Car dealer has our car and our money!

squ1rrel5

A couple of weeks ago, my husband sold his car (on finance) to an approved dealer - once the finance had been paid off, we were owed just over £1000 for the car.  Husband has all relevant paperwork stating that they now own the car and this is the payment we will be receiving.  They told us that the money would be in our account in 5-6 working days but can be sooner assuming all the paperwork was in order (they said it was).  
We are now 12 working days down the line and have still not received payment and keep getting fobbed off by the dealer.  Each person that we speak to promises that we'll get a call back to update us by the end of the day and of course we never do.  We will be heading there in person at the end of the week once we have a day off, but would like to put something down in writing in the meantime.  
What are our rights here?  Can we threaten legal action, or discuss small claims court?  Are they legally obliged to pay in so many days before we do anything?
It's so frustrating - it feels like theft at the moment as we don't have either our car or the money they owe us so we aren't sure what action to take next! 

Thanks. 

Aylesbury_Duck

It's frustrating but as you have all the paperwork, it's only a matter of time before you get your money, even if you have to threaten small claims action.  I suspect that going there in person will get it sorted out, but if it doesn't, then write to them formally setting out your expectation of payment within 14 days or you will pursue small claims action.

squ1rrel5

Thank you. The reason we were worried is because we've been googling and it appears this company is notorious for doing this (why we didn't find these posts before I don't know) but it looks like customers haven't had their money for months and it's caused all sorts of issues in terms of tax/insurance and finance payments etc. 

We'll be going there in person on Friday if not sorted before. 

squ1rrel5

Well lo and behold. I saw they'd posted on their Facebook page saying "We want your used cars!" so I wrote a bit of a snotty message about wanting cars but not paying for them. I get a private message from their social media manager, have a conversation about why I'm frustrated and about 30 mins later the money is transferred into my husband's account. I normally don't like public shaming if it can be sorted out in person but looks like this time it's paid off. 
Still a few more issues to sort out including the finance being paid off and V5 etc but one hurdle crossed.