Please help me out of this car lease nightmare

crunchedcredit

Hi Folks,

I hope someone can help point me in the right direction here.

I leased a Land Rover Freelander 2 back in February 2007 from a reputable company in Glasgow. At the time I was earning good money working for a US based comapny and could afford the high lease payments. The vehicle was leased for a period of 36 months (I could have and with hindsight should have taken the 24 months lease at no extra cost / penalty)

In or around October 2008 post having been made redundant due to the credit crunch I could no longer afford to make the payments for the vehicle so I handed it back to the lease hire company. The car was in perfect condition and within my milage limit and I had ensured that all recall notices etc were adhered to.

I'm now being chased through the courts for a huge sum (£5,000+) for outstanding lease payments and costs.

I had been burying my head in the sand and hoping this would go away (wrong tactic I know), the bottom line is that I have to reply to court tomorrow with either:

a) An application for a time to pay directive
b) Notice of intention to defend the action.

The only thing I can think of which might give me a case to defend would be that the contract was unfair. Here's why:

1) I paid almost £2,000 as a deposit for the vehicle
2) I paid almost £14,000 in lease hire payments
3) I handed the vehicle back AS SOON as I could no longer afford to make payments.
4) The company would have sold the vehicle for more than the balance of what it cost trade vs what I'd already paid in lease payments.

Does anyone have similar experiences and / or any advice as to what I should do? I have to return the notice to defend / application for time to pay to the court tomorrow.

Thanks in advance!

W .

Hannah_10

Don't forget that the courts also consider the human aspect of a claim too, which is that you genuinely haven't got that five grand and the hire company genuinely haven't lost out on it. You've been as reasonable as could possibly be expected and you can't do what you can't do. My first reaction is to say defend it, that at least gives you time to think about your defence.

johnnyroper

firstly do not assume the car was sold for its market value and the remainder of lease was covered,they probably would have just put it through auction and as such incurred further costs.It would be my guess that the car did not generate anywhere near its value lets face it at the time there were many people in similar position to you and others who were twitching on job loss,as a consequence cars especially 4x4's were not selling well.

as for the lease it will be difficult to defend on grounds of being unfair for the reasons you mentioned,presumably when signing up to the lease you were informed of all the costs? i.e deposit,monthy payments and any early cancellation charges.

if i were you i would seek some professional advice before deciding what way to go with this,it is difficult for anyone on a forum to offer decent advice without having a look through the agreement you signed.i know time is limited but give the CAB a try and see if there is a way to buy yourself some more time.