PCP VT and Service costs

[Phillipsleg]

I have just written to my finance company to voluntary terminate my agreement, one of the things they have said I will be liable to pay for is the cost of any missing services. I was of the understanding that you only needed to keep services up to date to avoid the warranty becoming void! Can they actually bill me for every service missed? Which in my case would be 2 years maybe 3.

[R0b]

I'm not sure why you think you only need to service the car in line with the warranty and not continue after, maybe you've been given poor advice on that. Getting the car serviced is to ensure it's parts are maintained on a regular basis and to avoid parts wearing out quicker than they should be. Having the car serviced shows you have taken reasonable care of the car, it's not fatal as the finance company still needs to prove that not having the car serviced meant you failed to take reasonable care of the car, but equally you need a good reason to disprove that claim.

I think more often than not a court would find that it was reasonable to expect you to have the car serviced at least annually to ensure relevant parts were replaced, fresh oil etc.

[Phillipsleg]

Hi, thank you! Sorry my bad, yes I did know that servicing would ensure all parts are kept maintained, I was just unsure if I could actually be billed for missing services as it does not state this in ‘my rights’ for termination and it also does t state this in the fair wear and tear guide.

I totally agree they’ll probably use it as me not taking reasonable care of the vehicle, but if it’s not stated in the terms can they actually uphold that?

*

[R0b]

Doesn't need to be specifically in your contract, you had a duty of care to take reasonable care of the car and the question is whether that duty extended to having the car serviced and not just protecting it from damage. The fact that manufacturer instructions tend to say that their vehicles should be serviced on a regular basis either annual or when it hits a certain mileage would have some force if raised by the lender in a court, because goods that have been maintained in accordance with instructions will more than likely last longer than those which are not.