So, someone has asked you to finance a car for them…

[Kentish]

Relations have asked an elderly close family member if she will take out finance on a car for them and they pay her back at a reduced rate per month (presumably taking longer than the duration of the finance to pay it all off).

I’ve advised that this relation does not say yes as it will limit her ability to move house which she is looking to do in the near future and she still has a mortgage and will also need one to move.

Others reasons include; the car would have to be registered in the name of the person who borrowed the money and insured by the same person too. It would mean she would have to insure (but does not even drive) but the relations would be on the policy as named drivers and drive it all the time which I’m sure is not legal.

These relations have also borrowed a fairly large amount of money from the same person and have not repaid much to her, they have also borrowed and still owe money to other relations including us and not made any effort to pay it back.

Any other good reasons I can give to her to support why it would not be wise?

[SClarke]

If it's car finance, i.e HP through a car finance company then it is also fraud.

[Kentish]

SClarke said:

If it's car finance, i.e HP through a car finance company then it is also fraud.

As I understand, yes it will be car finance/HP.

[fastcarl]

I think you already knowm the answer to your question, the people doing the borrowing would appear to be taking advantage of any mug that will allow them to,you need to tell the elderly relative to hold onto there money and let these other folk sort out there own money problems,

its quite lowlife asking someone else to take a loan out so they are not lumbered with the debt given your account of there repayment history.

carl

[Kentish]

I do indeed know what my answer would be and I know what her's should be but just wondering whether there are any strong reasons in addition to the ones already mentioned.

These relations don't keep in touch a great deal and when they do for a while it is usually followed by a request for something and usually involving money.

They were speaking to us until we asked for our money back recently (after hearing they have booked a nice holiday in the Med) and now we don't really hear from them and no offers of getting funds back to us since.

In fact, they have even discussed with the other relation how much our cars and others things must be worth.

Does that justify not paying loans back though?

Edited by Kentish on Saturday 10th April 08:55

[rigga]

Kentish said:

These relations have also borrowed a fairly large amount of money from the same person and have not repaid much to her, they have also borrowed and still owe money to other relations including us and not made any effort to pay it back.

This i would have thought is enough to not even lend any more,never mind take out a binding finance agreement,once bitten twice shy and all that


On a side not the brother and sister in law borrowed some cash to buy a car off the father in law a couple of years back in his name,now fil is unemployed and struggling a bit money wise,and to compound it the pair have split up,one lives in london with the one daughter,and the other is back in Brum with the other one,now stroppy sis in law decides she wants to be clever and stop paying the deal,even though she agreed whilst the younger one was still in education and living in london,she would do so.... tried to tell her that if the csa get involved,which so far they have not,then it will cost her far more than the current repayments that she has now dumped on her ex hubby,but all she spouts off about are principles and ste,never mind the finnacial state her dad is in...... cant chose your family and never lend them money,just take advantage.

[paoloh]

SClarke said:

If it's car finance, i.e HP through a car finance company then it is also fraud.

No it isn't!

[pilchardthecat]

Kentish said:

Relations have asked an elderly close family member if she will take out finance on a car for them

These relations have also borrowed a fairly large amount of money from the same person and have not repaid much to her,

They have also borrowed and still owe money to other relations including us

Not made any effort to pay it back

Any other good reasons I can give to her to support why it would not be wise?

All the reasons you need are in your first post. Your relations are in a debt spiral. The chances of your elderly family member, and indeed you seeing any of the money you've given them so far are slim. Don't give them any more unless you're happy for it to be a gift.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

I guess if you look at the reasons the borrowers are not raising their own finance, then you have the reasons not to do it!

[The Black Duke]

For peace of mind. Most finance companies I have ever dealt with have asked for a copy of the HIRER'S driving licence and one of the conditions of finance is that the hirer possess a full UK driving licence. Some sub prime companies will allow you to hire without a driving licence but their rates are silly. Hope that helps.

Edited by The Black Duke on Saturday 10th April 09:04

[Kentish]

The Black Duke said:

For peace of mind. Most finance companies I have ever dealt with have asked for a copy of the HIRER'S driving licence and one of the conditions of finance is that the hirer possess a full UK driving licence. Some sub prime companies will allow you to hire without a driving licence but their rates are silly. Hope that helps.

