Help! Car finance agreement!

miss_emily_3

This may become rather confusing, but if you can make sense of it, I seriously need some help...

I agreed to take out finance on a vehicle on behalf of a family member. At the time it seemed like a good idea, I was lively with and working very close to the family member. We were sharing 2 cars (1 of them was mine, which I already have a finance agreement on) between 4 in the household, so a 3rd car would have been useful. The idea was for the 3rd car to be mainly used by the family member but also for everyone else in the house to be insured for occassional use. With all 4 of us insured on the 3 cars, this would have made thing much easier.

I went to a broker (broker1) that my family member worked for, who gave me a really good deal. I now understand it was a broker to broker deal, so they got the deal from a second broker (broker2) who was registered to use the finance company. My application was initially declined by the finance company because I already had a finance agreement, which happens to be with a different branch of the same company. The broker said they may be able to get an approval with another company and they did.

The finance documents were sent to broker1 and I went to sign them and a direct debit mandate, with my bank account details on, in April 2008. The direct debit had to initially be set up from my account but could them be changed to come out of the family members account when the finance had been set up.

Shortly after this I moved, which I made broker1 aware of, so to my knowledge broker2 and the finance company were also aware of this.

The car was delivered in June 2008 to broker1, so my family member. I hadn't received anything from the finance company and was advised by the broker that this section of the company was being taken over by another, so there was a bit of confusion and the agreement hadn't been set up properly.

I kept checking with broker1 what was happening and was advised a month or so later that the agreement had been set up. They had the bank details of my family member at this point, so assumed that they could switch the direct debit over.

Over the next few months I changed banks, so direct debits were cancelled and set-up again on my new account. There was no direct debit to this finance company.

I was checking with my family member that the payments was being made and was assured they were. However the finance company had had some further problems setting up the agreement and the dd, so payments were being made to broker2 in the mean time.

A couple of months later broker1/my family member told my that the finance company had come back to them and had decided again, as had previously happened, that I couldn't have the agreement due to my current agreement. And they were going to take the car back, get the payments from broker2 and that would settle the agreement. After the car was not collected I tried contacting the finance company but they could find any details connecting me to the car, I didnt have an agreement number because I had still not received any paperwork from the finance company.

They eventually collected the vehicle, however they still told me the next day that the car had not been collected. But I had a copy of the collection note. I didnt here anything more from the finance company and assumed it was all okay.

3 months later I received a letter from a debt collection ageny, regarding my agreement and my outstanding debt of £11500. The car cost about £12000 and the total amount payable was about £15000. They had sold the car at auction for £10000 but they still want £11500 from me.

I'm not entirely sure how this happened there was clear a serious lack of communication somewhere.

I got all the notes from the finance company regarding my agreement (or rather 3 agreements, there are 3 seperate agreement numbers all relating to me and the 1 car). This showed all account details that how I know the figures they sold it for etc.

The notes showed no payment apart from deposit had ever been received for the vehicle. Which would make sense because these had been paid to broker2, however the was no record of this.

There are a number of descrepances, as per the notes and the copy of the finance agreement.

1. The vehicle was registered and delivered June 2008, the finance document shows the vehicle was registered in August 2008, and has clearly been doctored.

2. A condition of the finance agreement was that the new car was a replacement for my current car, it was not and I never advised this. The finance company never checked this.

3. I never received any form of correspondence from the finance company. Even if the didnt have my new address, which they claim they didnt, my post was re-directed for over 6 months.

4. The say the dd was set up from the account details on the mandate and cancelled, this was my account and I never canceled the dd. The finance company say both them and my bank would have sent me a letter confirming cancellation of the dd. I never received this.

5. They say they never received payment for the car that was delivered in June, the didnt start repossessing until 6/7 months later.

6. The agreement was set up over 2 months after I signed the agreement, I signed the agreement more than a month after the approval. Meaning there was more than 3 months between approval and payout, as I understand it an approval will usually last no longer than 90 days at which point a second credit check will need to be done. If this have happened the finance company would have been aware that I had moved.

7. Also due to the delay between when they received my proof of identity etc and when they paid out, they had had my proofs for over 90 days, again my understanding is they would have no longer been valid.

I don't know what Ican do about this, I didn't know about it while it was happening, and I had no reason to doubt or mistrust the information I was given. If I had of none I would have done whatever I could to make sure things were okay, I would have paid the dd myself. I have other agreements and have never missed a payment on any of these.

I don't know whether I have a leg to stand on, concidering I knew nothing about it, received no correspondence from the finance company and they agreement did not meet the condition, ie me handing my current car back.

Any information anyone can give, if, as I said, you can make any sense of this would be massive helpful. I now have a default and a debit of £11500.

I know what I did was stupid and have seriously learnt my lesson, I wouldn't borrow £10 on behalf of anyone else, let alone £10k, after this. So dont need comments about what a bad decision it was.

Thanks in advance

epsilondraconis

I'm not too sure what to suggest; however my first port of call would be to take the family member along to the office of broker 1 and ask them to help sort the mess out and not leave until it is resolved. They can then also call broker 2 and get any documentation needed.

I don't see why you need to pay the difference in the auction price and the car selling price, when it was the finance company that changed their minds about you being able to have the money.

Sorry I can't be of any more help.

The only other thing to do would be to contact the CAB and get their view on it. If once you've been to the broker(s) offices and / or written to them, if you get no joy then maybe contact the FSA?

Good luck.

standupguy

Quite a complicated turn of events.

The first thing you could do is ask the Finance company for a full statement of account with a copy of all notes that have been placed on the account( you are allowed to see these under data protection rules).

It would be good to establish why the car was repossessed - it should be because the account was in arrears and you had received a default notice and payment was not made before expiry of the default notice?

It could be that the Finance company were unhappy with the deal being a broker to broker deal and the first broker may not have a consumer credit licence or they found out it was an accomodation deal for a family member who perhaps had bad credit?
If they have just taken the car back without following default procedures then there is something you can do.