HELP!! Car being reposessed and about to take on a secured loan....

choccywoccy

My husband and I are struggling with debt, we have taken advice and are trting to reclaim some PPi and bank charges back however we missed three payments on our car which we have on finance with RCI financial. Unknown to me my husband ( who is struggling with depression over all this) had recieved an order from them and the first I knew was when a man knocked on the door last week to hand me notice that the car was being reposessed. As we have paid over a third of it it is now going to court. We owe about £875 in arrears and there is about £7,000 owing on the total car. My husband rang RCI to offer to pay the arrears off in full right now but they refused and were brutally rude about it! The man who has called has given us 10 days to pay up or it does go to court unless we voluntairly sign the car over. We have bad credit as have had missed morgadge payments (now up to date) so the only loan we can get is through a company called Blehmain finance... we have applied for a £15,000 loan to consolidate our debt, pay off the car in full ( IF the court agree!!) and then we plan to sell the car to get a cheaper one and this will relive most of our debt. I have however just been reading horror stories about this company....... :-( Im worried SICK. We have 4 children and cannot afford to loose our home over a stupid car! Anyone anywhere PLEASE advice on this situation - can they really take the car from us if weve offered to continue paying?????????????

camuk81

Ok deep breath, I think it would help speaking to CCCS who can help you.

My fear is you are borrowing more to sort out what you owe and it already sound alike your husband is in a fragile place already.

I'm not sure on the car so all the best and I hope someone comes along with better advice but please ring CCCS or pay plan and have a chat

RAS

it is essential that you speak to one of the free debt charities about this urgently.

I would recommend NDL or CCCS because you have a complex mix of secured and unsecured debt.

contact details here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan?utm_source=forum&utm_medium=clicks&utm_campaign=resourcebar#help

Once you get this on an even keel, consider gettign on-going support from Christians against Poverty as they do home visits and the personal support may help.

blossomsuz

If I was you I'd let them take the car, buy a cheap clunker for a bit till it goes to court and see what they say.

That way you wont have to take out a massive loan for an expensive car.

Good luck.

choccywoccy

blossomsuz wrote: »

If I was you I'd let them take the car, buy a cheap clunker for a bit till it goes to court and see what they say.

That way you wont have to take out a massive loan for an expensive car.

Good luck.

Im worried that if this happens then we wouldnt get anything back for the car ie what we have already paid for it - we part exchanged a vauxhaul zafira worth about £12,000 for a brand new Renault Espace ( we need it with 4 kids!) and we have been paying without a problem up until the last three payments! If they reposess it - wont they just sell it on for peanuts and we wont get anything back? I hoped that if I sold it privatley for what it is worth (about £21,000) I might have been able to use some of what was left over to pay off some debts... what are our chances of the court allowing us to keep this car?

I had not heard of the CCCS before, so thankyou I am looking at thier site now - I had phoned National Debtline but to be honest they pickled my brain with so much and sent out a load of leaflets.... I cant see the wood for the trees right now.

MonkeyMad

My copy of Parkers shows an 11/61 plate Espace to be worth significantly less than £21K second hand ie closer to £14K for a new sticker price of considerably more than £21K, so you might want to calibrate yourself on how much you would get selling privately (although this would be more than if it were sold for you).

thatsean

I think you need to take a step back from this for a moment:

A few questions/thoughts I have are below....

- By securing a loan in order to buy a car you are potentially risking your home
- Lots of families manage with a smaller car than an Espace
- Your car isn't worth £21k
- Have Blenheim approved the loan? What is the interest? What are the early repayment penalties?

You really need to take stock of your entire financial situation, and not do something in a panic that makes the situation worse.

If you can afford to pay off the arrears why have you not done so? Are the finance company now saying that they want to take the car and that's it? How many times have you spoken to them?

I second others - you must ring Payplan or CCCS.

geoffky

Might be a good idea if you pop over to consumer advice forums and let them check all the paperwork is legal as a large percentage is not...

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?267-Vehicle-Repossessions

fatbelly

Please don't go with Blemain Finance. I used to see loads of homeowners who were facing losing their homes because of defaulted secured loans with these people.

Deal with the main issue here - the car. If they need to get a court order then let them take action and respond to the claim:

What is the procedure if the creditor has to go to court before they can get the goods back?

There is still a chance that you can keep hold of the goods as the court has the power to agree to this as long as you can pay the debt back in reasonable instalments.

If you have paid a third or more off the amount payable under the agreement or the goods are kept on your premises and you do not consent to their repossession, the creditor will ask the court to send you a claim form asking for the goods to be returned. This is called an application for a ‘return order’. Notice of a hearing date with a district judge is included. This hearing should be in your local county court.

There will be a court form (N9C) with the claim that you should fill in and send back to the court within 14 days. You must fill this in if you want the court to suspend the return of goods order and allow you to keep the goods. You need to offer to pay the debt back in monthly instalments you can afford.
Send the form back to the court, not the creditor. The court will send a copy of your form to the creditor.

If the creditor accepts the offer the hearing will be cancelled. If the creditor does not accept the offer the hearing will go ahead.

Warning
You must attend the hearing. The court will decide at the hearing whether they will suspend the return order and what monthly instalments you should pay from then on. If you do not fill in the admission form there will be a hearing anyway. If you don’t go to the hearing the court will probably grant the creditor an order telling you to return the goods. If the court has already made a return order and you still wish to keep the goods, it is possible to apply for the order to be suspended.

Keep paying the monthly instalments in the meantime, as long as you can do this and pay the mortgage.

choccywoccy

Thanks everyone.. A lot to take in here but rest assured I am reading every single reply and taking all advice on board...I assumed our car was worth £21k because that's what my husband said it was worth (he used to sell cars but now I think I should check myself .. He isnt thinking straight) Blenheim finance have approved the loan in principal but I have gone via a finance company and asked them about early repayment penalties - they have admitted they arnt "the best" but said if we have a better credit rating in 12 months time then we can transfer our loan to a better lender with a lower rate of interest....blenheim are the only ones willing to loan to us right now. We were only able to pay the balance owing by using business money ( which we can't afford either but it was a desperation offer - we are self employed) I'm still so unclear as to what to do - do we wait for the court to write to us before stating our case or do we apply for an order to ask for more time to pay? If we surrender the car do we get anything back?

choccywoccy

They are just checking for me whether or not if we can get the court to suspend the order and arrange a repayment for the remaining amount we would be legally allowed to sell the car privatley to repay the debt and be able to use the remaining amount to buy a cheaper car? does anyone know if this is possible? Also - IF they succeed in repossesing the car do we get anything back at all? ie - we owe £6,500 on it so if they sell it for £15,000 surely they cant keep it all??