Unsupportive father

barnyfreeman

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Thinking there's a risk of damage to the car through spite. Any ideas?

Dasa

Have him followed, 'repossess' the car,hide it/sell if possible.

Scorpio33

Thinking if it is reported as stolen, then if it is recovered, damaged, won't the car insurance pay up?

If the finance is not secured, then she should be able to get any replacement documents from DVLA proving her ownership? Then assusming she can find out where the car is (assuming she knows where he parks it at work?), then get in touch with a locksmith or similar and get them to unlock the car, saying she lost her keys.

Alternatively, if the finance is secured on the car, then I'd let the finance company repossess the car. If it is damaged, I doubt they would chase for anything else after reposession of the car? I could be wrong though.

barnyfreeman

He paid a tiny bit of the deposit so the police say "its a civil matter".
!!

LannieDuck

There've been a lot of these situations on Judge Judy (!). She should continue to pay to avoid damaging her credit, and take him to the small claims court for the money owed.

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow

She needs to know where he lives. It really isn't sensible to let the child go with him when the mother doesn't know where he lives and where he's taking the child.

barnyfreeman

This just gets worse.
Over the years he's had her take out credit cards and loans to the tune of a further 6000.

So she's a single mum on a poor wage looking after their son.
He's walked away from the mess.

She needs financial advice. IVA/bankruptcy. She has nothing.

:mad:

clearingout

are they married? divorce would help deal with re-distributing debt and getting her car back. Unfortunately, if they were just living together, things can be more complicated.

I would try asking on wikidivorce.com as the forums there are busy and the people who post are very helpful.

clearingout

another thought....is she entitled to legal aid? if her son has just gone to school and he's still 4, and she doesn't work, she'd be entitled to Income Support which in turn would entitle her to legal aid. She would need to be quick - as soon as they child turns 5, she won't get Income Support anymore and I'm not sure what the legal aid situation is with JSA. It may be the case that a short, sharp solicitor's letter telling him to return the car in the state it was given to him or legal action will commence will do the trick.

dancingfairy

O.k firstly I think the debt free wannabe forum might be more help with the finance side of things than this one.
Secondly get her to contact what was CCCS (consumer credit counselling service) - I think they are now called first steps orsomething? or NationalDebtline or her localCAB for free, impartial debt advice. Wither debts of approx 6,000 anIVA/Bankruptcy would seem a bit like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut from what you've said and a dmp (debt management plan) or DRO (debt reduction order) - ie a mini bankruptcy would be more appropriate.
Find out exactly what sort of finance the car is on - whether it's on hp or a loan as this will depend on what sort of actions she can take. If it's hp then she needs to pay 2/3 of the payments and can then hand the car back without having to pay any more I believe.
National Debtline have loads of really good factsheets on their website about all aspects of debt etc so she should start there:
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#3
Best of Luck
df