Voluntary Termination Car Lease Trouble With Barclays and Manheim

justask4lottie

This is a long story and wondered if anyone could help or advise me......

Basically I had a lease car which I picked up from Hippo solutions in around feb 2013. My financial circumstances changed and I could not afford the £165 monthly payment on the Leon 2011 plate.

After a few enquiries to Barclays they advised me I could VT and return my car to Manheim in Leeds and that there would be no additional cost as long as there was no damage found at the inspection.

I rang Manheim on the morning I was going and they knew I would be dropping the car off....

When I got to the site I went to one office who told me to go to another office. I got to the second office and explained that I was returning a lease car and that a lady on the phone in the morning had taken my details. The guys there didn’t know anything about it or what to do, so I was sent round to a third office and they also told me they didn’t know anything about it and were very unhelpful. They told me just to hand over both sets of keys and my log book and that I was ok to go. Because I have never had a lease car before I acted upon their instructions signed the log book, handed 2 keys over and left and thought nothing more of it.

6 weeks later had a letter from Barclays saying that I owe £1155 (which I was very shocked about) which has now been passed to CRS. I have spoken to CRS who have been really helpful and have kept my account on hold. They requested information from Barclays for a break down of the charges and they still have not got them and its now 15th MArch.

I had to ring Barclays and emailed them on numerous occasions and 2 weeks ago I finally got an inspection report which I am not happy about.

They are saying there is rust and corrosion and dents?!! Someone went into me last year and even though I went through the insurance to their garage they are saying it has been poorly repaired.

Barclays are saying I owe all this money still and I have no idea what to do. I dropped the car off on 7th November and the inspection was not done until 1st December.....what the hell have they done to the car inbetween!!

My paper work from Barclays states:

Collection procedures
“At the end of the lease when the vehicle is returned, representatives of the member and the customer must check and agree on the vehicle condition.”

Apparently Barclays are not part of the BVRLA although it says it on their letter. They passed me back to Manheim and Manheim send me back to Barclays and im dizzy going round in circles.

HELP!!!

Thanks

MobileSaver

justask4lottie wrote: »

They are saying there is rust and corrosion and dents?!!

Did you take any photos of the car before returning it?

The law (Section 100 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974) says that you must take reasonable care of the car so you need to go through the breakdown of the inspection report and as a starting point cross off anything that you (genuinely) believe a court would consider reasonable for a six year old car.

Certainly any small dents, small scratches, scuffs and stone chips would be entirely expected after 6 years and so any charges relating to those can be challenged.

The "poor repair" charges are not quite so straightforward however the fact that the repairs were carried out by your insurance company's approved repairer should allow you to successfully challenge those too.

In the first instance I would contact the garage who carried out the repairs, advise them of the inspection report and ask for their comments. They will almost certainly confirm that the repairs were carried out to such and such standard which you can use to confirm to Barclays that you took reasonable care of the goods.

If, on the other hand, it turns out the repairs were poor then you may have to go down the route of paying Barclays for any damage that isn't reasonable and then claiming that back from either the garage, your insurer or both... but keep us informed and we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

justask4lottie

Thank you

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos which happens to be a big mistake. I left that car in good condition and to me (being a woman I don't know a lot about cars haha) it was in good condition and well looked after. What has made me mad is that I asked 3 times if I needed to sign any official paperwork and not just the log book like they advised me to.

It took Manheim a month to do the inspection which I find odd as it is supposed to be done on the day and in front of me. I have asked a number of questions to Manheim which they won't answer and keep passing me back to Barclays. I know Manheim are members of the BVRLA but Barclays aren't but it states on my Barclays paperwork that an inspection is carried out and both parties have to agree and I have to sign the paperwork.

about 7 weeks after I left the car barlcays sent me an invoice for £1155 which no explanation why I was being charged this and it has taken 2 months to get the inspection report. CRS who now have the debt still don't have the information and its only cos I sent a ranty email that after 3 months they sent me the inspection report. Barclays took that email as a complaint and closed it saying I am in the wrong. When I try and contact the person at Barclays who sent me this letter her phone always goes to voicemail and she has never returned a call.

Any help and advice on what to do would be very much appreciated as I am very stressed out. I id had known I would have kept the bloody car :rotfl:

MobileSaver

justask4lottie wrote: »

it states on my Barclays paperwork that an inspection is carried out and both parties have to agree and I have to sign the paperwork.

Politely and briefly reply to Barclays that the debt is denied, the car was returned in reasonable condition for its age and that you would not and did not agree to the inspection report listing £1155 worth of charges. Remind them that "both parties have to agree and I have to sign the paperwork" and ask them for a copy of the paperwork showing you did agree and sign.

justask4lottie

I have sent my paperwork to the ombusdman who have now re opened my case after telling me I had to pay this money. I will write to Barclays and see if they get in contact with me, the debt is now with CRS tho so not sure what else I need to do. CRS keep putting my account on hold and have been quite understanding tho so far.

[Deleted User]

You couldn't have had a lease if you had the V5 - it must have been PCP.

justask4lottie

Ah right ok does this make a difference then??
Still it says in black and white what should have happened on its return which was never done and still waiting on response from Ombudsman.

justask4lottie

Hi....

Here is a quick update of what has happened with my case. It got passed over to another Ombudsman who said that looking at all the evidence that I had been messed around and was owed compensation which would be deducted off the bill. He said I had to sens him an email of what I was willing to pay and he would go back to Barclays and see what they said.

I have had this back today....

I’ve considered all your comments but in my view, it was reasonable for Barclays to seek repayment from you for the condition of the car.

However, I think the matter could have been handled better, and you were caused some unnecessary trouble and upset. You should be compensated for this.

I say this because of the circumstances surrounding your return of the car and the delay that occurred before you were told about what you would have to pay. In particular, there was a period where you were seeking clarification of what had happened and didn’t get a reply. You were passed between Barclays and Manheim and had to do a lot of chasing for information. This could have been avoided. As a result, you lost the opportunity to challenge the inspection, or get a report of your own. You’ve also explained to me that there had been some repairs to the car and, if you had known there were still issues with the car’s condition, you could have gone back to the repairers and raised this with them. Because of all the delay you weren’t able to do this. I can’t say what the outcome would have been, but you lost the opportunity to pursue these issues.

Taking all of this into account, I think it would be right to pay some compensation and the sum I think is fair is £250. I’ve contacted Barclays and it has agreed this. This sum would be deducted from the outstanding balance.

If you are willing to agree this, we can resolve the complaint on this basis. But if you don’t agree, I will need to issue a formal decision.

I am still not happy to have a bill which will be £900+ and my points are that:
1. I never had the inspection done on the day (Manheim and Barclays at fault)
2. I never had opportunity to question the damages or take the car away etc
3. I would have gone back to the garage to question the bad repairs (which to me as a woman looked ok at the time, but I am no expert)

Can anyone me on what might happen when I tell the ombudsman that I disagree with the decision.

Thank you