VW Finance Terminated PCH Agreement

[aldo102938]

Looking for some advice guys, I have a Skoda on PCH lease which has been terminated by VWFS "due to arrears on the account" - the thing is I've not had any knowledge of any issues, and all payments for the last 12 months have been made.* (Now 24 months into a 36 month agreement).* Last Friday I received a call from a local recovery agent seeking to collect the vehicle.* This was clearly news to me and very alarming.* VWFS have been less than helpful on the phone, saying I've been given plenty notices and final default notice by post (which I've not received) and that the collection will continue.

What are my legal options here?* I've raised a complaint with VWFS which will take upto five days to get a response, I've also spoken with the collections agent HQ who I've cc'd in the complaint email to, and they understand my frustrations and concerns, but are being instructed by VWFS so unsure how much help I'll get via them.

Where do I stand legally?* I can prove payments have been made for last 12 months, but previous payments were from a different bank account which is now closed.* Would VWFS not have to raise a court order to legally collect the car as it's a regulated agreement under CCA?* Stressed out my head over the this.* Any advice???* I also thought I under a regulated agreement I should receive a yearly statement showing payments and the likes?* Again nothing received.

Thanks
A.

[R0b]

Hi,

I think your starting point is to make a subject access request (SAR) to VWFS (their website says you can email them at DPO@vwfs.co.uk) seeking all information relating to you account which should include, copies of correspondence, account summary, notes on the account etc. Normally, lenders will have to send at least a few letters before they terminate the agreement so if you really never received these letters, can you think of any plausible explanation why you never received them? Your SAR should flush out whether the letters have been sent, and properly addressed.

I suggest you also make a SAR to your old bank account asking for statements over the last 12 months to verify the payments were made, and you would be wise to check your current bank account and ensure those payments were correctly made. My immediate thoughts are that when you switched bank account, did you set up a direct debit and if so, how did you go about that? Could it be that VWFS didn't input the correct details, or did you?

Have you checked your credit file to see if there is any default or late payment that's been applied to your account? That might give you some insight as to where you should be looking in this chain of payments.

As far as the collection agent picking up the car, I'm afraid there's probably nothing that you can do about it. Under hire purchase agreements, hirer's have protection where they have paid one third of the total price and could not be recovered without a court order or informed consent, but this does not apply to hire agreements as far as I am aware.

A little bit of investigative work is needed here but you've kickstarted the complaints process so they have a regulatory duty to investigate before taking further action i.e. legal proceedings. If not satisfied, you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman service but you'd need some evidence, so that SAR should be issued asap.

Of course, if VWFS have failed to comply with their obligations by terminating the agreement, then they themselves would be in breach and that would be deemed a material breach, enabling you to claim damages.