Car finance

Thereggie

Hello I am hoping someone can offer some advice. My dad passed away very suddenly with quite a large amount of car finance. I have had to take over dealing with this as my mum is in a state of shock. The car finance was solely in my dad’s name and the house was in joint names as was their bank accounts so there are no assets to speak of as they are all in my mums name. The car finance company are quite aggressively asking me to settle the finance. I can sell the car to a dealer but will then have to pay a lump sum to cover the difference. My mum has no assets or saving of her own to be able to afford this and certainly won’t sell the house so I feel this should be written off. Does anyone have any advice? It’s becoming very stressful dealing with this alongside coping with my dad passing away thank you 

tacpot12

This link will give you some background: What happens to your car finance agreement if you die? (thecarexpert.co.uk)

it suggests that your father's executor or personal representative (whoever is dealing with their estate) can negotiate to settle the finance and that some professional legal advice might be necessary to do this. If your mother has home insurance on the house, it might include Legal Expenses cover. If it does, she will have a Legal Helpline she can call, and they should represent her if necessary. 

What can be done might depend on how they owned their house. If they were joint tenants, then your father's estate will not include the house and even if the finance company were to go to court, they could not get any more than the value for the car (unless there are bank/savings accounts in his sole name but you have said that there are not).

It might be better to return the car to the finance company to ensure that they don't claim that it was sold too cheaply. If it is returned to them, they will have to take responsibility for maximising the money realised by the sale. The professional legal advice from the Legal Helpline can help you with this.  

molerat

As above, if the house was held as joint tenants and there were no bank accounts in his own name then you simply tell the finance co that the car is available for collection and there is no money in the estate so they can go whistle.  You need to be as aggressive / assertive as they are being.

Brie

Agree with molerat

And if they continue to be aggressive let them know that they are being way out of line with someone who has suffered a bereavement and log a complaint about their behaviour.  Escalate it if they don't respond appropriately.  If necessary you could go public about their insensitivity but frankly they probably won't care and people needing car finance likely won't care either.  

Keep_pedalling

Write to them explaining that his estate is insolvent and that no one is administering it. Provide them with a contact number that they can arrange the recovery of the car.

Savvy_Sue

All the above assumes, I think, that neither you nor your mother wishes to keep the car. If that's wrong then obviously the finance has to be settled somehow, AND the insurance needs to know dad's died.