Voluntary Termination of car finance and fair wear and tear

KingElvis

Many years ago, in the mid 90s, I had much the same situation as you, I'm sure it was with either ACF or Welcome or some such bunch of shysters.

Anyway, I returned by treasured Rover 216 Vitesse to them in BETTER condition than when I signed my life away for it. It was my pride and joy and in mint condition but I just couldn't afford it.

A few weeks later I got a bill through for around £500 (a lot of dosh back then) stating that repairs needed to be made and the car was dirty and so on and so forth.

Useful places like this forum didn't exist back then so the CAB helped me draft a letter which stated that the car was in excellent condition, had been signed for as such by the "collector" and I wouldn't pay anything else. A few weeks later I got a reply to say the car had been sold at auction and there was now (suprise,suprise) nothing else to pay.

In short, this is obviously a trick tried by these companies to extract more money from the people who cannot afford it.

Good luck and I wish you all the best with them.

katz*

Thanks Standup and Elvis

I'm so glad at times that I'm a bit anal when it comes to retaining paperwork and also being somewhat studdorn of nature.

When I arrived at the auctioneer's on a Friday at 4.30 pm as arranged with them the previous day, they pretty much wanted me to just leave the car with MOT, V5, keys etc, but I insisted they did the inspection there and then as I wasn't happy with the idea that they could then say anything they liked with nothing for me to come back with.

Their excuse was that this took half an hour and they were shutting down for the night. I pointed out that I'd arrived at a time agreed with them, after checking how much before 5pm they needed me to be there to do the inspection. After a bit more harrumphing on their part, a girl came over and did a quick 10 min look around the exterior and only looked inside to get the odometer reading.

In a way, that's really worked in my favour as the report she did makes no mention of any issues with the interior of the car. And, whilst there are some noted scuffs, scratches etc to the bodywork, they are really minor and what you would expect to find if buying a 7 yr old car.

The mechanic who's looked after this car since I had it is happy to sign something to that effect, should I require it. But I think the OFT is a bigger threat to them, particularly if they are a smaller lender as they won't be able to absorb so many complaints as one of the larger ones.

I'll get the letter done this evening and will ensure that it's posted recorded delivery and I keep copies.

Hopefully, they'll see sense and back down.

It would be good to know though if the car has already been sold at auction as, if that was the case, then this would look very much more like a breach of their licence.

Thanks once again - I'll post an update once I have one.

jonjamie1970

I agree with standupguy that this is the way to proceed with the basic text of his draft letter.

Be polite and firm and I'm sure they will tell you you owe nothing more.

Like others have said, some people just pay up and they earn a fair amount of lost revenue in this respect.

North_Star_2

Hey Katz* i have been reading your post and I was wondering how you have got on since you sent your letter , I am doing a VT soon myself and the more info I can gather the better on how to deal with a handover and ensuring all smallprint is read , hope you have been successful.

cgmc21

Hi guys,

Im also planning on VT of my car. the agreement is with Blackhorse and i've checked that more than half has been paid.

My worry is that that there is a fairly substansial dent in the front passenger side door and that the company are going to tear the backside out of it. Apart from he dent, its in fairly good condition or a four year old car. Am i right to be concerned? Anyone had any previous experience with Black Horse?

Thanks

Conor

foolishboy

I've just VTd a Golf I had through Bank of Scotland.

When they picked it up the inspection was VERY thorough, way moreso that I expected, they checked oil / fluids / tyre pressures - the works! They also went over the bodywork very carefully.

I ended up with a bill for £200 for repairs .. £150 for a dented sill, and £50 to repair a scratch on the rear bumper. The sill I knew about, fair enough and it would have cost me a lot more than £150 to sort it. The scratch I genuinely didn't spot so I questioned it and they deducted that £50 without further question.

If there's a noticeable dent then I'd get a quote from one of the dent magician type companies and see if they can sort it cheaply. If you leave it to the finance co. to bill you it's out of your control and up to you to argue it with them - less control in my opinion. They will spot it, how much they might charge to fix it is totally unknown.

My car was spotlessly clean on collection also, always helps and the inspectors seemed pleased to see I'd made the effort !

FB

Kristina_Duffy

Hi

I am enquiring for my sister who is considering a VT on an agreement with Bank of Scotland for her 5yr old Vauxhall Astra - is it compulsory to have paid at least half of the agreement before terminating?