Please help - Car Reposession/Repayment Question

[teamHAM]

Hi guys,

 

Must say excellent site, have been browsing for a long time but finally got the courage to sign up

 

I have a question regarding a car agreement that my girlfriend took out some years ago.

 

In 2003 my girlfriend took out a hire purchase on a Renault Clio with some finance company (Cant remember the name right now).

 

About a year later (mid 2004 ish) she fell into difficulty paying for it due to job problems and the company wasted no time in cancelling the agreement and selling the debt onto some collection company. Before even trying to set up a repayment plan the company said that someone would turn up to repossess the car.

 

Eventually, one evening some dude in a pickup truck turned up to our house and demanded we hand over the keys. He had no ID, and certainly no court order, in fact he had no paperwork on him at all, he was just a short, angry little man with plain clothes and an unmarked truck.

 

He came onto our property and when I opened the door he lunged at me and started making threats about the car. I told him we wouldnt be giving him the keys since he had no ID or any proof that he was entitled to take the car. He got very angry by this and started trying to force his way into our house. Eventually the neighbours heard the commotion and came out and then he backed off a little onto the driveway.

 

My girlfriend then called the police as she was frightened and the man was very aggressive. after 10 minutes the police turned up and spoke to us and the guy. When the police then asked us what we wanted to do we said we werent giving him the keys.

 

The police then got their cuffs out and said that if we did not give the guy the keys WE WOULD BE ARRESTED and put in the van for breaching the peace! We were so gobsmacked by this we were speechless. In the end we had no choice but to hand the keys to the police who then gave them to the guy. We were kept under house arrest while this guy took our car away and then about 10 minutes later told us they were going. We did not sign anything.

 

To make matters worse, when he was backing the car off the driveway (we could see out the window) he scraped the side of the car down the brick gate post of our driveway (and thus i guess reducing its value). We received a letter a few weeks later saying the car had been sold for X value and that we now needed to repay. My girlfriend is still repaying this and I think this has gone on too long and is unfair.

 

What are her rights? Can she challenge the reposession even though it was 5 years ago? If not can she get this debt wiped somehow due to the nature of the reposession?

 

We want to try for a baby next year and I dont think its fair how she has this burden around her neck still 5 years later.

 

Sorry for the long winded story but any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

PS: Sorry I havent got lender name and things at the moment, I can try to fish it out if I can soon.