Please help..problem with PCP & BMW

Startinover

OH has a car on PCP agreement with BMW, when he got made redundant he rang them told them he could no longer afford it and could they take it back, they said no even though he was over half way through the agreement, he has written to BMW finance saying the only option we have is to hand it back and still they refused-this has been going on for almost 8 months with constant harrassment by phone from BMW finance who have continued to ignore our financial difficulties insisting on full monthly payments (up to 8 calls a day plus weekends till we unplugged the phone) payments are now in arrears and yesterday we got a letter from their solicitors saying we have until 25th Feb to resolve or they will take out a CCJ and they want the car back!!!!

Prior to this BMW have refused the car back unless we hand it back PLUS £4,500 or they said he could try and sell it privately( as their dealer offered less than the final figure)-can he do this??? BUT..the PCP agreement when I looked at it yesterday has the wrong Car Registration number on it(we have never noticed this),also the dealer when we called them said the car was HPI clear, how can it be if it's on PCP??? can anyone offer any advice on this please??

plane_boy2000

Ound like someone made a mistake on the paperwork re the number plate, and hence when its HPI'd with the correct number plate it dosent come up.

Do you have a figure to settle the agreement, and if so could you sell the car for enough to achieve that?

Regarding being over half way through the agreement as its PCP I think the half and thirds ules are based around the total amount payable, and as the agreement has a GFV then I guess you are not likly to reach that amount.

Not an expert on these things but may be worth trying CAB who are bound to have come across this sort of thing before.

Maybe a long shot, but as the paperwork is wrong then I wonder if you coud have the agreement decalered void?

Startinover

If we sell it privately we are likely to get more from it than BMW will at auction, but are we doing anything illegal by selling it? We will of course be paying BMW the money.According to guides the car is worth £13750 the solicitors letter says BMW now want £14300 as they have added charges on top.
If we can sell it for £12-13k and still owe BMW a couple of grand I'd rather do that than them take the car and auction it and get £10k or less so we owe them even more. Does this sound feasable?
We are writing to the solicitor to see if they will accept this but has anyone any experience of doing this?? Will also mention the wrong reg on the agreement and see what they say-might be interesting, especially when they realise it's HPI clear..

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i would contact CAB and leave writing to BMW finance solicitors yet you dont want to agree to anything then go to cab and discover there nout they can do because you entered into a payment agreement with BMW finance. i would take along all documents relateing to your finance agreement. plus if CAB contacts them on your behalf youll probably find BMW finance will listen a bit more to your financial sitaution. find your local CAB and contact them asap.

Inactive

I think that the OP needs to read the original agreement through very carefully to see what is, or isn't allowed, before doing anything else.

Lemonade_Pockets

The halves (Voluntary Termination) and thirds apply to the total amount payable not half the payments or half the time period. For instance if you GFV was £10,000 and it was a three year agreement @£250 pm. You would have to pay back £9500 (or in this example all the payments plus £500) before you can Voluntary Terminate. It is likely in most PCP's that you will never get to the Voluntary termination point before the end of the agreement. I suspect this is why BMW are saying you cannot hand it back.
(i can't remember whether interest rebates are factored in but the above is the fundamental principle)

With PCP's and any Hire Purchase you are not supposed to sell it until you have settled any finance. The finance company own the the title to the car so it is not yours to sell. However a lot of people get round this by getting the purchaser to pay the settlement figure at time of purchase.
For instance car is sold for £13k, settlement is £14k. You and the purchaser ring up BMW finance at point of sale, you pay £1k purchaser pays £13k over the phone by card. BMW email or fax confirmation that the car is good to go every one is happy. Job done. However cars are not that easy to sell unless you are pricing it really cheap so remember to factor this in especially if you are already behind with BMW.

As others it is best to speak to CAB directly as they can mediate with BMW to try and work out a way out of this.

RE: The paper work, double check this with CAB but my hunch is i don't think this will get you out of it as someone else mentioned it will have been a simple admin error. The reg number only refers to the assest the loan is secured against, so at best i think it would be just deemed to be a unsecured loan. However i also suspect the agreement has the VIN number on it.

LandyAndy

Lemonade_Pockets wrote: »

The halves (Voluntary Termination) and thirds apply to the total amount payable not half the payments or half the time period. For instance if you GFV was £10,000 and it was a three year agreement @£250 pm. You would have to pay back £9500 (or in this example all the payments plus £500) before you can Voluntary Terminate. It is likely in most PCP's that you will never get to the Voluntary termination point before the end of the agreement. I suspect this is why BMW are saying you cannot hand it back.
(i can't remember whether interest rebates are factored in but the above is the fundamental principle)

Almost certainly the case here.

We handed back a Mazda RX-8 in August last year. The agreement (a three year one) should have run to November. We were only two payments past the half way amount due to the final balloon.

Startinover

Thank you everyone for your advice, I have drafted a letter to the solicitors but will definitely speak to CAB first.

Once the car has gone our only problem then is that I have no car to get to work (20 mile journey) and I am the only one who is working-we live in a rural area and it would be 3 separate buses taking nearly 2 hours, is it worth mentioning this in my letter? Not that I expect any sympathy from BMW or their solicitors.I just dont want it to get to the CCJ stage.We are getting our finances sorted and have never had a CCJ or a default before OH lost his job. We just seem to be taking one step forward and 10 steps back at the moment.
I'm worried that we wont be able to get finance on another car now .

LandyAndy

Startinover wrote: »

Thank you everyone for your advice, I have drafted a letter to the solicitors but will definitely speak to CAB first.

Once the car has gone our only problem then is that I have no car to get to work (20 mile journey) and I am the only one who is working-we live in a rural area and it would be 3 separate buses taking nearly 2 hours, is it worth mentioning this in my letter? Not that I expect any sympathy from BMW or their solicitors.I just dont want it to get to the CCJ stage.We are getting our finances sorted and have never had a CCJ or a default before OH lost his job. We just seem to be taking one step forward and 10 steps back at the moment.
I'm worried that we wont be able to get finance on another car now .

That's the problem with signing contracts. The other party expects you to honour your side of them.

gsb1_2

HI i'm thinking of voluntary terminating my hp agrement on my van in september, the half term point, just wondering what will be classed as fair condition as it is a van? my van has low miles for age new brakes new tyres but has a few little scratches here and there nothing bad, also has a small chip in the windscreen which auto glass said was not worth repairing, should i get these things sorted before it goes back?