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Black Horse - advice needed!
Hi,
I am looking for some advice as my fianceé and I are having trouble with Black Horse and our car finance at the moment.
We purchased a car in 2009 on a hire purchase agreement and have been paying £45p/w since. The agreement is due to end in 59 weeks time which, by my calculations, means we are still due to pay £2,655.
We need to get rid of the current car we have because of my fianceés health. She suffers with a condition which means she struggles with getting in and out of a vehicle so low to the ground, and therefore we are looking at getting a different car which is higher and more comfortable for her.
We recently contacted black horse to find out how much it would be to settle the remaining balance early. I hoped that an early settlement figure might be less than the above, as we would be avoiding a years worth of interest, but i was prepared to pay the full £2,655 if need be. That way I could then sell on the vehicle - which would be a deposit for a bigger car. Alternatively, we are willing to give the car back with the understanding that no further charges apply
Black Horse would not give us a figure over the phone, and said that they would send us a letter to confirm. When this letter came a week later it said that the settlement figure would be over £7,000!!! It said that this amount "included court costs". We have never been to court, nor have we ever had any notification or warning that we were even being taken to court. There is no reason for them to even want to take us to court.
Anyway, whenever my fianceé has spoken to black horse (the vehicle is in her name and therefore they will only speak to her), they have hidden behind promises of "investigating the issue and calling us back", only for us to never receive a call back. We have rung them every day and made it clear that we will not be letting the matter go.
Yesterday we finally got through to someone. She told us that the settlement figure would actually be £4656 if we were to repay early. Which is still £2,000 above what we would be paying if we carried on the agreement. When asked about the apparent court costs the advisor started off by saying that there were never any court costs, before 5 minutes later telling us that they "lost the case anyway". They are extremely unhelpful, and unwilling to divulge information about the apparent court case, or how they come to that ridiculous settlement figure.
When asked about the hire purchase part of the agreemen the advisor said that if we give the vehicle back then she cannot guarantee that we still won't owe anything. I appreciate that they would charge us if there was significant damage but the car is in a good condition and has been well kept.
Therefore, i need advice on the following
a) Can Blackhorse really go ahead with court proceedings without notifying us?
b) Can we obtain details of the court proceedings as we never received any notification at all
c) Is it true that if we give the vehicle back that we can still be charged, even if the car has been well kept?
I need to get this sorted ASAP as I cannot look at getting another car until the situation has been sorted, as I cannot afford to run two cars as well as the finance. Any advice would be much appreciated, sorry for the lengthy post but wanted to include all details!
Thanks in advance for any advice
I am looking for some advice as my fianceé and I are having trouble with Black Horse and our car finance at the moment.
We purchased a car in 2009 on a hire purchase agreement and have been paying £45p/w since. The agreement is due to end in 59 weeks time which, by my calculations, means we are still due to pay £2,655.
We need to get rid of the current car we have because of my fianceés health. She suffers with a condition which means she struggles with getting in and out of a vehicle so low to the ground, and therefore we are looking at getting a different car which is higher and more comfortable for her.
We recently contacted black horse to find out how much it would be to settle the remaining balance early. I hoped that an early settlement figure might be less than the above, as we would be avoiding a years worth of interest, but i was prepared to pay the full £2,655 if need be. That way I could then sell on the vehicle - which would be a deposit for a bigger car. Alternatively, we are willing to give the car back with the understanding that no further charges apply
Black Horse would not give us a figure over the phone, and said that they would send us a letter to confirm. When this letter came a week later it said that the settlement figure would be over £7,000!!! It said that this amount "included court costs". We have never been to court, nor have we ever had any notification or warning that we were even being taken to court. There is no reason for them to even want to take us to court.
Anyway, whenever my fianceé has spoken to black horse (the vehicle is in her name and therefore they will only speak to her), they have hidden behind promises of "investigating the issue and calling us back", only for us to never receive a call back. We have rung them every day and made it clear that we will not be letting the matter go.
Yesterday we finally got through to someone. She told us that the settlement figure would actually be £4656 if we were to repay early. Which is still £2,000 above what we would be paying if we carried on the agreement. When asked about the apparent court costs the advisor started off by saying that there were never any court costs, before 5 minutes later telling us that they "lost the case anyway". They are extremely unhelpful, and unwilling to divulge information about the apparent court case, or how they come to that ridiculous settlement figure.
When asked about the hire purchase part of the agreemen the advisor said that if we give the vehicle back then she cannot guarantee that we still won't owe anything. I appreciate that they would charge us if there was significant damage but the car is in a good condition and has been well kept.
Therefore, i need advice on the following
a) Can Blackhorse really go ahead with court proceedings without notifying us?
b) Can we obtain details of the court proceedings as we never received any notification at all
c) Is it true that if we give the vehicle back that we can still be charged, even if the car has been well kept?
I need to get this sorted ASAP as I cannot look at getting another car until the situation has been sorted, as I cannot afford to run two cars as well as the finance. Any advice would be much appreciated, sorry for the lengthy post but wanted to include all details!
Thanks in advance for any advice
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