Financial Ombudsman Final Decision

[Ang23]

Hello everyone, I'll try and make this as short as possible. We bought a vehicle in 2018 on finance using Northridge as the lender and after 2 years the steering failed. The car was only 3 yrs old at the time having travelled 30k miles from New. We contacted Northridge to complain and after being told to prove the fault was present at point of purchase we instructer Elite Inspections to carry out an assessment. Their report confirmed the fault would have been present at purchase and suggested the agreement be terminated and the vehicle rejected. Even though we had this report, the finance company still refused to accept this and I went to financial ombudsman . This was November 2020. Fast forward....the ombudsman has made his final decision (which is apparently legally binding) and the finance company must reimburse the fee for the report, pay compensation of £150, and repair the steering rack and bring the car back to roadworthy condition. However, they are now saying the vehicle is unrepairable, bearing in mind they haven't even seen the vehicle to find.out if this is true. Can I now enforce this in court as even the Ombudsman has stated he has never ever had a company do this. Northridge have offered to take the car back and pay £1700 which I refused. The fixed car will give me £8100 to part ex against another vehicle. Any thoughts/experience of this? Thanks in advance and thanks for reading this far!

[echat11]

Hi ANG23

R0b Can you please take a look and advise, many thanks.

[des8]

I would first check that replacement steering racks are available.
On receipt of that confirmation write to Northridge and tell them they have 7 days in which to organise the repair before you start county court proceedings to enforce the FOS award.

[Ang23]

Hi, the steering rack is still available, we did check. I've advised the Ombudsman's investigator to liaise with Northridge as they tend to ignore emails from me so I'll wait a few days before proceeding. Thanks for your reply x

[ccsstv]

Hi. Any update here? A family member is going through something similar.

Best regards,
Christian at hvormyekanjeglåne.no