Legal advice?

[Russ B]

Some of you may remember the hassle I had with Welcome Finance over Christmas - and a forum member has another situation with them and has asked me to post this here as they do not wish to identify themselves. The following is taken from an email sent this morning.

In April 2001 he took out an HP agreement with Welcome Finance for a car for £2500. Not long after he was made redundant and his payment protection (which apparently isn't the issue here) could not help so Welcome decided to take the monthly payments down from £170 (yes, extortionate I know but this is not the issue at the moment) to £45.

He stuck with this for a while but missed some payments and the debt was given to a collection agency to persue.

The full amount owed was about £6400 (can I just say I'm aware that these figures are extortionate however this is not what he wishes to establish so can I respectfully request that comments on how he was ripped off be avoided, thanks) and to date has paid around £2500, leaving approximately £4000 outstanding.

Now apparently on the HP agreement, it says if more than £1500 is paid, they cannot repossess the car with a court order and if they persue this, he will be able to claim back all the money he's paid.

It also says that once £2300 is paid he can simply give the car back and assuming it's in reasonable condition can walk away from the agreement.

So apparently whilst this would earn him a CCJ, he wants to know if he can simply refuse to pay anything more, wait for them to reposses the vehicle and claim the money back and be £2500 better off.

Apparenly when they altered the payments from £170 to £45 there was no new written agreement, so would he be right in saying the terms and condition on the original agreement are in force?

[Mr_love_monkey]

But will they not then be able to claim large amounts of it back in court costs etc?

[Russ B]

Quite possibly, I didn't think of that.

[Nugget]

He'd probably be right in stating the original terms and conditions are in force, but he'd probably then have to justify why he just paid the £40 instead of the £170.

I might be wrong but, if you take on the 'new' terms and pay them, you've technically accepted them?

Having said that, I don't think that additional costs would become that much of an issue - if he got a CCJ, the amount would be 'fixed' at the £6000 quid (or whatever), so he would them have to provide the court with an income / expenditure form, which would then determine how much he had to pay a month.

[Russ B]

Originally Posted by Nugget

I might be wrong but, if you take on the 'new' terms and pay them, you've technically accepted them?

I've just had an email from him stating there was no 'new' agreement' in as much as they just agreed to accept lower amounts per month. He asked Welcome for a copy of this 'arrangement' as was told there IS no copy of it.

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by Russ D

I've just had an email from him stating there was no 'new' agreement' in as much as they just agreed to accept lower amounts per month. He asked Welcome for a copy of this 'arrangement' as was told there IS no copy of it.

Ah, I see - the magic Welcome treatment (I'm no fan either).

Thinking on, if they've accepted the payments of £45 then there's not a lot they can do about it. The problem's going to be that our buddy hasn't then continued those payments (and please don't think I'm having a go!). Unfortunately, his main problems going to be dealing with collections people because, as we all know, they are a complete bunch of barstewards.

In all fairness, he's probably best off going to his local CAB - they can get him all the most up-to-date info off their NACAB system. Also, if he does this, then he can show that he's been trying to sort it out.

[Paul]

The original terms that he agreed to would only be in place if he was still paying the company that he took the loan from. They have handed over his debt to a collection agency who now (more or less) own the debt. Plus I would think that the pay X ammount and hand over the car and the debt is clear would only come into play if he had paid the full monthly ammounts without missing any payments.

[Jules]

As Paul says the debt is now owned by the debt collection people and as such he will have to arrange some sort of payment plan with them. Just one word of advice tell him to offer a payment that he can afford and then stick to it like his life depends on it otherwise it will end up in court and he will have those charges on top as well then if he doesn't pay that they will send the balliffs in

I feel for him who ever it is as he must be having money problems at the moment and that is a bad place to be

[ikthius]

Originally Posted by Russ D

I've just had an email from him stating there was no 'new' agreement' in as much as they just agreed to accept lower amounts per month. He asked Welcome for a copy of this 'arrangement' as was told there IS no copy of it.

then because he had agreed terms with the original contract, whether or not they have changed the payments, he must sign to agree to accept the new payment agreement, so therefore the original agreement/contract still stands, afaik.

ik

[Nidge]

Originally Posted by Russ D

Some of you may remember the hassle I had with Welcome Finance over Christmas - and a forum member has another situation with them and has asked me to post this here as they do not wish to identify themselves. The following is taken from an email sent this morning.

In April 2001 he took out an HP agreement with Welcome Finance for a car for £2500. Not long after he was made redundant and his payment protection (which apparently isn't the issue here) could not help so Welcome decided to take the monthly payments down from £170 (yes, extortionate I know but this is not the issue at the moment) to £45.

He stuck with this for a while but missed some payments and the debt was given to a collection agency to persue.

The full amount owed was about £6400 (can I just say I'm aware that these figures are extortionate however this is not what he wishes to establish so can I respectfully request that comments on how he was ripped off be avoided, thanks) and to date has paid around £2500, leaving approximately £4000 outstanding.

Now apparently on the HP agreement, it says if more than £1500 is paid, they cannot repossess the car with a court order and if they persue this, he will be able to claim back all the money he's paid.

It also says that once £2300 is paid he can simply give the car back and assuming it's in reasonable condition can walk away from the agreement.

So apparently whilst this would earn him a CCJ, he wants to know if he can simply refuse to pay anything more, wait for them to reposses the vehicle and claim the money back and be £2500 better off.

Apparenly when they altered the payments from £170 to £45 there was no new written agreement, so would he be right in saying the terms and condition on the original agreement are in force?

Hi Russ, ask him to look through the agreement, most agreements let you send the car back after half of the HP has been paid with no penalty or CCJ against you.