My parents and HL Legal-Advice please

CDJ-77

Hello.

Just this week I have found out that my parents have been paying HL Legal for some years.

I don't know how much detail I should give but they have been paying this coming up to 10 years. I asked my dad to find out how much is now owed and it's still over 3k!

The car was only around 5k when they purchased it. The finance company recovered most of the debt when they sold the car.

Are my parent's stuffed because they have been paying it all this time or is there something they can do about it?

Any advice on this would be great.:)

CDJ-77

Just a quick update.

From information from my parents the original debt was ~£5200. This seems to be the full price of the car they purchased.

How is it possible (or legal?) that after the finance company took the car back after a few months and selling it, recovering most of what was owed, but my parents still owe the full amount?

They also say they have only ever received 2 letters from them (HL Legal). They never even informed them when they moved premises!

All this time my parents believed that HL Legal were collecting on behalf of the finance company.

I don't know what to tell them.....

sistafromanothermista

:wave: Hi, i can't help but didn't want to read and run. Hope someone will be along soon with some advice....

CDJ-77

Shameless bump.:o

If any experts here have any advice on this it would be greatly appreciated.:A

mytimetoshine2012

Hi,

I'm not an expert by any means but it seems that something is not right here.

I wouls try to book a free legal advice appointment or contactbthe cab and see if they can help.

Sorry I have nothing more useful to say. Good luck with it all.
Mtts

CDJ-77

mytimetoshine2012 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm not an expert by any means but it seems that something is not right here.

I wouls try to book a free legal advice appointment or contactbthe cab and see if they can help.

Sorry I have nothing more useful to say. Good luck with it all.
Mtts

Thanks! I'll get them to make an appointment with CAB asap.

I just think it must be wrong that a DCA can seemingly buy a debt from a finance company and be able to demand the full amount, even though the finance company had the goods back recovering all/most of their money.

If I had known at the time I would have offered to cover any shortfall direct with the finance company.

dancingfairy

Have they go the original agreement at all?
Whilst it may be technically legal it feels, as you say morally wrong.
The thing is that the original shortfall is probably a combination of shortfall in car selling price, interest, charges, charge to get the car to auction or whatever etc etc.
How much did they owe and how much have they paid back?
To be honest I'd probably write them a letter (from your parents) saying that they borrowed x, they've repayed y and that as the matter has dragged on for over 10 years (and their circumstances are not likely to improve any time soon) could the company please consider writing the debt off as a gesture of goodwill.
Apart from that you could consider trying to set up a full and final settlement to settle the debt - ie they've paid off the original debt plus however much in interest,just make sure you get an agreement that the debt will be written off in full and no further payments will be required, they will mark the credit file as satisfied and will not sell the debt on - if in doubt get advice on wording).
If the company refuses to write the debt off/accept what you feel is a decent settlement amount then I would write a formal complaint to them. If this still does not resolve the matter then I would take it to the financial ombudsman to investigate and make a decision on (this will cost the company time and money to sort out and they will need to show they are being resonable) - keeping someone in debt in perpetuity is not reasonable in my mind.
Best of Luck
df

CDJ-77

Thank you Dancingfairy. I shall pass on your advice.

They have arranged to see someone at CAB tomorrow I think so hopefully between your and CAB's advice they can get this sorted.

Thanks again.