Car hirepurchase

chris_hodge

Hi
I have an HP on a car with Close Motor Finance. Unfortunatley I'm in arrears but have been making payments in full for the last 9 months, i just havent managed to pay many extyra amounts to clear arrears. they sent me a statement which show their charges (ire phone calls £25.00, letter £25.00 etc, returned DD £25.00) and my arrears. The charges they have added (net of interest i may add) come to nearly the same as the arrears. I was wondering if I would have a case to ask them to remove the charges and interest i have paid on it to get my account back in order? If so could someone help with a letter or a template etc.

Also this agreement is from before april 2007. When i took it out the Dealer said "do you have a deposit?" which i didnt. Looking at the agreement it states i paid a deposit and overall a higher price for the car than i actually did. No money changed hands, and i had no car to exchange. So why would the dealer have said i had paid a deposit?

standupguy

Firstly take a look at the statement and look for charges that apply to a notice of default (nod) being sent.
If further charges have been applied up to 17 days after the date of each and every nod - example for letters or phone calls within the 17 days period following an nod being sent-then that is against CCA rules, they cannot make further charges in such circumstances and you need to advise them of this.

You could compare the charges made against the terms on the back of your HP agreement and make sure that they are no higher than the charges stated on your agreement.

Then you should take a view of what you think is acceptable as a charge and what is unfair - eg £25 for a phone call could be considered unfair.

Then, telephone their Head Office and ask to speak to the Legal and Compliance Manager.

Tell him/her what you have found and that you consider the charges to be excessive and unfair.

Tell them that you are making a formal complaint and you expect this matter to be dealt with under the FSA guidelines for complaint handling and treating customers fairly.

Tell them you are requesting their final response within the 4 week period allowed under the FSA guidelines and that you are prepared to take this matter to the Financial ombudsman service if this complaint cannot be resolved satisfactorily.

You should mention all of the phrases highlighted in bold - it is the jargon they will understand and stop you being fobbed off.

Depending on what you want to achieve you should at least get the charges reduced substantially and may even get them all deleted?

standupguy

Your deposit was made up in order to get the deal agreed by the Finance company in the first place - you can also mention this to Close Motor Finance if you want as it just adds to the fact that the agreement is suspect and the dealer has been naughty.

wevet

standupguy wrote: »

Your deposit was made up in order to get the deal agreed by the Finance company in the first place - you can also mention this to Close Motor Finance if you want as it just adds to the fact that the agreement is suspect and the dealer has been naughty.

Trouble is that you are also a party who could be accused of misrepresenting the financial facts to obtain the finance by deception. Be careful!