Financial Ombudsman or Claims Court?

philipr

“
My son bought a car on finance, after 5 1/2 months the engine. clutch and gear box all had to be replaced at great expense. Garage he bought it from do not reply to letters. Finance company have passed correspondence to their 'Complaints Dept' who cannot help as they maintain wrongly it was over 6 months. Is it best to go to Financial Ombudsman or fight it out in Claims Court.

DoaM

Both.

Do you have a letter of deadlock from the finance company? Have you formally raised a Section 75 claim? Can you evidence (in writing/emails/invoices) that the problems occurred within 6 months of purchase?

m0bov

LBA both the finance and dealer. Both jointly liable.

philipr

Many thanks for that. I do not have a letter of Deadlock us such frm the financial company, although I have letter say ing they cannot uphold my complaint and it is there final response. In that letter they maintain that the faults developed outside the first 6 months of the agreement, this being untrue as they have copies I have sent to the garage from which the car was purchased. Re Section 75 claim is this only relevant if the car was purchased by credit card?

DoaM

You have the equivalent of a deadlock letter - they've confirmed that you've exhausted their complaints process. (If it's more than 8 weeks since you raised the claim then you wouldn't need a deadlock letter anyway).

S75 applies if any form of finance was used to make the purchase and could be directly attributable to the purchase (e.g. credit card, dealer finance, or personal loan taken out where the finance company know the purpose for it). As you mention a Finance Company then I'm presuming this linkage applies. It also suggests that you've raised a S75 claim in all but name - check with the Finance Company on which basis they've addressed your complaint?