Help! My car has been repossessed by Bank Of Scotland

Kaylie03

Im in desperate need of some advise. I purchased a vehicle on finance provided by Capital Bank (Bank Of Scotland) in Sept 07. The vehicle was £6500 and total amount repayable for finance was £8100 over 36 months.

Almost immediately after purchasing the vehicle i had problems which the garage refused to fix. I decided to take Bank Of Scotland to court over the defects, they then dragged in the finance broker and the finance broker brought in the garage. Anyway to cut a long story short i settled out of court for an amount to cover the repairs needed. This amount was paid by the garage and finance broker, not a penny by Bank Of Scotland.

Whilst i was going though the court case i suspended my payments. I had paid around £1400 at thiis point. The agreement was i would reinstate my normal payments once the case was settled and there would be no costs or charges added.

I had the vehicle back on the road in June but before i made a payment i checked my credit report and noticed nearly £2500 has been added to my account for interest and charges whilst the payments were suspended. I called Bank Of Scotlands solicitor and advised i was not happy to reinstate my payments whilst the figure was incorrect. He advised he would get it ammended.

In August i called Bank Of Scotland as they had not ammended the figures but agreed i would made a payment on the basis that it is ammended before the next payment was due. They agreed.

September payment is due, figures are still incorrect so no payment made. Then at 7am on Monday (19th October) a collection company arrives to repossess my car!

I contacted BOS solicitor to ask what the hell was going on and he advised they were repossessing the car as i had failed to make the payments. I asked why i had not recieved any correspondence/default notice and he replied they didn't need to send me anything. Also he advised my original agreement had been terminated before the court case. I have never received a new agreement to sign.

Is this Legal? Surely they need to send a default notice. I have paid less than 1/3 so i know a Court Order was not needed. Also when i called the solicitor he asked if i would be willing to make a payment to cover September and October to get the car back. I agreed i would, he then called me back 6 hours later and advised his clients did not want to give the car back to me so the offer i made was rejected!

My car is now going to auction and i will be chased for the shortfall. I expect this to be around £3500 which i cannot afford and don't think i should be liable for. I am worried that i will get a CCJ which is bad enough but even worse because i am currently going through the recruitment process to joint the police and a CCJ will mean i will have to withdraw my application!

My questions are:

Can they repossess a car without sending a default notice?

Should have they accepted the offer to pay the Sept and Oct payment?

If my original agreement was terminated should they have sent a new agreement to sign?

Any advise is much appreciated as i am really worried about getting a CCJ.

PNPSUKNET

yes they are able to, but think the maybe on dodgy ground about doing it while it was going through the court, maybe worth an fsa complaint. I would though call the company that took the car and find out which auction its going and buy it back and you will get it for next to nothing

standupguy

Kaylie03 wrote: »

My questions are:

Can they repossess a car without sending a default notice?

Should have they accepted the offer to pay the Sept and Oct payment?

If my original agreement was terminated should they have sent a new agreement to sign?

Any advise is much appreciated as i am really worried about getting a CCJ.

1. No they cannot repossess without sending a default notice BUT from what they say they terminated the agreement previously SO a Notice of Default must have been sent (and expired) BEFORE the termination date.

So at that time, you should have received the NOD and then after that, a letter advising the termination of the agreement. - If this is not the case then they would be in breach of the CCA rules and you would need to ask for copies of the nod and the termination letter.

2. If the agreement is terminated the Finance company do not have to accept any offer of monthly payment

3. They are under no oblgation to send a new agreement .


They cannot continue to add fees or interest charges etc after the termination date of the agreement so may be a good idea to get a full statement of account to check what amounts were added and when?

You should be able to see a full breakdown of amounts owing at date of termination of the agreement

Kaylie03

Thanks for your replies. If i remember correctly i received a default notice when i first stopped my payments whist i took them to court over the repairs but that was over a year ago. I didn't have anything in writing about them terminating the agreement, their solicitor has told me over the phone on a few occasions that it was terminated.

When i took them to court the agreement was that i would accept the offer of payment to make repairs and then i would reinstate my monthly payments, it was agreed no interest or charges would be added to the account for the time the payments were suspended or for the court case. Bank of Scotland's solicitor admits the figures are incorrect and should have been amended but basically says tough you still should have paid.

The way i see it is they didn't keep to their side of the deal so why should i keep on paying.

I'm keeping an eye on the auctions but to be honest don't want it back now, it's more trouble than it's worth.

I'm going to have a chat with a solicitor this week to find out where i stand but i am determined to fight this in court as I'm sure they have not followed the correct procedure.