Can my sister get her deposit back? Car returned

[dwight666]

Sister took out a hire purchase with a dodgy company because her credit is poor. No money is actually borrowed from a regulated finance company. It's a in house thing they do where you pay them weekly once paid of it's yours.

She paid £784 in total £300 deposit 18 weekly payments of £26
Cars broken down there refusing to fix so she has returned the car and lost all her money.

She's written a letter to them with advice from citizen advice requesting her £300 deposit back.
If they refuse she will open a small claims

Does it sound like she has a good chance of getting her money back?

[Buff Mchugelarge]

Sounds properly dodge if you ask me?
Maybe contact the FSA and see what they say?
It sounds like they've found some loop hole to basically lend money without following the proper guide lines etc?

[dwight666]

Yep citizen advice said it's illegal what they are doing, they've tried fobbing her of saying that she was just hiring the car.
If that was the case she wouldn't of paid a deposit.
Will deffo contact FSA
thanks

[PF62]

dwight666 said:

Yep citizen advice said it's illegal what they are doing, they've tried fobbing her of saying that she was just hiring the car.
If that was the case she wouldn't of paid a deposit.

What did the contract she signed say?

[Buff Mchugelarge]

Might be worth contacting the police if only to make them aware. Might help if and when it goes to court. Make sure your sister makes notes of all correspondence, facts and figures etc too.
Hope it gets sorted, and you're sister has learned a lesson in trust!

[Monkeylegend]

PF62 said:

What did the contract she signed say?

That will be interesting

Did she get a V5 showing her as the registered keeper OP? Of all the cars I have hired not one has had the V5 in my name.

[dwight666]

What part of the contract? I can get her to send me it.
Yep we've got everything noted
she's left a bad review on the Facebook page which she's worried could go against her if they have to go to court.

[dwight666]

No she didn't get a V5 they keep that until paid of.

[dwight666]

[Monkeylegend]

That states she is hiring the car until she has completed full payment.

When did she get the car?

[dwight666]

March this year

[CaptainMorgan]

Loads of places do it now, my brother got one where you had to put a code in each month, so if he didnt pay it got cut off

[rich888]

As a layman I would say that that looks like a hire purchase agreement, in that you hire the car till the end of the agreement then purchase and own it... I wonder what the judge would say about that if it went to court especially if they are unauthorised.

Responsibility for regulating the rent to own (RTO) sector transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority in April 2014, more info can be found here: https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/rent-own

You might want to report this unauthorised firm to the FCA: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/report-scam-unaut...

[anonymous-user]

if she is renting the car, surely it's there responsibility to fix it?

[papa3]

Op, any chance of seeing the rest of the contract? What is the car? If I read it right she's paying £1500 in total?

Contract is full of grammatical errors and isn't professionally prepared. I don't think it would be a regulated agreement and I suspect the FCA and trading standards would be interested.

[nickofh]

That finance agreement sounds and looks very dodgy.

The car is quite a low price and since you have had the car for more than three months and presumably its worked until now can you really expect the dealer to repair it for free? Unless there is a warranty included for the duration of the agreement?

[Butter Face]

Sounds like a rental agreement, car is theirs, she doesn't want it any more so they've taken it back.

[dwight666]

Will get her to send me over the rest
The car was £1700 in total so she paid down a £300 deposit and has kept up with her weekly payments. She didn't have to pay the deposit it was her choice so that she could bring her weekly payments down.
They provided 12 months warranty from RAC
Which didn't cover the power steering.

[dwight666]

She did want the car but didn't want to spend £500 fixing it when she only got it in march the warranty they offer is very basic only covers minor things

[dwight666]

It doesn't make sense to me at all surely if she's hiring the vehicle they are responsible for fixing it. I've sent copies to FCA so we will see what they think to this. The car is old an 02 plate

I think this is just how they make there money I'm guessing the car will fixed and passed on to somebody else