New Member - VT & Paragon

[Tommo10]

Afternoon Rob, I have contacted Wrights & they will get back to me on Monday(19th) a payment is due on the 21st of this month, which will reduce the figure by approximately £300,I'll pay the other £900 after the £300 comes out of my account, then cancel the DD, now with this inspection, I presume that anything they may flag up would have to be agreed to by myself, if they just turn up & just try to take the car away without inspecting it, am I within my rights to insist that they inspect it with me in attendance? because they could actually say anything they like after the event. Regards.

[Tommo10]

Afternoon Rob, I have contacted Wrights, they are going to get back to me on Monday(19th) a payment will come out of my account on the 21st, approximately £300, I'll pay the outstanding £900 after the £300 comes out, then cancel the DD. Now, with the inspection, I presume that if they flag up any issues with the car they must share that information with me? If they turn up & just try to take the car away without carrying out an inspection, am I within my rights to insist on the inspection? as they could say anything they like after it's gone. thank you for your help. Regards

[R0b]

First of all, it might be wise to record your intentions of how you are going to repay the outstanding balance to bring it up to 50%. Preferably this should be done by email so you have a record of it for evidence purposes.

In terms of inspection, expect them to mark down every dent, scratch etc. as if the car had to look like new. It may or may not fall within the relevant scope or criteria for them but the decision is ultimately down to the finance company what to charge you, if anything. Usually finance companies will tend to send you a letter claiming that the vehicle is damaged at which point you are entitled to ask them for evidence of the damage and that tends to be the inspection report.

You can't force the agent collecting the car to carry out an inspection as the inspection might take place when it arrives at the auction site. If, however, the agent does complete an inspection on the car prior to it being taken away, he or she may ask you to sign it. I would suggest you refuse as there is usually some wording that says you accept to pay any damage or worse still, they try to get you to sign electronically. Whether you do or not is your choice but from the people who have reported signing the document, it becomes more of an uphill struggle when it comes to disputing any amount. What you should do however is take a photograph of the inspection that was carried out so you know what was said as its possible the auction site will do a further inspection.

That leads me on to my next point, take pictures of the condition of the car either the day before or on the day. You can never have enough photographs and ideally you should take videos and photographs of any marks, dents scratches, inside,outside etc. both close up and from a reasonable standing distance i.e. a couple feet away. You might think this is overkill but trust me, finance companies will find any excuse to recoup as much money from you as possible. So it really is up to you how much evidence you take.

That said I have not had much experience of Paragon so I actually don't know how they act if there is any potential damage they claim to be owed.

[Tommo10]

Morning Rob, Have already taken the photo's, just waiting to hear from Wrights to see what time they are coming, I did tell them last week when I phoned them I can only be here on Mondays & Fridays, they said they tried to contact me on the 14th & 15th, they had the wrong mobile number, then they said they rang the house phone at 18:20, we were in, no phone call as I remember, so don't know if they are telling the truth or not, but doesn't really matter as long as they turn up today.
Regards

[R0b]

The recovery agent sounds the same to another thread I've just posted on - a heads up and suggest you take a read from post #8 onwards as you don't want to get yourself in that same position.

https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...ry-termination

My suggestion would be that if the agent from Wrights threatens you with costs and court orders (which they have no legal right only Paragon and there's several hurdles they would need to jump first even if they tried), if you don't sign the paperwork, then I would suggest you don't sign it and let the agent walk away.

My view is that you should hold your ground and point out to the agent that there is no legal obligation for you to sign anything and that if he/she refuses to collect it without the paperwork being signed, then you will report that back to Paragon and tell them that they refused to collect it, and give them 7 days before the vehicle will be left on the street without any liability to you. I would suggest you also take a photo of the vehicle he/she is in as evidence that they turned up (in case they say they weren't there).

You shouldn't be threatened by anything said by the agent, it won't go far except coming back with his/her tail between their legs if they had to return again to collect it.

