Leasing Companies Can Chase You 3 Years After The Return Of Your Car
Wednesday, 11. August 2010
A good friend of mine, Dick Appleby (he lives on the Wirral – that’s how desperate I am to have friends), wrote to me recently regarding a situation that has arisen regarding a Mercedes that was returned 3 years ago to Custom Fleet, part of GE Capital. Out of the blue he received a charge for the month and a few days that the car waited on his drive for them to collect. That’s right, the car went back about 3 years ago and they have only just chosen to chase for a payment that in fact wasn’t owed in the first place. The car was on a fixed term 2 year agreement, 3+23 through a broker who no longer exists. It is normal practice for the leasing company to contact the lessee prior to the end of the period in order to arrange collection of the vehicle. If the lessee has a new car on order it’s not unusual for him to request either a fixed or a casual extension to the contract which is always confirmed in writing. In fact no such extension was requested and after a few days of the end of the agreement, without contact from Custom Fleet, Mr A asked, via the broker, that the car be collected as it was on his drive and he didn’t want it there. He was also having to pay for the insurance. Eventually he received a call from the leasing company to say that they would collect the car within the first few days of September but he was out of the country so it took another few days before the car was collected. Even if Mr A wanted to use the car he couldn’t as it had no current road fund licence. With the car finally collected the matter seemed to be well and truly over, not so. And even after it was explained what had happened and Mr A’s threat to make a charge for his wasted time responding to the charge they still seem to be hell bent on pursuing him 3 years after the event. I’ll be reporting this case in my regular column in Motor Finance, in the meantime I’ll keep you posted as to progress. Have you had a similar experience? Do these sort of stories put you off leasing? By Graham Hill
