Vehicle Lease Company

[dunkmat]

Hi all,

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

A young colleague in the office last Wednesday over eagerly decided to sign up for a new vehicle lease over a 2 year period. When he got home that evening his parents went beserk and told him he could not afford the vehicle and try and cancel it.

He emailed the unnamed company straight away and was told under no circumstances could he cancel without being charged a 3 month cancellation fee. Unfortunatley this was stated on his order form he signed scanned and sent back.

He spoke to the OFT and they advised he could cancel a 5 day cooling off period but they are saying this isn't the case due to him signing the order and it being "an agency contract".

His response to his letter is this;

It would appear that you have misunderstood the grounds on which we will be charging a cancellation fee.

You are correct you would within your rights under the consumer credit act to withdraw from the agreement (had you signed it) provided it was not signed on trade premises.

Again the OFT and FSA are right you can if you wish cancel the agreement to take the car in fact at any time up to delivery of the car.

You are wrong however in your belief that you can walk away without any financial consequence, you have signed an agency contract and in doing so you have authorised ***to source a vehicle on your behalf as described in the Vehicle details section of the order.

You can of course cancel there is no dispute about that, we cannot force you to take a car that you don’t want, we cannot hold you to a financial agreement you have yet to sign, however you authorised us to order a car which we have done under the terms laid out in the contract you signed which states ' In the event that I/we cancel for any other reason (if the price changes) I/we shall be liable for a cancellation fee equal to three monthly rentals or costs incurred by ***'

I have tried to be reasonable but it appears you do not want to honour your obligations as far as our contract is concerned, I will pass your letter to our supplier in order to allow him to know that he has to alter the order at the factory which will trigger a cancellation fee to ***.

I will tomorrow raise an invoice to you for the cancelation fee, you will have14 days with which to pay if it not received you will be sent a reminder giving notice that if payment is not received within 7 days of that letter we will issue proceedings against you in the county court.

I will not enter into any further discussion or correspondence about this issue, you think you are right I think I'm right if you don’t pay we'll let the court decide

Is he snookered??

Many Thanks

[dunkmat]

Re: Vehicle Lease Company

Just for Info, this is the response from the
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Trading Standards Enforcement Officer[/FONT][FONT='Arial','sans-serif'][/FONT]

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']I have been contacted by ------ in relation to an order which he placed with yourselves on the 03.02.10 The order was for the personal Contract Hire of a Seat Leon 2.0 TDI CR 170 FR Diesal in candy white.[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']I have been informed by ---- that he wishes to cancel the order and it appears that there is a dispute between yourself and ----- regarding this matter.[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Mr Steele has provided me with paperwork associated with his complaint. Included in his paperwork is a confirmation order form. [/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']The confirmation order form which has been signed by ------- states that the Consumer will not have the right to cancel (Distance Selling Regulations) the agency contract once you have begun to source the vehicle.[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Under The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling Regulations) 2000 (DSR) the main thrust of the regulation is to give consumers confidence in purchasing goods and services where there is no face to face contact with the seller. The DSR give consumers the unconditional right to cancel. For goods this would be seven working days starting the day after receipt and services would be seven working days after the day on which the consumer agrees to go ahead with the project.[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']I believe that the contract signed by the consumer is for the supply of services to source the vehicle and finance on the consumers behalf, and therefore the consumer’sright to cancel is unconditional and should have the right to cancel without incurring liability. By not providing the consumer with clear written cancellation rights and a seven day cooling off period the cooling off period is extended by up to 3 months plus seven working days beginning, in the case of services on the day after the placing of the order.[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']From receipt of this letter ------- will be exercising his right to cancel the contract under the Distance Selling Regulations 2000[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']I have been in contact with your local trading standards department regarding the matter and would advise you to contact them to make arrangements for advice concerning Distance Selling Regulations 2000[/FONT]