Assistance with car finance/hire purchase

DarrenP94

Hi,

I took a car out on hire purchase over 48 months with Arnold Clark via MotoNovo Finance just over 2 years ago. Not only 5 days after taking the car out (with third party insurance [I know, complete rookie error]), I fell asleep at the wheel and wrote the car off.

I had nowhere to store the car, didn't want to scrap it, so kept it for a month and then let the finance company take it back off my hands to sit in a lot. I agreed then to keep up repayments until the hire purchase had been paid off in full.

2 years on, I've been continuously paying so much a month and felt it was necessary to look into this a little more.

According to my contract info, I have the option to terminate if I've paid over 50% and give the car back - essentially losing everything (but stops me paying more money). I called MotoNovo and they advised I'm unable to do this because I physically do not have the car to give back. Is this response valid, or can I do something about it?

Additionally, I have checked the registration plate and found that the car has been repaired and put back on the road as the MOT and tax have been purchased on it. When I took out the hire purchase, I also took out the Option to Buy after 48 months. If I was to continue making these payments and decided that I wanted to buy the car (as per the terms), what could I do/what would the situation be?

Massive help would be grateful with this as I'd either rather get my cash back, or my car, or get out of it altogether (although the first 2 options seem like they are do-able)

Thanks in advance for any advice

neilmcl

You are legally entitled to Voluntary Terminate (VT) your finance agreement however you must hand the car back in a reasonable condition. This doesn't mean you can pay off 50% of the finance and hand them back a pile of twisted metal. If the car has been repaired and put back on the road then the finance co. would be entitled to recover that cost back from you.

DarrenP94

Hi neilmcl,

I agree completely. It's unfortunate, however, that I gave the car back in the twisted metal wreck it was 2 years ago and am only looking into it now.

The repairs made to the vehicle, and that it's been put back on the road, haven't been made aware to me since then, nor have I been charged/chased for anything. Can you shed anymore info on this?

Lucky_Duck_2

Weren't you comprehensively insured?

DarrenP94

Lucky Duck, afraid not. That's a mistake only 20-year old me will understand why I wasn't.

neilmcl

DarrenP94 wrote: »

Hi neilmcl,

I agree completely. It's unfortunate, however, that I gave the car back in the twisted metal wreck it was 2 years ago and am only looking into it now.

The repairs made to the vehicle, and that it's been put back on the road, haven't been made aware to me since then, nor have I been charged/chased for anything. Can you shed anymore info on this?

Maybe you should be contacting whoever you handed the car back to and ask them why is your car on the road, who has it and why are you still paying for it, and finally what will happen to the car once your payments are complete. Regardless, if the car has been repaired then you clearly owe someone the cost of this.

Was this a new or used car and what sort of value was it?

System

+1. It seems a bit strange you're paying for a car that you don't own and someone is running around in.

DarrenP94

Hi again neilmcl,

Thanks for the advice. I'll get that up and running tomorrow to get to grips as to why it's on the road again. I feel it'd be an unfortunate situation for all parties if I decided I wanted to exercise the Option to Buy - especially for the person currently running around in the car that I'll then own. I have a feeling that if I take that Option and try twist their arm, they'll whack me with the repair charges - albeit it shouldn't have been repaired in the first place.

It was a used 55k mile Corsa Eco 1.3, 'Cash Price' was £5k

Nobbie1967

Surely you signed something when they took the car away? Seems odd that they would agree to store it FOC, sounds more like they agreed to dispose of it for you.

sheramber

Since the car was wrItten off you still need to complete the finance agreement.

If you had comprehensive insurance that would have paid out the value of the car to the finance company. If the payout did not cover the amount outstanding due to interest and fees then you would have to pay the difference.

In your case you did not have insurance so the whole cost falls to you. The finance company could have asked for immediate settlement of the whole amount but instead allowed you to continue to pay the finance payments.

As the car was written off and you handed it back to the finance company there is no car to hand back.

In other words you have a contract with the insurance company to pay x amount and are bound to pay

that.

The finance company would not repair the car They would sell it to a scrappage dealer for a nominal amount. The dealer would then repair it and sell it.

motorguy

It sounds like they took the car back and have an agreement with you to continue to pay the loan off, which seems odd and a great risk to them.