ending car agreement early - advice please

justdan61

Hi all

i hope someone can offer any advice or may be in the same situation as me.
a few years ago i took out a car agreement with BMW at the time i was in a well paid job but due to personal circumstances and work circumstances i became quite ill with mental health, long story short I set out to do something i love and trained to become  barber and started trading self employed in august 2019. i continued to meet my monthly payments for my car and everything else however challenging this may have been having started out.
fast forward to the corner virus outbreak i contacted BMW before lockdown but couldn't get through or get any reply back from them as i wanted to see what support they could offer. lockdown was then announced and like all other self employed people i waited to see what and if there would be any support and i was so pleased to hear the government were going to launch a self employment scheme....having looked into this unfortunately i do not qualify for this help as I haven't been in business long enough. i did managed to get some universal credit which doesn't cover my outgoing at all but its something. 

i continued to call BMW, i have e-mailed and e-mailed, left voice messages the works and haven't heard anything back. iv sent them a complaint letter in the post and even complained to the financial ombudsman. i understand they are busy, but to struggle this hard to get a call back just isn't right.
so to cut a long story short, I managed to speak to someone today who has helped me stop my payments for 3 months. however i need to end my agreement early. i am 35 months into a 48 month agreement. i simply cannot afford to keep the car even when this is all over as its going to take me so long to get back on my feet after all this.
they are sending me out a letter with all the details in and a break down on how i end my agreement early but i have to make a payment of £300 and then an extra payment if they need to repair any ware and tear on the car. i am so worried how I'm going to be able to pay this as i don't have anything! iv tried explaining all this and said due to the stress and worry and time its caused me could they not waver these fee's but they said not.

i am hoping to get a bounce back loan, however from what iv read and my average predicted turnover i doubt i will get enough/much to help cover these costs.

any advice or ideas?
thank you

molerat

More details needed on specifically what type of agreement it is.  All the details of your rights and responsibilities are on the agreement document. 

Assuming it is a HP / PCP agreement you must have paid 50% of the total agreement value (or be able to make up to that amount) and be up to date with payments and you can hand the car back, that is your right under the CCA.  Any charges for damages (and arguably excess mileage) will be a separate debt for which you may be able to negotiate a payment plan.

DrEskimo

It's likely you have a PCP finance agreements, and as above, you can exercise your right to Voluntarily Terminate the agreement when you have made 50% of the total amount payable. BMW finance are indicating that you are £300 short of this figure, which given you are 35 months into a 48month term would seem feasible.

Your only other real option is to get trade valuations for the car and see if any departs/garages would buy it off you as a straight sale. You can ask BMW finance for a settlement figure on your PCP agreement (we know this is £300 short of the 50% payable amount, which will be listed on your finance agreement), and compare this with trade valuation. If it's same or more than the settlement, then that would obviously be the better option (it would also be based on the condition and mileage as seen, so no worries of further charges). 

Of course the elephant in the room is that trading cars in and the usual valuations being offered are being severely affected by COVID-19...in usual circumstances this would likely be your better option, but in the current circumstance it's probably not going to be viable....

justdan61

thank you DrEskinmo thats an option i will have a look and see what i can get for my car! but yes i will see if they'll do a payment plan for anything owing etc.