that once a certain %age of car finance agreement had been paid you could just hand the car back and walk away (so to speak!)

However we find our self in a situation where the finance company have now got the car (came for it today) and are expecting us to make up the difference once it has been sold at auction.

The only difference between what we thought and what appears to be actually the case is that the car belonged to a deceased relative and that the shortfall is expected to come out of the residual estate.

Does this make a difference - bearing in mind we were original told we could hand the car back and that would be that and now the finance company have changed stories and have told the executors that the estate would have to make up the shortfall.

Any advice would be appreciated.

dottyanne

im not 100% sure but that only applies if you bought the car on HP? i think you must have paid at least 50% payments and then you can hand the vehicle back - like i say not 100% sure?? :rolleyes:

CLAPTON

you really need the documents associated with the original 'purchase'...I appreciate it might be difficult in your circumstances...was there any clause about the death of the owner?

if it is a HP agreement you might want to read the following

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=16_how_to_deal_with_hire_purchase_debt

best of luck.

matty022000

i handed one back myself once, they don't like it, but as long as the car was on hp, it can be handed back without any further payments. If you have the original documents it will give an exact figure, but it should be 50% of the debt. Any arrears must be paid, and the car will be inspected. Any damage must be reasanable for the age, so a 5 year old car for example won't have to be perfect. Good luck

mountainofdebt

Phoned the finance company and queries the fact that they wanted the loan repaid in full and was told it was a grey area.....so muuch for going to the experts eh, lol!

Anyway spoke to the soliticitors who are acting as executors and basically it appears that if there are assets then the finance company can and will go for full repayment.