Issue with car payment

fluffy123

Hi all,

I don't know if this is the right section but please bear with me regardless.

I sold my car to a local garage around three years ago and a price of £3800 was agreed and signed off and the car was left. The money was then placed into my account a day or so later and I still have the paperwork to this day.

At that time my head was everywhere trying to claw money etc etc so I just literally had the money with other savings drawn together and used it to pay off debts. All okay.

However, I've been doing some tidying up of my finances in the past couple of days and have noticed in one of my statements that I was actually only paid £3600. I can't believe I didn't notice this at the time but that's my fault so I've done enough kicking of myself in the past 24 hours to shake it out of me....

My question is where would I stand now with it being three years ago? As I say, I still have the signed paperwork with the agreed amount etc etc but will this get me anywhere? Can they just claim that we'd subsequently agreed the lower price even though there is no paperwork?

Thanks in advance for your help.

bod1467

When you say 3 years ago, is it more or less than 3 years? (Although I think the 3 years limit only applies for personal injury claims).

That said I think you may still be covered by the Limitations Act which means you have 6 years from original date to chase the "debt" (5 years from discovery if you are in Scotland).

First step - contact the garage to make them aware of the error and ask them to pay you the outstanding balance. (Be nice - softly softly catchee monkey)

Second step - if they refuse then send them a letter before action (Google it) demanding the payment within 14 days else small claims action will be taken. (This often works).

Third step - if they still don't pay then raise a claim through Money Claim Online (Google it).

unholyangel

bod1467 wrote: »

When you say 3 years ago, is it more or less than 3 years? (Although I think the 3 years limit only applies for personal injury claims).

That said I think you may still be covered by the Limitations Act which means you have 6 years from original date to chase the "debt" (5 years from discovery if you are in Scotland).

First step - contact the garage to make them aware of the error and ask them to pay you the outstanding balance. (Be nice - softly softly catchee monkey)

Second step - if they refuse then send them a letter before action (Google it) demanding the payment within 14 days else small claims action will be taken. (This often works).

Third step - if they still don't pay then raise a claim through Money Claim Online (Google it).

Yep spot on, 3 years is for personal injury compensation claims. 6 years for normal contract claims.

fluffy123

It was 3.5 years ago to be fair. As I say very lax, very unlike me.

Just spoke to the garage. Girl on the phone was a bit confused but seemed to grasp the issue - claimed it is very likely that they looked at the car in-more depth between taking the car and signing the document and then paying out and decided it was worth less and so paid out on that. They claim this would only have been done with my agreement but nobody contacted me about this and I definitely don't have a document that I've signed with the amended amount....

Am I done for on this matter? :I

k3lvc

Do you have documentation showing the £3800 tying in to the date of the transaction ? If so then let them prove that they got your agreement for the alternative figure

bod1467

Call them back to say you have no recollection of any such agreement, and certainly no records of such. If they still stonewall then you're on to step 2.

fluffy123

http://1drv.ms/YcWqGb

and

http://1drv.ms/YcWw0z

I hope these work. This is the signed form I have. The payment of £3550 went into my BACS the next day and I can still see that on the statement if I drill back that far.

rustyboy21

If you were so stressed at the time of getting the money for the car, so much in fact that it has taken 3 1/2 years, to catch up on it and find the error, How can you be 100% sure they did not send you the renewed offer and you accepted it? You do state that you were up the wall with finances and trying to claw back every penny you could. Could you have accepted it and forgot you did until now?


If you were that desperate, you may have thought that at least £3600 was better than nothing. I would check back on emails etc and scour through every piece of admin, before you start any proceedings.

fluffy123

That's a fair point but when it comes to paperwork, I'm usually very hot on it and have everything that I can muster still kept.

Therefore, I'm as confident as I can be that nothing was ever sent to me to sign or I was never contacted about this. I'd assume they'd be able to provide me with a copy of said document though if it actually occurred?