Excess Mileage Charge - Reached Debt Collectors

Quentin

ScotsMan2017 wrote: »

I didn't sign anything saying I would pay for any excess Mileage.

Yeh the debt collectors have said that they will continue to pursue the claim.

They are only interested in getting money off you.

You can safely ignore debt collectors.

Ectophile

ScotsMan2017 wrote: »

I received this email from the finance company.

"Thank you for your recent email.

As advised by our client, your balance has been raised correctly in line with your agreement, even having voluntary terminated your agreement. If you remain dissatisfied with your balance, you will need to escalate this to the Financial Ombudsman Service within 6 months of your final complaint response issued by our client."

If you haven't yet made a formal complaint to the finance company, then this communication is essentially your invitation to do so. You should make a formal complaint and wait for their response (or 8 weeks if you don't get one) before going to the ombudsman.

If this is their response to a formal complaint, then just go straight to the ombudsman.

ScotsMan2017

I have emailed them back stating clearly that I want to make a formal complaint.

However, going to the FOS will unlikely for anything. They have history of decisions on the side of excess Mileage charges after VT. I would probably have more of a chance in court, arguing that the wording and spirit of VT means excess Mileage charges are at odds with it.

maddogb

have you come across any legal references? not sure what approach you can take as essentially whilst VT terminates the contract at that point you agreed to those non fixed charges at the start of the contract.
Willing to bet many judges will feel you became liable before the VT leaving it a valid debt, so don't rely on reporters views etc get some statute or case law behind your argument.

Nobbie1967

maddogb wrote: »

have you come across any legal references? not sure what approach you can take as essentially whilst VT terminates the contract at that point you agreed to those non fixed charges at the start of the contract.
Willing to bet many judges will feel you became liable before the VT leaving it a valid debt, so don't rely on reporters views etc get some statute or case law behind your argument.

No,

the VT terminates the contract so none of it's provisions apply any more. The argument in court would be over the wording of the law on VT which states

“damages if you have failed to take reasonable care of the goods (over and above normal wear and tear)”,

It's my understanding that no precedent has been set in the courts that excess mileage constitutes damage as finance companies have never taken it that far in case they lose.

maddogb

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

No,

the VT terminates the contract so none of it's provisions apply any more. The argument in court would be over the wording of the law on VT which states

“damages if you have failed to take reasonable care of the goods (over and above normal wear and tear)”,

It's my understanding that no precedent has been set in the courts that excess mileage constitutes damage as finance companies have never taken it that far in case they lose.

No?
No you don't have a legal argument?
Not convinced, CCA,s99, subsection 2 seems to state otherwise...

Nobbie1967

maddogb wrote: »

No?
No you don't have a legal argument?
Not convinced, CCA,s99, subsection 2 seems to state otherwise...

Interesting point, I would say that no liability has arisen during the contract for excess mileage unless they present a bill at the end of each year for any mileage over the agreed limit (Maybe they should do this as seems a good way to catch people trying to pull a fast one) Not sure what liabilities this would refer to though, possibly missed payments?

Joe_Horner

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

Interesting point, I would say that no liability has arisen during the contract for excess mileage unless they present a bill at the end of each year for any mileage over the agreed limit (Maybe they should do this as seems a good way to catch people trying to pull a fast one) Not sure what liabilities this would refer to though, possibly missed payments?

Rather than "presenting a bill each year" I'd suggest it would come down to how the mileage allowance is specified in the original contract.

If it's specified as (say) 30k miles over 3 years (equivalent to 10k per year), then doing 29999 within the first 18 months hasn't triggered any excess mileage clause because you could lay it up for the remaining 18 months and still be within the limit.

If, on the other hand, it's specified as 10k per year over 3 years (equivalent to 30k over the contract) then the above example would have triggered the excess mileage clause even if your later use effectively hid that.

MobileSaver

maddogb wrote: »

Not convinced, CCA,s99, subsection 2 seems to state otherwise...

I disagree. Subsection 2 says:

Termination of an agreement under subsection (1) does not affect any liability under the agreement which has accrued before the termination.

Crucially, before the agreement is terminated, the finance company do not know whether there is any excess mileage or not so how can they raise any liability/invoice? QED before termination there is no liability.

As pointed out by Nobbie and Joe Horner if the finance house presented, for example, an annual excess mileage bill then that would be owed by the OP as the liability was accrued before termination.

Most telling for me is that AFAIK no finance company has ever taken the excess mileage issue to court for fear of the precedent it would set. (All this assumes the OP did not sign any 'VT pack' or similar in which case all bets would be off...)

shaun_from_Africa

MobileSaver wrote: »

Crucially, before the agreement is terminated, the finance company do not know whether there is any excess mileage or not so how can they raise any liability/invoice? QED before termination there is no liability.

I don't know anything about leasing but to me, that would imply that you could write off the vehicle or leave it in such a poor state as to make it basically worthless then providing you had paid off more than 50%, you could simply voluntarily terminate the lease and hand back the car and the lease company would have no comeback against you?