Car Finance/ Illegal Repossession ?

[TRACE]

Hi All, I m new to this but desperatley need to know where I stand !
I apologise for this being long winded.
We purchased a new car from a main dealership 15months ago. We paid cash for a deposit and the VAT on the car as it is a commercial vehicle.
The first payment was due to go a month later as the norm > but instead of the £388 pm that would be the usual payment we paid £596 as we wanted the direct debit to go on the 26th of each month instead of the 14th. So the second d/d shouldve been on the 26th > but they tried to take it on the 14th(which was refused as we hadnt banked it) We rang them ( Them being GE Capital) & it was all sorted out and payment was taken on the 26th. & so this remainded until Royal Bank Of Scotland bought them out a few months ago. They started hasseling us for £1,100 which they said was the defaulted payment plus interest. We were not prepared to pay this as we disagree that there was a default.(In the mean time we had decided to change the vehicle as we were now putting in over £100 pw of fuel in it & told them that we intending to get rid of it)
Last Monday a couple of guys turned up wanting to take the car, they had no court order, repossesion order or any paper work. We rang the police who said do not hand over keys as if they take it by force its theft. They left but returned the next two days > we told them to take it by force we would not be handing over the keys unless they had a court order. I should add at this point that we had told the police that we owned more than a third of the vehicle as we had paid more than the £9000 that it needed to be > but it turns out that we havent as Royal Bank Of Scotland did NOT take the last payment on the 26th Jan! (Well 28th as it was a weekend) so we have a paid £8970 ( £30 Short & by their choice as they could have taken payment )
They now want £1712:15 ( we ended up transfering funds to cover this so as not to loose all we have paid into the car & to not have a repossesion on our history even though we disagree with it) But our money is not available until tomorrow & these guys turned up tonight & smashed the window and loaded it on a truck. We did get the police but they ended up saying as we hadnt paid a third and the cash was not available( I did have the transaction records on online banking to show it had been transfered)let them take it and sort it out tomorrow when we have the money ! I did take some legal advice last Friday, who looked for this repossesion company at Company House etc.. but could not find them & said basically RBS had sent "heavies" as it is cheaper than applying for a court order etc... ( No doubt because we could show that we dont owe what they say we do )
But how do we deal with this ?
The way we have been treated is appalling, but how do we, with limited resorces ,take on the likes of one of the biggest banks in the country?
Can they just not take a payment to stop you from owning a third?
( We were told by the men that they didnt give a stuff what the Consumer Credit Act says is legal or not !!)
Why can big banks use the likes of this unregistered company, what is the point of Court Orders & Baliffs if anyone can just turn up and repossess something?
& are they tomorrow going to say we have to pay for the truck/storage etc... to get the car back ?
& will they have to pay for the window they smashed ?
(They didnt even knock on the door or let us know they were here) We do have CCTV covering our car parks & I have put it all on to disc so we can proove it was taken by force.
Any advice on how to deal with this will be much appreciated.

[Ian J]

If the situation is exactly as you have described then it would seem that RBS have acted despicably. I have no idea what legal remedies are open to you or how much they would cost but one avenue that you may wish to take is the local newspaper as they are always interested in stories like this and RBS won't like the adverse publicity

[TRACE]

Thanks Ian > publicity wasnt something I had thought about. But as we are a pub in a VERY small town I m not sure if we would do more damage to ourselves & our reputation than theirs. It now appears that us and the police were misled last night > our money was available this morning but RBS have refused to take the payment & although we are waiting confirmation from them it looks like they have sold the rights of our HP Agreement to this unregistered company of "heavies" ! I cant believe that this is a legal way for a bank to operate! I am going to lodge a complaint with the FSA, but not gunna hold my breath that it will be resolved quickly if at all through them. What concerns me now is we have lost all off the £8970 we paid towards the car ( & will probably still owe on it if it goes through an auction) & we have a default & a reposession on our credit history all for a payment WE DID NOT owe in the first place. I am so angry at the way they have treated us, but I am convinced if we try to fight them through the courts that we will end up bankrupt before they would admit they were in the wrong. Dont know about
claiming unfair bank charges, I need templates for claiming for "unfair treatment"! It also seems that RBS have a monopoly in the banking/insurance world.Looking at small print they own Direct Line, Churchill etc... so much for competative quotes & consumer choice ! Perhaps my way forward may be through my MP ?

[Pineway]

Hi, what has happened to you is not very nice.

However, the RBS have a legal right to take the car back with or without a court order but only when.

You agree to a Voluntary Surrender Agreement with RBS or a Court Order

Taking the car back without a Voluntary Surrender Agreement signed by both parties and a court order makes this illegal.


RBS may pass the costs of the recovery of the vehicle (normally around £400-£600) to your account which then will be taken to auction and sold, any monies left owing on the account is then deemed payable by the account holder.

However, another idea of the Voluntary Surrender Agreement is that they are getting you to sign to this effect, and not having any agreement in place puts them at risk of not getting there money.


I personally would contact RBS and inform them what has happened and see what they reply with.

If they did not issue you with a Default (via the post) then this makes the case stronger for you.

Depending on the case

You may be able to reclaim all the money you have paid to them for this car, but only if they have acted illegally by taking the car in the first place.

You really need to see a solicitor to help with this in more detail


Regards

Dave

[TRACE]

Thanx Dave, I think that RBS would see us bankrupt if we tried to fight them legally. We tried to pay them the money this morning but they eventually ( after several departments, & about 6 hrs) said it wasnt anything to do with them any more as they "sold" our Hp agreement earlia in Jan to the thugs that took the car.It turns out that even if we had paid the money yesterday they would have still taken the car, the guy we have been speaking to for the last few weeks led us to believe he was in the "collections" department of RBS, but it turns out he is the guy that has bought the car/debt. They even assured the police yesterday that the car would be returned today !! But what really annoys me about all of this is that we were NOT in arrears when all of this started, GE Capital didnt chase this so called missing payment, as it was what was arranged at the time we purchased the car > & we had had our previous car with them and had never had a late or missed payment ( plus have had a credit card in the past) up until this point we have never had any missed payments, defaults or anything on our credit history. I worked in finance for 7 years before we bought the pub & we were governed so strictly, but its a small company compared to RBS. It just annoys me that they can destroy peoples credit ratings & affect their lifes in this way !! We didnt hand the car over & they have not got the keys or the log book ! They are no longer here either, & they will get them when I have had my say in court & NOT before. I am so annoyed at all this that I will go to prison before I will hand over the keys without my side being heard. It is automatically presumed that a big player like RBS wouldnt or couldnt do this to some one with out just cause( & I would of thought it myself until a few months ago when this all started) But we did not owe this payment & I still am glad I didnt pay it in the first place. One way or another this is going to end when I have prooved them to be completley in the wrong. My sister is a researcher for a MP so that is where Iam going to start I think ! Thanx again for your advice . Cheers. Trace

[Pineway]

I see more and more companies now doing this sort of thing, the country is really getting bad and something needs to be done.

Hope it all works out for you Trace.

Please keep us on here upto date

Regards

Dave