VT Car Finance - Black Horse

[SJM1990]

Hi all

I'm looking for some guidance on where to go with my already underway Voluntary Termination with Black Horse Finance for my Range Rover. The car was purchased on 15th March 2022 and the contract is due to end on 15th March 2026.

I sent my initial Voluntary Termination by recorded post and email on 21/01/26 advising a response with 7 working days. Of course, this was not initially acknowledged so on 10/02/26 I sent a follow up recorded letter and email to Black Horse again asking for a response of when the vehicle would be collected. A week later I then received a generic response by post from Black Horse asking me to fill in their "Voluntary Instruction Form". I wrote back to them on 17/02/26 acknowledging receipt of the form, but decline to do so as I have no obligation to do so and had already notified them in writing. I then asked them to confirm within 7 days the arrangements for collection or drop off and if they failed to do so in a reasonable time I would consider the vehicle abandoned and take steps under the TORTS act. Still no response by the 27/02/26 so I sent by recorded post and email a notice of intention to sell the vehicle by auction under the TORTS act unless collected within 14 days (13/03/26)

My questions are;
1. Does this become an issue if not collected by 13/03/26 as my original contract ends of 15/03/26. Where do i stand at this point having exercised my right to VT?
2. Legally where do I stand on following through with selling the car under TORTS, as naturally I have apprehension in doing so despite using it as leverage for a response.
3. Is there anything else I can do in my current predicament to get this resolved?

Thanks
Scott

[HariSeldon]

H
1. Does this become an issue if not collected by 13/03/26 as my original contract ends of 15/03/26. Where do i stand at this point having exercised my right to VT?
2. Legally where do I stand on following through with selling the car under TORTS, as naturally I have apprehension in doing so despite using it as leverage for a response.

There are only three obligations on your part regarding voluntary termination but one of them is not to "wrongfully retain possession of goods to which the agreement relates"; selling the car under TORTS is opening a can of worms that could really come back to bite you and at the very least would almost certainly involve you in a time-consuming, stressful and potentially expensive court case.

Your statutory right to VT hinges on you "giving notice to any person entitled or authorised to receive the sums payable under the agreement" so crucially what date/time-period did you give for the termination date? 13/03/26? If so then I would simply write back confirming that as per previous correspondence your responsibility for the vehicle ends on 13/03/26 and on that date you will be notifying DVLA you are no longer the registered keeper and will also be cancelling any tax and motor insurance. If they wish to collect the vehicle on or before that date then it is available for collection at any time from xxxx address.

[SJM1990]

Hi, thanks for your response.

I did fear that may be the case if I decided to auction the car. I'll go down the DVLA route as you have suggested

As my original PCP ends on 15/03/26 where does this leave me if I still have no response by then? Because I VT'd the vehicle prior to it ending, am I in their eyes still responsible for it despite my contract having ended?

[HariSeldon]

As my original PCP ends on 15/03/26 where does this leave me if I still have no response by then? Because I VT'd the vehicle prior to it ending, am I in their eyes still responsible for it despite my contract having ended?

Voluntary Termination is a statutory right which means the rights it gives you override the finance company's terms and conditions or contract. So if you gave notice of voluntary termination to occur on 13/3/26 then that is when your responsibility ends regardless of what the finance company says.

Of course if you want to play nice you can offer to delay cancelling tax and insurance for another week or so if they need more time to arrange collection although I'd remind them that they've already had over six weeks notice in which to arrange the collection...

[SJM1990]

Thanks for all your support to date.

An update from today. Obviously i'd still received no response so sent an email and letter confirming i'd transferred ownership with the DVLA, cancelled the tax and insurance.

Within a matter of hours they called saying they had rejected my voluntary termination due to not stipulating if the car was a runner and for cancelling my direct debit, so claim I have a liability for February's monthly payment.

I explained VT is my statutory right and I only needed to give notice in writing and have paid 50% of the total amount payable. They claimed to have not had visibility of some of my initial emails due to not sending it to the correct email address, despite them doing their upmost to not make this visible to customers. I calmly explained that they had these by post as well, to which we quizzed me on the address.

This has now supposedly been passed up the chain to see if THEY are happy for the VT to be reinstated or not. They have promised to get back in touch by tomorrow morning at the latest.

I expected resistance and for them to try and stretch more money from me, but lets see whether they fulfil their promises.

I will keep you updated, but I expect when the car does eventually go they'll be claiming for mileage and wear and tear to really drag this out

[SJM1990]

An update from the last week or so. Black Horse have now agreed to the Voluntary Termination and have apologised about the situation, even offering a small amount of compensation for the hassle caused!

BCA phoned yesterday to arrange collection of the vehicle, their earliest collection date is on 15/04/25, conveniently the day after the MOT expires so have advised they'll only be able to collect as a non runner. The car works perfectly, despite being sat unused since 21st January. Having passed ownership to Black Horse through the DVLA the car is no longer taxed or insured so even if I wanted to MOT the car I no longer can.

The BCA colleague advised that Black Horse would likely charge £250 for it being a non runner, but I plan to dispute this as 12 weeks from being sent my original VT letter to collection is unreasonable from what I have read online?

I'll continue to post updates but if anybody has any adivse on the latest I would appreciate it.

[SJM1990]

An update from the last few weeks. The car was accessed by BCA on Wednesday morning, before being collected by a third party courier. As the MOT had expired and Black Horse were treating this as a non runner I expected a flat bed to collect it. A guy came and grabbed the keys then drove away in it!

I did receive an invoice from Black Horse for the £250 which I have disputed and am awaiting a response and even more so now considering the third party drove the supposed non runner away! BCA's condition report had a couple of minor marks but within tolerance so came back as £0 in repairs.

Will update once I get any kind of communication from Black Horse but the car is finally gone and the matter is closed in my eyes.

[HariSeldon]

I did receive an invoice from Black Horse for the £250 which I have disputed ... the car is finally gone and the matter is closed in my eyes.

Thanks for the update and you're doing the right thing - just keep politely repeating that you don't owe them anything and the matter is closed.

[SJM1990]

Thanks for the update and you're doing the right thing - just keep politely repeating that you don't owe them anything and the matter is closed.

Thanks for all your help! I had a phone call on Saturday from Black Horse apologising and rescinding the £250 fee, they didn't mention any other surprise costs so hopefully thats everything done.