GAP insurance and VT HP Finance

[DaniRTurner]

Hi R0b

Thanks for that, I had a good read of the thread and came up with the following response for myself:

"I am under no obligation to pay any fees for excess mileage or collection of the vehicle. The Consumer Credit Act 1974 explicitly states that, my liability under the agreement is limited to half the total amount payable and any terms under the agreement which imposes additional liability directly or indirectly is strictly prohibited by the Act.

Regarding the sum for the GAP insurance; I would like to make a formal complaint about this. I was not provided with a personal copy of the agreement. I never saw a copy of any terms and conditions that were allegedly supplement to the agreement, let alone be provided these at the time of signing the agreement.

Even if, as you suggest, the GAP agreement is deemed a separate agreement, I was never provided with any pre-contractual documentation or terms and conditions relating to the GAP insurance prior to or at the time of signing the hire-purchase agreement. Under section 55 of the CCA 1974, you are required to provide me with pre-contractual documentation (as further described in Consumer Credit (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2010). Failing to comply with this requirement means that the agreement is improperly executed and may only be enforced by an order of the court (see section 65 of the CCA 1974).

To clarify, I am willing to make a payment for the reasonable sum of £53.00 relating to the rear bumper chip. I am under no obligation to pay any fees for the collection of the vehicle, and as I was not supplied with sufficient information or terms and conditions regarding the GAP insurance, I will not be making any payments towards that.

I trust that this response clarifies where I stand and I do not expect there to be any need for further correspondence except where legal proceedings have commenced.


Yours faithfully".

My only concern is the wording of the 'not paying GAP insurance' in the last but one paragraph, and that in their last email to me, they stated 'In regards to the Consumer Credit Act, this does not cover the collection fee. As such your outstanding liability is £307.27', so I was just wondering where I stood with that?

Thank you in advance

[R0b]

Let me get back to you once I have had more time to digest.

[R0b]

Evening, to follow up from my last post, I have attached an example response to FCA. It is different from the above but by no means perfect so it should give you a starting point if you want to add anything else into the mix.

[DaniRTurner]

R0b I really cant thank you enough!!

[DaniRTurner]

HI R0b

Just a bit of an update. I sent your letter to FCA on 9th Jan, following which I have received a letter acknowledging my complaint, and a further letter dated 14/01/2019 which states 'You need to pay £302.27'.

In previous letters they have listed the charges as:

MultiPart Settlement: £115.98
Damage Recharges: £532.00
Collection Fee: £138.29
Amount Waived: -£479.00 (Goodwill gesture)
Total Liability: £307.27

However, on this occasion, following my letter to state I would not pay the collection fee, they seem to have amalgamated to collection fee in with the damage charges! The letter now reads I owe:

Contractual Amounts Due: £115.98
Damage Recharges/Excess Mileage: £191.29 (which I assume to be the collection fee of £138.29 and rear bumper scratch of £53.00 which I agreed to pay. They really seem to be trying to pull the wool over my eyes!!

I am not sure whether to simply ignore these letters and wait for a response to the complaint, or write back to point out the amalgamation of charges?

Would appreciate any advice you could give.

Thank you

[R0b]

Hi Dani

I have a backlog of responses to get through will try to respond later tonight or tomorrow.

[R0b]

Morning Dani,

Just looking at your last post, all I can suggest is that you go back to them and ask them for a breakdown of the charges they have listed as well as an explanation and breakdown of the charges that they have waived, supposedly as a goodwill gesture.

You might also want to consider mentioning that you are of the belief that they are trying to charge the collection fee and passing it off as damage charges. That in of itself is somewhat deceitful and false and invite them to make comment on that. If you do point this out, make absolutely sure those charges don't correspond with anything else otherwise it would just make you look silly.

[DaniRTurner]

R0b Thanks. When I got home from work today they’d sent me a letter saying I have 7 days to pay before they take legal action against me. I called to say I didn’t think that was fair since I was awaiting a resolution to my complaint which could take anything up to 8 weeks!

[R0b]

Can you post up the letter? They shouldnt be pursuing legal proceedings if there is an open complaint. FCA Rules state that so you could write a robust response on that. If they issue proceedings then you could seek a stay of proceedings pending the outcome of your complaint.

[DaniRTurner]

Hi R0b Please see attached, hope its clear

[DaniRTurner]

Hi R0b - do you think I could make a further complaint having receive the threatening letter whilst in the middle of an open complaint?

[R0b]

I don't think you could have a further complaint per se, but you could write to FCA and point out that there is an ongoing complaint which is currently under investigation. FCA have an obligation to suspend any demand for debt that is disputed, more specifically set out in 7.14 of the Consumer Credit Sourcebook (CONC) - see particularly Rules 7.14.1 to 7.14.3 (link here) Their continued demand for the disputed debt whilst a complaint is being investigate is clearly a breach of these rules and out of step with the Financial Conduct Authority's Treating Customers Fairly principles.

You could, if you wanted, write to the FCA and outline all of this with references to the above and seek their confirmation that they will suspend all debt recovery and including demands until the complaints procedure has been exhausted. You could also threaten to write to the Financial Conduct Authority's enforcement team about their failure to comply - they're unlikely to do anything other than record your complaint but the more people who inform them, the more likely they could be investigated.

Also, there is no excuse for FCA saying that it was an automated letter, their systems would have been set up in that way and so they should also have the ability to stop any letters where complaints have been raised. If they omitted to allow any functionality to do that then it's their issue not yours.