PercyPickle

Hi All,

Not visited here for yonks, but thought it might be worth a try...

Mate of mine at work has got herself into a bit of a fix...said I'd ask on here to see if anyone has some better advice than she's already got...

She leased a car privately. She got a few quotes up front, but ended up plumping for a 7.5K deposit and 24 month lease. The paperwork came through, which she signed and returned. A copy arrived back which the lease company had signed.

Here comes the interesting part....

They never asked for the deposit. After a few months she checked the paperwork...NO mention of a deposit. After 12 months or so, the lease company called her and asked for the deposit. She said she didn't have it and anyway, it wasn't on the paperwork.

As you can imagine, the lease company is not best pleased. They are discussing with their legal folk as we speak. She spoke to another friend of hers, who is a solicitor. Her advice was that as it's obviously a mistake (can't remember the exact phrasing), then she would probably lose in court.

Is this right? What's the best course of action for her from here?

Cheers

Graham.

mcflurrie

try getting your friend to go to the Citizens Advice about it, they will guide her in the right direction for free

Brendan Hughes

I think you should tell us the lease company so we can all go and quickly lease a car from them

PercyPickle

I'll ask her! Some small outfit I think!!

Tiggs

?????????? so they forgot to ask for the £7k she owed and she thinks that because of that she may not have to pay it?

lol...good luck!

Mungo

From OP's description of events, sounds more like LeaseCo omitted the deposit from the contract. Now they're trying to back-track on the contract, which is probably a legal no-no. But I'm not a lawyer.

Brun

I assume she had the deposit when she took out the lease? If so, why has she blown it?

Tiggs

more info needed maybe...something doesnt sound right:

"They never asked for the deposit. After a few months she checked the paperwork"

she was expecting to pay £7k but didnt and dint check the paperwork for months??????

PercyPickle

Hi chaps - appreciate the feedback so far. In answer a couple of your questions...

1. She still has the deposit! She's not that daft!
2. She tells me checked it a couple of months after - for all I know, she might not have done at all, or may have checked it straight away! I think she assumed they'd ask for it after the end of month one or two?? This was her first lease, so she just sat tight and waited for the bill to come!!

Edit.

Tiggs - just re-read your post. My fault on the wording...they didn't "forget to collect it", they didn't make any mention of it on her final credit agreement. Hence, they didn't collect it. However, one would assume they've now done an annual audit or year end close or something and their mistake has come to light!

Chrisgr31

I'd go with Citizens Advice on this. I assume that she has all the correspondence and a copy of the quote which said that it will be £7k deposit plus 24 payments of £x?

Or was it all done over the phone with the contract send later? If the quote was verbal and the contract then sent she may of course argue that she felt they had realised there was a mistake in the maths, and they didn;t need a deposit.

Is this a deal were at the end of the term she has the option to buy the car for the a fixed sum or return it to them with no further payment?

PercyPickle

Hi - she has some original quotes, one with the 7K on it (one of many apparently, some with deposit, others without). The deal is that she can just hand it back at the end of the term for no additional cost.

RLE

iTrader: (2)

Whichever way you look at it and however the legal eagles want to dress it up the money will still be due. The fact is she knew the £7k was payable whether it was on the contract or not.

Best she could possibly hope for is to defer the payment of the deposit. Saying that if she has it anyway there would be no need to do this.