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New to forums so please accept my apologies if I have not followed protocol.
16 months ago I purchased a van based franchise and one of the conditions of franchise was I had to use their vehicle broker. Vehicle seemed overpriced, (£7000) more than available via local dealer. This I queried to receive the response," company policy for uniformity",therefore no choice if you wish to join the franchise you must use our broker. I was Introduced to the vehicle broker, no disclosure paperwork received just a credit agreement that I must sign or no franchise. Vehicle was purchased now the deceipt / fraud begins to unravel.
May last year I was involved in an industrial accident, which was caused via van fitments coming loose, machinery falling from the van and injuring myself. I Challenged the franchise to be told not our problem, you paid for the frame to be fixed into the van, therefore it is your responsibility This as you can imagine was news to me, as I paid a hefty franchise fee for my van to be fully fitted. Eventually I obtained legal assistance regarding my injury whom was also informed that I paid for the vehicle fitout, not the franchises problem. Injury claim ongoing. Back to finance issue.
At this stage you begin to wonder as to how I paid for this fitting without my knowledge, so I wrote to the broker. They informed me that all additional van fitments are included in the van loan, which I immediately challenged. At same juncture another franchisee is also complaining regarding a similar concern over the sale of the loan. At this point the broker having realised franchisees are becoming aware of an overcharge, places her company into liquidation supplying a letter saying basically hard luck, I'm off your saddled with the debt, you were informed regarding costs.. Point of note all correspondence with broker via email, at no point are any fitment charges disclosed.
I take my complaint now to the finance provider, who are also the vehicle supplier to the dealership whom the broker used. I explained the non disclosure of the fitments costs which along with the other charges have been added to the loan, they as an organisation would only lend on the van and would not allow credit facilities for the additional works, something must be wrong with the application. After 8 weeks I receive a response, This states that there was no miss selling the vehicle has been sold to you at the RRP, the broker is not their responsibility and they supplied a copy of an internal garage invoice sent to the finance provider showing that the garage provided the fit out free of charge. They then pointed out that I signed the credit agreement so I knew what the costs were for. credit agreement show total cost, but no disclosures in respect of additional charges. After numerous correspondence back and forth, Having proved the vehicle fitout was done by the franchise (fitters provided evidence they were instructed by franchise) not the garage, showed evidence of pricing increase to gain a pecuniary advantage, non disclosure, the van being miss sold, the finance company issued a final response, stating, they back the garage and there is no wrong doing, in reality I must still keep and pay for the van via H.P. I have since attempted to further corresponded with them gaining no response, so I have now stopped paying the loan, unsurprisingly this has now received a response in respect of the consumer credit act.
I have approached the FCA, awaiting feedback. However has anyone within this forum experienced a similar situation, how did you resolve and what is my legal position, I have never previously missed a payment of a loan, this is now causing concern to my family and I.
Finally how do I prevent thid broker from trading, she has now partnered with another broking firm, still supplying the franchise, with the same vehicles from the same garage.
Regards
jolehatom
16 months ago I purchased a van based franchise and one of the conditions of franchise was I had to use their vehicle broker. Vehicle seemed overpriced, (£7000) more than available via local dealer. This I queried to receive the response," company policy for uniformity",therefore no choice if you wish to join the franchise you must use our broker. I was Introduced to the vehicle broker, no disclosure paperwork received just a credit agreement that I must sign or no franchise. Vehicle was purchased now the deceipt / fraud begins to unravel.
May last year I was involved in an industrial accident, which was caused via van fitments coming loose, machinery falling from the van and injuring myself. I Challenged the franchise to be told not our problem, you paid for the frame to be fixed into the van, therefore it is your responsibility This as you can imagine was news to me, as I paid a hefty franchise fee for my van to be fully fitted. Eventually I obtained legal assistance regarding my injury whom was also informed that I paid for the vehicle fitout, not the franchises problem. Injury claim ongoing. Back to finance issue.
At this stage you begin to wonder as to how I paid for this fitting without my knowledge, so I wrote to the broker. They informed me that all additional van fitments are included in the van loan, which I immediately challenged. At same juncture another franchisee is also complaining regarding a similar concern over the sale of the loan. At this point the broker having realised franchisees are becoming aware of an overcharge, places her company into liquidation supplying a letter saying basically hard luck, I'm off your saddled with the debt, you were informed regarding costs.. Point of note all correspondence with broker via email, at no point are any fitment charges disclosed.
I take my complaint now to the finance provider, who are also the vehicle supplier to the dealership whom the broker used. I explained the non disclosure of the fitments costs which along with the other charges have been added to the loan, they as an organisation would only lend on the van and would not allow credit facilities for the additional works, something must be wrong with the application. After 8 weeks I receive a response, This states that there was no miss selling the vehicle has been sold to you at the RRP, the broker is not their responsibility and they supplied a copy of an internal garage invoice sent to the finance provider showing that the garage provided the fit out free of charge. They then pointed out that I signed the credit agreement so I knew what the costs were for. credit agreement show total cost, but no disclosures in respect of additional charges. After numerous correspondence back and forth, Having proved the vehicle fitout was done by the franchise (fitters provided evidence they were instructed by franchise) not the garage, showed evidence of pricing increase to gain a pecuniary advantage, non disclosure, the van being miss sold, the finance company issued a final response, stating, they back the garage and there is no wrong doing, in reality I must still keep and pay for the van via H.P. I have since attempted to further corresponded with them gaining no response, so I have now stopped paying the loan, unsurprisingly this has now received a response in respect of the consumer credit act.
I have approached the FCA, awaiting feedback. However has anyone within this forum experienced a similar situation, how did you resolve and what is my legal position, I have never previously missed a payment of a loan, this is now causing concern to my family and I.
Finally how do I prevent thid broker from trading, she has now partnered with another broking firm, still supplying the franchise, with the same vehicles from the same garage.
Regards
jolehatom
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