SKODA/VW Car Lease issue - Late Payment?

shepcobain

Hello guys,


I was wondering if anybody could help me with my current situation if possible?


In February me and my partner wanted to get a new family car. We owned the current one outright but wanted something new and more reliable. We looked at various finance and leasing offers and settled on one with SKODA. Everything was agreed, paper work was filled out and the car was collected as a new LEASE vehicle from SKODA in MAY. We were told the initial rental deposit would come out of our account in two weeks and monthly repayments would start a month after collection. We sold our own vehicle privately and this money would cover the initial rental deposit.


We then went on holiday and it was my daughters birthday. Approximately three months later I was checking my direct debits on my online bank account and noticed there was nothing setup for VW financial services (VWFS) or SKODA. I trawled back through my statements and noticed no money was coming out. Immediately I was concerned so checked my credit file and noticed there wasn't a credit agreement setup. I phoned VWFS and they had no record of the vehicle, me or account. I phoned SKODA where the vehicle was ordered and they had done everything at their end but told me they would look into it and get back to me.


I then remembered the initial rental deposit should have been paid back in MAY and checked to see if that had been taken. This had also not been collected by VWFS, I was very worried then. The problem is as we went on holiday, had birthdays etc. the money was just slowly consumed we thought it was just part of our monthly ingoings. The thing is this sum is £1600 and isn't something we have lieing around. 1 week passed and SKODA hadn't returned a call to me. I phoned them again, explained the situation about the initial deposit and they said its fine, they will sort it. I still never heard anything and several weeks had passed. I phoned SKODA a third time and they told me VWFS would be in touch soon.


A week ago I received a letter from VWFS apologising the time it had taken to get in contact and the account had now been created. They said would collect the initial rental deposit and the monthly repayments since MAY on 16/10/15. This totalled over £2100. Luckily as soon as I realised in August that we hadn't been paying for the vehicle, I put the money owed to one side. I can afford the monthly repayments to date.


Today I am off work and was planning to phone VWFS and explain the situation however they phoned me yesterday. They were very understanding of the situation and said they can setup a payment plan for the initial deposit going forward. I said I could pay back the monthly repayments to date in one go but the initial rental deposit would be repaid over the next three months. They said that would be fine but I would still receive a late payment mark on my credit file which will stick for 6 years.


I couldn't understand why? Its taken over 4 months for them to contact me and I have tried to sort it out myself on several occasions. They weren't desperate for the money two months ago as they had no record of the vehicle (which they own). I am aware and fully understand I owe the money and realise I shouldn't have spent the deposit, but this wasn't intentional. I just presumed the payments were going out. I know a lot of people will say its tough luck and my own fault for being foolish, but I've never missed a payment in my life and I am a little annoyed I will receive a late payment mark yet I was honest and brought this mistake to their attention.


Do you think I should just take the late payment hit as punishment or do you think its a little unfair and I should be allowed to setup a payment plan without any repercussion?


Thanks,


Shep.

rolls99

Tricky one, because of various circumstances you didn't check your account, but obviously you know that part.


What this might well come down to is what paperwork you have. If you signed the lease agreement and this shows what payments were due and when, then as you have clearly signed this and VW should have had the copies then it was their foul up in not taking them; do you have such paperwork?

shepcobain

Sadly I don't have any paperwork regarding leasing of the vehicle, Skoda in Colne will no doubt haver copies of this and the agreement..


All I have is the letter I received a week ago apologising for the late setup of the account and how much they will take as a result.


Cheers.

rolls99

I'd get onto them for copies of the paperwork ASAP.


TBH, I am not sure if I would say phone or do it all in writing now; you could
try a call and ask, see where you go.


The paperwork, with your autograph should have all the relevant dates and amounts;
that is your permission to VW and agreement with them.

With it you can then ask them why they didn't stick to it....

molerat

Surely they can take the payments after the agreed date but not before. Due to a paperwork error they want to take the agreed payments now and the op has spent the money. OP is the one in default of the agreement they signed, they have had an interest free loan for 5 months.

Tiddlywinks

Surely you will have budgeted for all the payments... so pay everything owed (that you would have had to have paid anyway if the DD had been set up) and there won't be a late payment marker.

The reality is that you signed an agreement to pay £X per month so you should have noticed the fact that your bank balance was higher than you would have expected.

All the excuses you've made about holidays and birthdays etc are immaterial - everyone has life events to deal with... and still manage to check their bank accounts.

The money was due, it wasn't collected, you could have set it aside until the admin was sorted.

The fact that you don't have the money is your fault not of VW's making.

shepcobain

rolls99 wrote: »

Tricky one, because of various circumstances you didn't check your account, but obviously you know that part.


What this might well come down to is what paperwork you have. If you signed the lease agreement and this shows what payments were due and when, then as you have clearly signed this and VW should have had the copies then it was their foul up in not taking them; do you have such paperwork?

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Surely you will have budgeted for all the payments... so pay everything owed (that you would have had to have paid anyway if the DD had been set up) and there won't be a late payment marker.

The reality is that you signed an agreement to pay £X per month so you should have noticed the fact that your bank balance was higher than you would have expected.

All the excuses you've made about holidays and birthdays etc are immaterial - everyone has life events to deal with... and still manage to check their bank accounts.

The money was due, it wasn't collected, you could have set it aside until the admin was sorted.

The fact that you don't have the money is your fault not of VW's making.

I am in complete agreement with everything you have said. Fortunately I did budget for the monthly repayments and have these set aside, plus a little more. However what I don't have is that initial rental which over 5 months was swallowed up as we foolishly thought the deposit had been taken. We have pretty much created this mess ourselves, however I was just asking the question if it was fair for them to mark it as a late payment?