Voluntary Termination

[Harry11]

I emailed my finance company to voluntary terminate using a template. I received an email saying it had been passed on to the relevant department so I took that as them receiving the letter and cancelled the direct debit. Received an email from them today saying to refer to their website for instructions on how to voluntary terminate and the paperwork required is there. I replied with the template again saying the agreement is now terminated and I await collection of the car. What happens if they give the same reply?

[Harry11]

Received a call from finance company today saying i have to send photos of car or i am liable for any damage. told them i have many photos already. They said i am responsible for drop off of vehicle or there is a charge. i told them that is not my responsibility, she said i'm not going to argue with you, i have passed this on to the relevant department. she seems under the impression that i am using their process for VT. i explained I am not and that they have to arrange vehicle collection. Could anyone give me advice what to say when they call about drop off and charges for pick up, I get very flustered and don't know the correct things to say

[R0b]

Who is the lender?

[Harry11]

Who is the lender?

Specialist Motor Finance

[R0b]

You are under no obligation to send them photographic evidence of the car, though if you have taken photographs then you will need to use that as your evidence if they do try to charge you for damage. The onus is on them to show what the vehicle looked like at the beginning of the relationship and the current costs of damage they are claiming. Just a note for you, costs of repair is not always an appropriate indicator because it would potentially put them in a better position than they were.

As for collection charges, your liability is limited to 50% of the total price, so they cannot now charge you for additional items. If they wanted to charge you collection, this should have been factored into the total credit under the agreement rather than a specific clause - Acts of parliament is the highest form of law will always trump any contractual provisions.

You can either make a formal complaint and follow the process all the way to the Financial Ombudsman although not guaranteed that you will be successful. Alternatively, you can write back to them and explain your position and if they still don't agree, invite them to commence legal proceedings (or if you don't want to do that you could leave that bit out). Happy to look over any draft before you contact them.

You need to be mindful more and more lenders are getting brave and starting to mark credit files with adverse entries where payment is not forthcoming. I believe this is a blatant breach of data protection and almost always means if you want that rectified you would need to issue proceedings yourself. So consider that if you choose to continue refusing to pay.

[Harry11]

You are under no obligation to send them photographic evidence of the car, though if you have taken photographs then you will need to use that as your evidence if they do try to charge you for damage. The onus is on them to show what the vehicle looked like at the beginning of the relationship and the current costs of damage they are claiming. Just a note for you, costs of repair is not always an appropriate indicator because it would potentially put them in a better position than they were.

As for collection charges, your liability is limited to 50% of the total price, so they cannot now charge you for additional items. If they wanted to charge you collection, this should have been factored into the total credit under the agreement rather than a specific clause - Acts of parliament is the highest form of law will always trump any contractual provisions.

You can either make a formal complaint and follow the process all the way to the Financial Ombudsman although not guaranteed that you will be successful. Alternatively, you can write back to them and explain your position and if they still don't agree, invite them to commence legal proceedings (or if you don't want to do that you could leave that bit out). Happy to look over any draft before you contact them.

You need to be mindful more and more lenders are getting brave and starting to mark credit files with adverse entries where payment is not forthcoming. I believe this is a blatant breach of data protection and almost always means if you want that rectified you would need to issue proceedings yourself. So consider that if you choose to continue refusing to pay.

Thank you, reading that it seems the best thing would be to pay for collection. I don't want it to drag on. Appreciate your advice very much. Thanks again