MiniFS - “legal obligation to report any outstanding amount on your agreement”

[Mosraza]

Hi,

Partners car was collected by BCA last week. Got an invoice for £400 which included a £100 missing V5C document fine (even though it was sent!).
I disputed all charges using
R0b ‘s very helpful templates.

They replied back today with the following and I am wondering if the last part means that this will end up showing on my partners credit file? We are due to apply for a mortgage soon and can’t afford anything like that, her credit is clean so far.

I have raised a formal complaint in regards to the damage invoice raised and the escalations team will be in touch once they have fully reviewed.


I must make you aware that as a regulated company we have a legal obligation to accurately report any amounts outstanding on your agreement for more than 28 days.

[ostell]

So you write back that there is no agreement in place so that there can be no amounts outstanding on the agreement.

R0b will probably come in with his comments

[R0b]

That's probably what it does mean. You can challenge that if they do apply a marker, but as with most of these cases you might have to take it to court to get it addressed. I find it odd that lenders seem to be taking the view that damages for breaches of contract (especially those which are disputed) are reportable to credit reference agencies - in my view they are not.

CRAs report credit-related information to allow lenders to see an individual's creditworthiness and whether they have repaid their credit payments on time. It is misleading and inaccurate to say that you owe a sum of money which is disputed and does not relate to credit under the agreement. The proper course of action for a lender in a breach of contract dispute is to take the matter to court.

The other key point is that the contract has been lawfully terminated and the lender should record that. Experian have a voluntary termination marker that is described as the account being closed. Reporting information after that date would give the impression that you have missed credit repayments and the account still remains alive.

Need to decide whether it is worth pursuing or just pay up to avoid potentially taking a knock on the mortgage application.

[Mosraza]

Thanks for your reply guys.
R0b - I might just go ahead and pay it then. The last thing we need is £500-600 being the reason we don’t get accepted for a mortgage.

Is there any point in haggling with them, try bringing the price down?

[R0b]

Well you can try, but systems these days are automatic so if their systems see you having not paid, it might get reported to CRAs automatically before someone has had a chance to review your complaint.

What you could do, is write a letter to Mini and put them on notice to say that whilst you strongly disagree with their invoice, you are making a payment to clear that invoice on the basis of their threat to report this information to credit reference agencies that will affect your chances of obtaining future credit. Given that you are in the process of a mortgage application, you do not want your credit file tarnished.

You should go on to say in your letter that you reserve the right to take any further action against Mini, including legal proceedings to recover the paid amount on the basis that Mini were not entitled to that sum, if at all.

Whilst there's no guarantee of recovering the money, it does leave the door open for you to start proceedings in the future and try to recover that amount. Mini would then have to decide whether it's worth defending or come to some kind of settlement. I would be inclined to suggest the latter since the amount is not that great and it would cost them more in legal fees to defend but it's difficult to predict these things.