Bizarre car finance issue: Can a car be logged as "repossessed" multiple times in a year?

daviem1975

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone on here might have some insight or experience with a completely baffling car finance situation.

​I’m currently dealing with a lender who claims they need to launch a lengthy investigation into an account history that shows a vehicle being supposedly "repossessed" multiple times within a single year (reaching an absurd number like 9 times).

​From everything I understand about standard finance agreements and the law:

1. ​Once a car is legally repossessed, the agreement is typically terminated.
2. ​You can't logically keep cycling through multiple repossessions on the same active asset.
3. ​Furthermore, I have never received a single legal paper, court order, or official notice for even one repossession, let alone a continuous loop of them.

​When I questioned why they need an "investigation" into something that shouldn’t even be physically or legally possible, I was basically told to wait through a lengthy complaints timeframe (up to 8 weeks). It's causing an immense amount of stress and impacting my health, especially when it’s an obvious administrative or system mess on their end that should be looked at and rectified much quicker.

Has anyone ever encountered a system glitch or ghost-marker trail like this on a credit file or finance history? How on earth do lenders justify dragging their feet for weeks when their records are showing something so blatantly impossible?

​Any advice or similar experiences would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mildly_Miffed

I can't help feeling that the "multiple repossessions on the file" thing might have an easy explanation - if the car wasn't physically able to be repossessed for whatever reason. Perhaps just enough was paid off to put it into abeyance. Perhaps the car couldn't be located.

I also can't help feeling that's not actually the most relevant detail here, but without more information, we're going to be guessing what is.

So you are/were, I presume the borrower? And that the car HAS actually been taken back by the financier in the end?

If so, what are you actually trying to achieve here?
Is this an ongoing credit-file issue? If so, then this might be your better place to ask - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/credit-file-ratings

Or is the car still in your possession, and you want it to remain so? How bad is your repayment record on this finance, and what's the current debt?

Grumpy_chap

Just to be clear, this is your current car on which you have some finance?

(Not a car you intend to purchase.)

The "repossession" marker after each cycle seems odd, but occasionally threads crop up where the accounts show going into default several (every) month in succession. When such threads arise, the root cause seems to come out to be one of two elements:

- Slight discrepancy in payment dates, for example due 30th of each month but DD paying on last day of each month (so 31 day months are always a day late)

- Error when the first payment was made, so January payment due was actually paid in February. Then February payment becomes due and, because the February payment was assigned to January, the February payment is not recorded until March. And so on.

Do you have car finance?

Is there any discrepancy in your payments? (Even if it is an administrative discrepancy rather than actually unable / unwilling to pay discrepancy.)

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone on here might have some insight or experience with a completely baffling car finance situation.

​I’m currently dealing with a lender who claims they need to launch a lengthy investigation into an account history that shows a vehicle being supposedly "repossessed" multiple times within a single year (reaching an absurd number like 9 times).

​From everything I understand about standard finance agreements and the law:

​Once a car is legally repossessed, the agreement is typically terminated.

​You can't logically keep cycling through multiple repossessions on the same active asset.

​Furthermore, I have never received a single legal paper, court order, or official notice for even one repossession, let alone a continuous loop of them.

​When I questioned why they need an "investigation" into something that shouldn’t even be physically or legally possible, I was basically told to wait through a lengthy complaints timeframe (up to 8 weeks). It's causing an immense amount of stress and impacting my health, especially when it’s an obvious administrative or system mess on their end that should be looked at and rectified much quicker.

Has anyone ever encountered a system glitch or ghost-marker trail like this on a credit file or finance history? How on earth do lenders justify dragging their feet for weeks when their records are showing something so blatantly impossible?

​Any advice or similar experiences would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

sheenas

sounds like an accounting error caused by a software bug. Why they are telling you what they need to do is past me. It’s a simple job of calculating what due and what’s been paid.

I would do a hpi check on the car. If the car has been incorrectly flagged then raise a complaint.

paul_c123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6684612/bizarre-car-finance-issue-can-a-car-be-logged-as-repossessed-multiple-times-in-a-year

Can you (or the dealer) share the report?

AFAIK "repossessed" isn't shown on a car history check. Instead, there is a marker for "financial interest" with the name of the finance company, a reference number, and contact details.

When a car is end-of-lease, the lease company (or more accurately, an agent of them such as BCA or Manheim) collect the car, then put it into trade and through auction, at which point the true owner of the car regains "possession" and the finance marker is removed. Similar for voluntary termination, and I imagine any successful repossession. If a failed attempt at repossession occurs, the car still has the finance marker on it, but there is no report or counter of the number of times a car is repossessed on its history. Its not like a stolen marker, or a categorised marker, where something occurs at a point in time and its recorded.

paul_c123

Or is this on your credit file?

sheramber

Some background information would prevent forum members working in the dark.

daviem1975

So sorry mibe should have put a bit of back ground about the car

I bought it in jan 25 and it was written off by insurrance in oct 25. I opted to kept the car as the damage was minimal but the payout didn't quite cover the cost of the car and left me with a £1200 short fall which i didnt have at the time. So i made an agreement to pay the rest. The car was never reposseded and i have been driving it since. It was only recently when i tried to remortgage that i noticed the rp markers on my credit file

Mildly_Miffed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/credit-file-ratings it is, then.

When it was written off, insurance "bought it off you" for the full pre-collision value - and you then "bought it back" for pennies on the pound salvage value.

The financier's interest would have ended at that point, and they won't want a write-off back, even if repaired, so this is just an argument over a £1,200 unsecured debt. Which, presumably, is why they've then flagged it as "We need to repo this", "oh, we can't", rinse, repeat.

paul_c123

Does the number of rp markers coincide with the number of months?

daviem1975

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82149705#Comment_82149705

Yes every payment made was marked as a forced repossession on my credit files