Voluntary termination on a PCP - my rights

samtaylor1986

Hi all I'm after some advice regarding PCP and voluntary termination.

I have a Clio on PCP and I have contacted them to proceed with a voluntary termination. As I have paid over 50% of the finance I can give the car back without having to pay any additional cost. However on the phone the woman said I would have to sign a slip and return it asap and only then when they had my signature would they proceed with the VT. wanting to get rid of the car asap I did this - my signature was agreeing to pay for any damages, or excess mileage on the car!!
After some research I have seen a number of websites that say in no uncertain terms should you sign anything and in fact when you request VT the finance company have to proceed regardless as this is the law. They also say that once you request VT and terminate the contract then all previous agreements are more or less null and void. For example excess mileage charges. I have gone over the mileage by around 4000 miles.
Basically I am just wondering where I stand legally with regards to proceeding with the VT and what legally I have to and don't have to pay for........yes I know I have gone over the mileage allowance and initially signed the document to say I would pay excess charges BUT if I can legally argue against having pay anything then I will.

Thanks

Sam

fatbelly

Put your VT request in writing.

Template here

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Terminate-a-hire-purchase-agreement-%28sole-name%29.aspx

samtaylor1986

Hi thank you for the reply but I have already put it in writing and sent this. I've phoned them and they told me they had received it.

The issue that I had was that over the phone they told me they had to receive a signed slip from myself (which said I would pay for excel mileage and damage if any etc) before they would proceed with the termination. I sent this slip off and then learnt that I didn't have to do this at all. The VT is going ahead and I have confirmed collection date.

Basically I want to know is where I stand with having to pay for excess mileage etc what are my
Legal rights.

I emailed them to say they had misled me into signing the form and they emailed me back today to deny ever saying I had to sign a form!!! Even though it is in the pack they sent me! Lying already so I jus want to know my legal rights......

bris

Its a bit of a grey area I'm afraid. The act says that you can had it back after 50% of the payments with nothing to pay if you take reasonable care. The grey area is where the mileage comes in.


If for instance you agreed to 12k PA and do 25 then you haven't taken reasonable care and could be made to pay.


The act doesn't stipulate anything to do with mileage, just hand it back having taken reasonable car of the vehicle.


As we all know mileage is a big deal with residual values of a car. The average is about 12k so if you agreed 8k and did 12 this would be seen as reasonable but anything over is pushing it a bit.


Of course you made it worse by agreeing to pay so you could be on a sticky wicket if it went to court, but then again if you are a consumer then the courts could very well find that term unreasonable and disregard it.

samtaylor1986

Don't get me wrong i am prepared to pay it if I am legally binded too. I haven't tried to mislead them or anything I signed for 10k a year and in reality I've done around 12-13k a year - it's whether this would be deemed reasonable as you say and if there is no clarity I'm wondering if it's worth pursuing.
As you say I signed the slip and sent it back which does say 'excess mileage' however I feel I was misled and 'forced' to sign this as they told me they wouldn't process the VT until they had this slip back. There has been several emails back and forth and they are basically denying ever saying I had to sign the slip and return it. They said the pack they sent me was for 'information only'

bris

samtaylor1986 wrote: »

Don't get me wrong i am prepared to pay it if I am legally binded too. I haven't tried to mislead them or anything I signed for 10k a year and in reality I've done around 12-13k a year - it's whether this would be deemed reasonable as you say and if there is no clarity I'm wondering if it's worth pursuing.
As you say I signed the slip and sent it back which does say 'excess mileage' however I feel I was misled and 'forced' to sign this as they told me they wouldn't process the VT until they had this slip back. There has been several emails back and forth and they are basically denying ever saying I had to sign the slip and return it. They said the pack they sent me was for 'information only'

I don't think it's worth their while taking this to court so personally I would defend it in court.


From the mileage you state I don't think it's unreasonable so your chances are very good in court. They probably won't take it that far anyway because if they lose the power to threaten others who will probably just pay up diminishes with their defeat.


You can ignore toothless debt collectors, the only paper work you need to take seriously is the court papers if they arrive.

Undervalued

bris wrote: »

I don't think it's worth their while taking this to court so personally I would defend it in court.


From the mileage you state I don't think it's unreasonable so your chances are very good in court. They probably won't take it that far anyway because if they lose the power to threaten others who will probably just pay up diminishes with their defeat.


You can ignore toothless debt collectors, the only paper work you need to take seriously is the court papers if they arrive.

Not unless it gets to the High Court or Appeal Court. A County Court decision does not set a precedent.

bris

Undervalued wrote: »

Not unless it gets to the High Court or Appeal Court. A County Court decision does not set a precedent.

No it doesn't set a precedent but it does go round the net like wildfire that a person won their case in court, giving everyone else the courage to say GTF.

neilmcl

bris wrote: »

No it doesn't set a precedent but it does go round the net like wildfire that a person won their case in court, giving everyone else the courage to say GTF.

No it doesn't.