PCP Breach

Edamelvis1

My daughter has a PCP agreement with Volkswagen that she has had for 18 months and never missed a payment, its her second agreement with them. Just before Christmas when we were away her ex partner took her car without her permission and was stopped by the police. To cut a long story short the car was impounded and she had to pay to get it released.

She has just received a letter from Volkswagen stating that they want the loan paid in full as she has breached the agreement as they have discovered the car had been seized.

Can they do this and is there anything she can do about it. As I said earlier she has never missed a payment.

Thanks.

Brie

Welcome to the forum.

Short answer to your question is I don't know. But I think the people on the motoring board might. I'll move your post there to get you some knowledgeable answers hopefully.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6658792/pcp-breach

If it's in the T/C then yes.

Although if she was to speak to them & explain that the car was stolen (Police CRN etc) then it would put the situation in a different light.

Hopefully she did not say to police it was not stolen & prosecution is in progress for TWOC & no insurance.

chuffinnora

Did her ex actually break into the car to steal it? If so, just seems like any normal car crime and can't see why the PCP would be in breach.

If the ex had his own set of keys, or easy access to them, maybe thats why they have taken this step. But again if he's broken into her house and took the keys, thats just a normal crime. Could easily happen without the ex.

Mildly_Miffed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6658792/pcp-breach

I rather suspect there's something missing in one of the re-tellings of this tale…

paul_c123

We would need to see the T&Cs of the finance agreement. What are their grounds for saying there is a breach of the agreement? How did the lease company find out it was impounded (presumably for driving without insurance)?

daveyjp

Ask the PCP provider (assume VWFS) to tell you which clauses they are relying on to demand full payment of the debt,

Goudy

There will be a couple of points in the contract that the finance company might be invoking.

That the vehicle must kept in their possession and control.

Take reasonable care of the vehicle.

Inform the finance company immediately if the vehicle is lost or stolen.

I suspect the RK didn't report the incident as TWOC so therefore didn't inform the finance company, which is fair enough but that has lead to the fact the RK didn't keep the vehicle in their possession and control which also meant they didn't take reasonable care of the vehicle.

But to know for sure, ask the finance company. I suspect though you will have trouble getting them to change their decision, they obviously see some sort of risk to the contract that wasn't apparent to them at the time of signing and are going to use the contract to cover their liability as best they can.

I wouldn't hang around with trying to sort this, they are obviously fairly jumpy over this contact now and will have given a date to settle this by. After that date they will go for enforcement, so will reprossessed and a debt registered.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6658792/pcp-breach

So did she report it as theft to the police? If she's not wanting to add to her ex-problems by not reporting it as theft then it's tacit approval for him to take the car and she has to deal with the consequences.

Saw a lot of this in my motor claims days, more commonly teenagers taking their parents car and crashing it. In insurance terms if the car is stolen and we obviously know who the driver is then we have to cover the claim from both vehicles and have a right of recovery from the theft/kid. If the car is used with the parents consent then we dont have to cover the vehicle at all but we do have to cover the third party but then have a right to reclaim those costs from either parent or kid.

Can understand the conflict in both situations but not reporting it as a crime implies consent.