Voluntary termination help!

[lharr173]

Hi! So I spoke to my finance company (Santander) this morning over the phone with regards to VT, and the lady said to send them an email, which I have now done. she said it could take up to 4 weeks for someone to reply - is this normal?! I've already got a new car in place waiting to be picked up so wanted my old car gone asap.

Also, I don't want to have to pay insurance on both cars until my old one is collected, can I cancel my insurance on this one or do I need to keep paying it until the car has gone? I don't want to be in breach of any rules or conditions!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[R0b]

Re: Voluntary termination help!

Hello, it is unreasonable for Santander to respond up to 4 weeks following notice of the termination. You should allow a reasonable time for them to collect which would normally be 14 days. If that fails then there is a template letter titled 'Notice of intention to sell goods ...' in the templates thread that you can use. You may need to adapt it to suit your situation though.

Whilst your obligations fall away following termination of the agreement except for those set out in section 100 of the CCA, it would be unreasonable to cancel the insurance immediately and leave the car on a public road which the DVLA may remove or issue a fine. Then you'd have to argue you acted reasonably which I can't really of any reason why that would be considered reasonable. If the car is on a private drive then that's different because it's private property.

The trick to Voluntary termination is to try and make things as smoothly as possible so if you are anticipating getting a car then you give the lender sufficient notice for it to terminate on a certain date and for them to arrange collection before or just after you get your new one. In practice it might be more difficult but doing it this way would likely create less hassle and everyone is on the same page.