Voluntary termination

[James23abest]

So after advise from my local Nissan dealer I done a voluntary termination on pcp contract for my pulsar which has taken a massive drop in what it’s worth with the dealer telling me that they only charge if you have massive scrapes down the car. The car in my opinion was in an above reasonable condition yet I have received a bill for £1300 in charges. The excess mileage was only £13.70 which I am happy to pay but the finance company say they want the full amount within 14 days. I’ve ignored the first letter as per your advise but they have today called my phone but not left a message. What would you advise me to do from here ? I’m more worried about bailiffs turning up at my house are they able to do this or do they have to take me to court if that makes sense ?

[James23abest]

I had also payed well over half the amount and the car was due to go back in December anyway

[R0b]

Hello

I don't think in my guide advocates ignoring them, but I think you should at least write to them and address the issue stating your point. They can't send the bailiffs in until they issue legal proceedings and you either fail to file a defence or you lose at court which takes at least 6 months from start to finish.

You said the car was in a reasonable condition, do you have evidence with any photographs or videos of the car prior to handing it over to them?

Also, what was the total price under the agreement and how much of it did you pay back?

Was the car brand new or second hand? If it was second hand, how old is the car?

[James23abest]

Hi R0b thanks for the reply yes the vehicle was brand new when we got it and I took loads of pictures before they collected the car. It would have been 3 years old in December we had paid over half the value this was confirmed on the phone by rci finance prior to me doing the vt. a company came round and quoted about £700 damages then I got a bill from rci saying over £1300, must of miss read your post?
5. You receive a notice of sums in arrears or a default notice for failing to continue the monthly instalments or failing to pay the alleged damages / excess mileage charges
If you receive one of these letters, then my suggestion is not to pay too much attention to it.

What would your advise be where to go from here, I've downloaded you template to decline payment for damages, but am prepared to pay the excess mileage. This will be sent today

regards

james

[James23abest]

Hello again R0b the finance company sent an email to me today saying they can’t accept my vt as it wasn’t signed (this was the template regarding the bill for damage). I have informed them that the signed hard copy was also posted 1st class recorded so they should have that too. Is it just a waiting game now to see what they come back with ?
Regards

james

[R0b]

Can you post up the email that says they can't accept the VT because it wasn't signed?

Did you give notice to VT by email and post?

[James23abest]

Hi again R0b thanks for the reply, the initial termination was accepted they sent out a vt pack which I didnt sign but sent your template in its place. After the collection of the car I recieved a damage bill so I sent your damage template via 1st class recorded post which was signed also by email which I didnt sign as was just a copy and past to an email. I can post on here later as am at work at the moment and have no access to my email account. Yesterday I recieved another letter from the finance company sent the same day I sent the template letter stating they will pass on the charge to their debt recovery team if it wasnt paid within 14 days. I have also been getting phone calls through the day while I'm at work and always miss them due to not being allowed a phone in work, I tried to call this number back and I get a message saying we tried to call you about your car this call is not important and we will try to call you back at another time. (I have recorded this on my ipad).
The vehicle has been collected and my balance for the finance on my credit file says 0.00

I'm wondering now where I stand will I get a visit from a debt collection agency and can they even enforce this as the origanal agreement has now ended. Your help and guidence would be much appriciated.

[James23abest]

Hi R0b here’s the email they sent me

[R0b]

I would suggest you put in a formal complaint to them and I wouldn't hesitate in asking for compensation due to their threatening behaviour as well as the fact that they are misrepresenting the law, which in turn means they are being extremely difficult with you and refusing to accept your statutory rights.

There is no legal obligation for you to go through any VT questionnaire, nor are you required to sign any letter or email relating to your VT. In fact putting your name to a letter would constitute a signature; you don't need to have a wet signature. Nothing under the CCA suggests your notice has to be signed, it merely states "in writing" and since you have complied with that, you have discharged that criteria.

I am in the process of updating the VT Guide and templates so feel free to use them if you want but you might want to check a different version on the thread which you can find by clicking here and look at post #13.

Also, companies such as RCI and BH are becoming notorious for refusing to accept your VT unless you sign their documentation or go through their questionnaires or comply with some other criteria not found within the CCA. I think it's about time we should all be writing to the Financial Conduct Authority and making them aware of these unfair business practices by finance companies and maybe they will eventually look into it and put a stop to it.

I'm going to look at writing a template letter that can be sent to the FCA and it would be helpful if you could do this, particularly sending that email too as evidence of their practices.

If you need any feedback on your draft then post a copy on here first and I'll take a look when I can.

[James23abest]

Hi again R0b, thanks again for all this help I've changed around a few biuts and pieces here's what I'm left with:-

Customers Service Department
RCI Financial Services Ltd
Rivers Office Park,
Denham Way,
Rickmansworth,
WD3 9YS
By post and email: customerservices@rcibanque.com
08th October 2018


Dear Sir or Madam,

Re: Formal Complaint

Agreement Number: ***************

Vehicle Registration: LM65 ***

The vehicle was maintained in a reasonable condition throughout the period of the agreement and therefore I do not accept liability for the sum of £****** that you are claiming to be owed. I am rather surprised that you have sought to recover this amount on the basis that there is damage to the vehicle set out in the condition report. As far as I can see, the condition report is simply just that, and does not, alone, prove that the damage was actually caused by me during the time that I had it. I should point out that as an authorised firm which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, you are required to comply with certain rules. In particular, Rule 7.5.3 of the Consumer Credit Sourcebook requires you not to:

"ignore or disregard a customer's claim that a debt has been settled or is disputed and must not continue to make demands for payment without providing clear justification and/or evidence as to why the customer's claim is not valid."