[Tommo10]

Evening, Just read the link, feel sorry for the person in question, I had no intention of signing anything the inspector/driver asked me to, the only thing I might have countersigned would have been the inspection report stating that "Nothing wrong with the car & is in excellent condition" other than that, nothing, Well, still no contact from Wrights and it's getting a bit late in the day now, if no show tonight, I'll ring Wrights tomorrow & see what's going on & try to make arrangements for Friday, all I can do at the moment, as I said in earlier post, payment due 21st, as soon as that gone from my account I'll ring Paragon & tell them that the outstanding payment will be made the same day, that will be me all square with them and with any luck everything settled on both sides. Thanks for the information above, it will come in useful, will keep you updated with any further developments. Regards

[Tommo10]

Morning all, Contacted Wrights & Paragon, via email, asked why there was a no show by Wrights on the Monday, received a phone call Tuesday(20th) from the inspector/driver at about 10am, we re-arranged inspection/pickup for between 8 & 8:30am this morning, guess what ? no show again! I will give it until lunch time & if still no show will phone them again, don't know where to go from here, any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Regards

[Tommo10]

Wrights turned up at about 11am, he couldn't get the car on the back of his trailer, said it was too big, so I'm waiting for another transporter to turn up, should be about 1oclock, or so I'm told.
Regards.

[R0b]

Hi Tommo10, any update with the collection of the car? I assume that since 1pm has come and gone, it's been collected?

[Tommo10]

Evening, They did turn up, about 2:30, told me the car was going to the auctions in Mansfield, well hopefully that's it all done & dusted !(famous last words?) an interesting point though, post 20, the lady who signed the inspection report, it does indeed state(section number3) that "In the case of a voluntary surrender of the vehicle listed above, you have requested to freely surrender the vehicle and therefore"...……. It then goes on to list 4 bullet points which basically are saying that you will stump up the shortfall when it is sold, also after that section is another sentence "TAKE NOTE: It may affect your rights if you decline to sign this form and later dispute the condition of the vehicle and/or contents" Looks like they try and get you both ways, I challenged the driver/inspector about the wording of the report, to which he directed me to the top of the page, there is a section that is called Instruction detail, the 1st box is the Job No, the next box is called the "Instruction Type" within this box is written V/T, (Voluntary Termination), he also told me that this report is not shared with Paragon & is only for Wrights internal use, don't know weather or not to believe this statement, there are 3 copies of this report, 3rd copy goes to the customer, 2nd copy goes to the auction house & the 1st copy to Wrights. I then emailed Paragon & Wrights pointing out the discrepancies within the report. If the lady in post 20 above checks the top of the report she should see the Instruction Type, hopefully hers will have Voluntary Termination written in the box. The driver then reiterated the statement to whom the report goes to. If there are any other developments, I will certainly post them here.
Kind Regards

[2222]

You're not tempted to buy it back at auction?

[Tommo10]

Hello All, sorry you've not heard from me for a while, I was waiting to see if there were any developments from Paragon, well I had no correspondence from them what's so ever, so 4 weeks ago I decided to check my credit report, lo and behold, there was Paragons entry, stated that the account was still live & the outstanding balance was £3000 +, I phoned Equifax & told them that the entry was wrong & should be read as settled, I then went on and explained sequence of events, they told me that they would write to Paragon & ask for an explanation as to why my account was still active & not settled, they had 3 weeks to respond, they have, I logged on to Exquifax & updated my report & credit score this morning, Paragon have now seen fit to put on my report that I am now 6 months behind in payments , consequently my credit score has tumbled down to poor from excellent, I then phoned Exquifax, they told me that Paragon contacted them & asked them to tell me to call them !!! (why on earth did not Paragon contact me directly?). I would have thought If I was in arrears surely Paragon would have written to me stating this fact, I have had no contact with them since I took VT. I tried phoning them this morning, not open until Monday, Will phone them & see what transpires, will post an update if & when I get one from them. To answer the above post, no I wasn't, even though it was a lovely car, the last time I looked(two weeks ago) it was still for sale on autotrader.

Thanks to all the above for the input.
Regards