Edited by The Black Duke on Saturday 10th April 09:04

That's a good point and one I had overlooked, thanks!

She does not drive, never has and has no licence.

It does upset me that she is taken advantage of and has already been tapped for around £8k over the past few years.

She is getting it back but only at a rate of around £75 a month I think (perhaps a bit less).

[Kickstart]

This is such a bad idea on so many levels...for instance your elderly relation who does not drive will presumably be registered on the V5 as keeper which makes her the first port of call for things like speeding tickets, parking tickets, lack of insurance etc.
I suspect that a proper reading of the finance agreement would require her to insure the car. Without a driving license that might be a bit tricky or at least rather expensive.
What happens if your relations end up failing to renew the insurance and then crash the car.

If your relative wants to lend them the money then fine (although I certainly would not) but fronting a finance agreement for them is a big no no.

[Kentish]

Kickstart said:

This is such a bad idea on so many levels...for instance your elderly relation who does not drive will presumably be registered on the V5 as keeper which makes her the first port of call for things like speeding tickets, parking tickets, lack of insurance etc.
I suspect that a proper reading of the finance agreement would require her to insure the car. Without a driving license that might be a bit tricky or at least rather expensive.
What happens if your relations end up failing to renew the insurance and then crash the car.

If your relative wants to lend them the money then fine (although I certainly would not) but fronting a finance agreement for them is a big no no.

I agree and it would also be fronting the insurance if she has to insure it as the owners and owner of the finance agreement and then the named driver drives it 100% of the time.

Edited by Kentish on Saturday 10th April 10:08

[Mazda Baiter]

Dude, just no.

As has been said above, the relations are out of their depth with their debt. Don't make it worse for them, let alone your elderly relative.

It will only cause stress for you and the elderly relative. It will make life easier for you to just say no.

[markcoznottz]

how much do they owe you?.

[550Hep]

So to be perfectly honest they sound like utter parasites that are leaching of a vulnerable relative, which IMO is beneath contempt.

Were I in your shoes I would be doing everything I could to warn off your elderly relative and ensure that other people within the family were aware. The embarrassment of being exposed for even attempting this might shock them into behaving like decent human beings, if it doesn't then maybe they will slink away under a rock and never return.

Ok so I am being a little harsh but this kind of thing really gets my goat!

[Kentish]

Absolutely agree with all of the above but even though I have advised the elderly relation not to lend in the past she has as she felt guilty if she did not but then was stressed herself as she pretty much has none of the small amount of savings left herself.

Now she has no savings, the request is for putting their finance in her name.

A while ago they wanted a guarantor for rental agreement, that didn't happen but they 'borrowed' around £1k from her instead and then just a few months later they got behind on the rent and did a runner so no deposit was returned and hence not repaid to elderly relation.

The pattern of borrowing and reasons for why money can't be repaid goes back over 10 years and now into the thousands with this one relation who has felt obliged to help.

We tried to help them as they were going to declare one of them bankrupt and seemed to seriously want to sort themselves out and asked us to lend them the court fees (which tripled) for this, so we did lend them as they appeared to genuinely be looking to sort it all out but they spent the few hundred quid we loaned them on other things.

Never again from my perspective!

I'll try my hardest to convince her that it would be wrong and probably illegal to do what they ask and hope that this time she will take notice.

Thanks for all the comments & advice folks.

I started off wanting this to be quite anonymous but I now don't really mind if they find this.
They have the attitude that everyone else is against them and are being snooty if they hesitate to help them out and have been known to not speak to family members for a long time (including the elderly relation in question for over 2 years a while back).

Getting cross thinking about it!

[bazking69]

Kentish said:

Any other good reasons I can give to her to support why it would not be wise?

She's being played by leeches?

[edo]

insurance on the car would be problematic wouldn't it?

ins. co. "car in your name?"
sponger "lease company"
ins. co. "your lease?"
sponger "no someone else's"...
click. brrrrrr.

[g3org3y]

Sounds like your relations need to go to the Autotrader website and put the maximum limit at '£500' and buy themselves a stter.

If you can't afford it, you can't afford it - why don't some people simply accept this instead of landing themselves (and now others!) in debt.