As I mentioned earlier, I dispute the amount of damage allegedly claimed to have been caused whilst in my possession and I have asked for you to provide evidence to that effect but so far you have refused. You will therefore appreciate my reasons why I am not prepared to accept any liability for the alleged damage. Furthermore, it seems to me that you are forgetting the fact that the vehicle is nearly 3 years old and in excess of 21000 miles.
In any event, there is case law on this matter and I would refer you to the Court of Appeal case, Brady v St. Margaret's Trust [1963] 3 W.L.R 1162 which was concerned with the extent of a hirer's duty to take reasonable care of the vehicle. On that point, Lord Denning stated that:

"There should be evidence by the hire-purchase company to show the condition of the goods at the time the agreement was made and to show how far the hirer has defaulted under it. As I read this clause, the hirer's duty is to keep the car in the condition in which it might reasonably be expected to be if he had looked after it properly. He need not put it in a better condition than it was when he hired it. He need only keep it in the condition in which a reasonably minded hirer would keep it. Thus he would repair it if there was an accident, and he would do the immediate repairs in the course of running the car, but no more. The hire-purchase company should give evidence of any default on his part in that duty."

Therefore, the onus is on you to prove that the damage to the vehicle was specifically caused by me during the hire period. Photographic evidence was taken prior to the vehicle being collected and it was regularly serviced by Nissan in accordance with the manufacturer's guidelines. I would also like to add that I never signed an inspection report or any paperwork relating to said damage which is further evidence of the vehicle's reasonable condition.

In the circumstances, please treat this letter as a formal complaint in accordance with your complaints policy and the FCA Rules. I understand that you have up to 8 weeks to investigate my complaint and provide me with your final decision. If I am not satisfied with your response or you fail to reach a decision within 8 weeks of receiving my complaint, I shall be entitled to pursue my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

I would appreciate if you could acknowledge this letter within the next 14 days, as well as providing me with a copy of your complaints policy.

Notwithstanding the above, I have already paid the sum of £17.49 for the excess mileage charge which is what I agree to owing on the agreement and consider this matter to be closed.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours faithfully,

James ********

[R0b]

I think you also need to address the issue with them about refusing to accept your notice to VT, which might require some jigging around in your complaint response. Something like the following:

I would like to complain in the strongest terms possible about RCI's conduct in relation to me terminating the hire-purchase agreement under Section 99(1) of the Consumer Credit Act ("CCA"). On 4 October, I received an email from someone at RCI named Sam, who specifically stated that in order to exercise the voluntary termination, I was required to go through a questionnaire. Furthermore, Sam also said in that same email that you cannot accept the notice of termination because the notice did not contain a wet signature.

First of all, Section 99(1) of the CCA does not in any way require me to complete a questionnaire before the agreement can be terminated. On the contrary, the only criteria that I must satisfy is, (i) that I give notice in writing and (ii) that the notice is sent to you before the final payment under the agreement is due. Please can you point me to the relevant wording of Section 99(1) or some other provision that says I must complete a questionnaire before the termination can take effect. With regards to the termination letter not being hand signed, as I have already mentioned above, Section 99(1) of the CCA only stipulates that the notice must be in writing; it does not say that it must be signed and in writing. I am, however, happy to stand corrected if you can point to the relevant part of the CCA that requires the notice to be signed. In any event, the termination letter was sent both by post (which was hand signed) and email.

It seems to me that, the requirement to complete a questionnaire, sign the voluntary termination pack and hand sign the termination letter is nothing but a practice or policy internally within RCI and not, a legal requirement under the CCA. Quite frankly, I think your practice of refusing to process my voluntary termination unless I comply with your internal procedures to be an unfair business practice which goes against the Financial Conduct Authority's Principles for Businesses (Principle 6).

Feel free to weave it in to your draft, but do double check it is accurate to your current situation. You might need to make some amendments in order for it to make sense. Also:

Furthermore, it seems to me that you are forgetting the fact that the vehicle is nearly 3 years old and in excess of 21000 miles.

I'm not sure what benefit the reference to mileage has. You might want to remove that and replace it by tagging on the end and saying:

... the vehicle is nearly 3 years old and the condition report is based on BVRLA guidance does not take into account the age of the vehicle which you would expect, naturally, for some wear and tear damage to have been sustained over time. In support of this, I would refer to the CAP HPI Vehicle Standard Conditions which takes into account the age of the vehicle and, when comparing the damage against this standard, it would appear that the vehicle falls into the ["clean" or "average"] category.

I've attached the CAP conditions that you can see and compare against, but you will need to amend the bit in square brackets. If the vehicle falls into the below category then you obviously don't want to make a reference to it, but simply dispute the amount. I'd also probably attach the CAP conditions as evidence.

[James23abest]

Thanks yet again R0b I will get this all done and sent off tomorrow, I haven't had any calls today or a reply to the last letter I sent

[R0b]

Deleted.

[James23abest]

Hi R0b sorry to be a pain but I have another question for you. So as of yet I still haven’t had any corespondents from rci but today I’ve got my monthly credit file update and rci have put the money they are trying to charge me for the vt on my credit file. Can they do this where should I go from here ? Thank you

[R0b]

Have they put it down as a default or late payment or just on the VT marker? Has your credit rating gone down?