Does this sound right? Carcraft finance problem

Ulysses31

Hi

I wondered if any of you could shed some light on this problem.

My wife's friend bought a car from Carcraft last year on their finance. The car price was £4,700. Three months down the line, just 12 weeks, my wife's friend discovered she had cancer, and would have to give up work, hence rendering her unable to meet the monthly payments (of around £160 I believe, of which she had made three)

She rang Carcraft who agreed to take back the vehicle and leave her with nothing further to pay. She was told this on the telephone, at Carcraft when she took back the vehicle, and says she also got this in writing, but cannot locate the letter. Carcraft deny even sending it.

Six months later she gets a letter from the finance company used by Carcraft demanding £6,000, then two months later, over £8,000

Basically, what the finance company, who have since sold on the debt, were demanding were that she honour the full agreement based on the full term of the loan, with all interest and charges added.

She was told by Carcraft that the vehicle was auctioned for "around £2,000" but nobody seems to know why the vehicle lost over half of its value in 12 weeks, or even where the money raised has gone (as it certainly has not gone towards clearing my wife's friend's HP agreement)

She is now being taken to court over this debt and is sick with worry, as she has no money, and not even got the goods, which were relinquished back to the vendor.

I'm sorry I have no further details, but does this seem right and fair?

She would have been happy to pay for any reasonable depreciation or reasonable costs to the finance company, but she did pay £480 in the three payments made, then gave the car back (in the exact same condition it was bought)

The agent at Carcraft who received the car back and assured her that she would have nothing further to pay is since denying all knowledge. She has also asked for the "calls may be recorded for training purposes" tapes to be made available, but has been refused these also.

Surely expecting her to pay the full agreement with no goods to show can't be right?

Thanks

Common_Sense_2

It sounds like a sorry situation all round.

Problem you have here is that your friends wife should have confirmed everything not only with Carcraft, but also with the finance company. (hindsight is a wonderful thing)

It appears that whilst carcraft agreed to take the car back, they probably weren't able to make enough money on it to clear the finance and so they have appeared to go back on this alleged promise to sort it all out.

Unfortunately your friends wife has in effect 'voluntarily surrendered' the goods back to the finance company and therefore is liable for full balance less the vehicle proceeds.

Did she not have any contact with the finance company at all? not even a phone call before this letter arrived? (who is the finance company by the way?) I'm surprised that they have sold this debt on this quickly based on the timeline you suggest.

Tixy

I wonder if you could send a subject access request to Carcraft under the data protection act?
They would then be obliged to send out all information they hold, in theory if they sent her a letter they should still have a copy of it on computer and should send it as part of the SAR.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/data_protection/your_rights/how_to_access_information.aspx

(to be honest I'm not sure if this would be covered by the DPA but I think it would be).

However I would say that even if she could get a copy of that letter it would be the finance company who she owed money to rather than carcraft so not sure how much it would help.

At the very least though carcraft should be able to provide information as to how much (exactly) the car was sold for and how much of that money they paid over to the finance company (presumably after deducting their costs for collection and re-auctioning the car).
She then needs to make sure that money was paid over and that the finance company have taken it into account when calculating how much is now due.

Ulysses31

Common_Sense_2 wrote: »

Did she not have any contact with the finance company at all? not even a phone call before this letter arrived? (who is the finance company by the way?) I'm surprised that they have sold this debt on this quickly based on the timeline you suggest.

No, she said that the first she knew about it was around six months after taking the vehicle back, when she got the first letter from the finance company. I'm sorry, I don't know who Carcraft use, and she didn't tell me (obviously I am getting to hear of this ongoing situation through my wife more than anything)

I perhaps should not have said "sold on" the debt, it has been passed to some debt recovery outfit, and the amount owed is increasing as you can imagine, as she has refused to pay, based on being reliably assured that she had nothing further to pay.

She isn't the deadbeat sort who look to rip-off finance institutions, she is just a single mum, who was a bit skint, and a bit naive, and needed a cheap car to drive herself to and from work (at the time)

She is talking about re-mortgaging to get this off her back, but I can't honestly see how being left with nothing, she now finds herself in a position whereby she owes somebody over £8,000

marmitedog

There is no way they would have allowed her to terminate the agreement for free unless it was a goodwill gesture, which it seems it wasn't.

The early termination quote will have the details, what she'd paid, rebate of interest, assumptions about vehicle value at auction etc etc. Ask for a copy of this.

Carcraft are hideously overpriced, so the auction value would never be anything like the price they sold it for at retail.

It would have been better to get the early termination quote and then see what the predicted value of the car was - usually better to try and sell it privately.

I think you can only try and appeal to their better nature - a quick google search shows this isn't very likely though.

shopaholic2

Not sure if Carcraft use the same finance company everytime but when my hubby got his car from there the finance was done through Barclays.
HTH

Common_Sense_2

Carcraft will use any finance company that will help them seel their cars.