hi - just joined and really concerned

emsywoo123

dumgoyne wrote: »

the money came to me because i was sh****** myself that administrators arrived at my house demanding either car or money. didn't want to be in a position where i was put in a middle man position ie demanded upon to pay any savings out of personal monies i didnt have!!!!!

at the end of the day, the car and finance behind it was not my affair, i just wanted to cover my !!!! in case of all eventualities.

soup

Not quite sure why you didn't think, if this were to happen, you could just tell the administrators the truth, that the car was written off, here's the crime number and this was the insurance company that dealt with it...........and how/why the insurance company paid you?

dumgoyne

i have never dealt with administrators in my life, suppose most will be in the same boat.
all i could picture being some bruisers arriving at my son and i's house, demanding car or money.
so, as i said, the reason i contacted the insurance company was to ensure my !!!! was covered!!! if the company have written the car off, against unpaid wages, then i certainly have heard nothing to this effect. the company i worked for, i agree, seems to have been dodgy to say the least. as i said i only ever received 2 wage slips during my 9 month stint, prior to the company folding.

the question you are all really wanting to know the answer to is, was my decision to ask the insurance company for the money, based on the fact, that the car market value given, was round about that of unpaid expenses and wages, which i now find out from my supposed lawyer, i will more than likely have to write off? answer 50% it was on my mind.

soup

dumgoyne

on the basis of all your kind advice and thoughts, and on the basis benefits are not accepting my argument ie £6,300 may be liable to be paid back at any time, this means my bank account balance will show a level, over and above £10,000 since the insurance pay out in june. what is the worst case here, will i lose income support completely as i am still out of work and a full time single dad? no sleep last night worrying about this.

soup

FBaby

I can totally understand your rationale for keeping the money. You didn't spend it, it shows that you didn't see as an opportunity to make easy money (or make your own justice by the fact they still owe you money). It is probably unusual that a company would allow to keep the car, but not inimaginable. They probably felt bad, knew the car would be of no use, so thought you might as well make the best of it. What I do find odd is that you would have been paying the insurance and claim it back as expenses. What did the company gained from that unless there is something very fishy behind this, car was bought by company but not declared etc... which might be the reason they didn't ask for it back...

You have two choices, either try to explain yourself to benefits, but as per responses here, I think you are likely to open a can of worms with them questioning the legality of the arrangement etc... or you can try to do anything to give the money back to administrators. You might still find yourself having to justify deprivation of capital, but I would expect it easier to justify why you were giving back money that you owed than why were holding money that didn't belong to you in the first place.

dumgoyne

will i lose all benefits being currently paid if my savings are over £10k? completely hacked off with the insurance pay out now, it has been nothing but trouble. just feel like accepting the benefit office's decision, i gave them a full and detailed explanation but they obviously have not accepted it. so, i have to adapt my train of thought to the fact that in theory i can go out and spend some of the £6k, given benefits now say it is my money. so what happens if i get stung with a benefit overpayment, i then have to pay whatever sum is needed to be repaid in overpayment, THEN the company administrators get in touch for the money/ car. i am up the creek without a paddle!!!! landed well and truly in the middle.


soup

Kimitatsu

I think you need to get legal advice - decent legal advice and quickly! You should be entitled to legal aid so contact your local law centre or CAB tomorrow and see if they can give you a list in your area.

Why did you not let the insurance company pay the administrator? If the company had gone into liquidation then the onus is on the insurance company not you to ensure the money is paid. Why if you were paying the insurance and then claiming it back was the insurance company going to pay it to the business anyway? I would have thought that if it was insured in your name they would not have needed to be persuaded.......

I think there are a whole raft of legal employment issues here that need to be sorted out, becuase it sounds like a dodgy deal from the off. Never once have I ever had to pay insurance on a company car, nor have I ever been able to keep it on leaving the company. If you are keeping the money in lieu of wages then it needs to be dseclared and the excess paid to the DWP, if not then you should have sent the money back to the insurance company or administrator and allowed them to sort it out whilst putting in a counter claim for wages and expenses.

Employment law is not my forte, you could try pming zzzlazydaisy as I beleive that was what she used to do and so she may be able to give some advice.

karenx

So if the insurance was in your name as you took out the policy why did they want to pay the company the pay out? And then you had to ask them to pay you instead? They dont just go "ok we shall pay you instead of them". Something definatly not right here

silvercar

At some point you need to draw a line and deal with the situation as is, rather than go back and look at how things should have been from the point you were made redundant.

The legal advice you should now be looking for is that you have the car pay out and the company owes you money. You want legal advice on taking one against the other. I suspect that presenting it as a done deal, could swing things in your favour.

Incidentally, I know of people made redundant and taken pay in lieu of notice and been able to keep the car for the length of their notice period. I also know of someone who negotiated retention of the company car as part of his redundancy settlement.

UnderPressure

I too also have to say I have a very strong field sales background working for a few big names and a few fly by nights as well, when redundancies come around it really is not uncommon for a sales company to allow extended use of a company vehicle if it is not needed for another employee and they own the vehicle rather than it being leased.

It is obvious why the OP has done this and ensured he got the insurance payout anyone who does not understand needs to go back and re-read the thread here's a clue it has nothing at all to do with the money they owe HIM!

As silvercar has suggested you really need to now be looking at ways of legally claiming this money against monies you are owed, yes it is going to be a nightmare but "should" be possible, ideally you need to trace the directors of the company this kind of information should be present on the companies house website if the company was LTD that is? Was it a LTD company??

I understand where you are coming and and fully understand why you have done what you have and in your position I would probably have done the same thing you were legally responsible for the car I fully understand this

As said I would seek a second legal opinion maybe contact a solicitor that specialises in employment contract law and go from there.

So far as the benefits agency huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bunch of muppets! Unfortunately there is not a great deal you can do at the moment until you have figured out what can be done with this insurance money, they have a very black ad white way of looking at things an this is about as grey as it could be Your not going to have a lot of option but to live off your savings for the time being unfortunately any request for overpayments deal with as and when they come in, you could probably do a lot worst than start off at the CAB but I hink you may end up needing a specialised solicitor in the end.

I hope you get this all sorted quickly, keep this thread updated it would be good to see how you get on

Chin up there are a lot worst positions you could be in....................