Car finance "civil matter" advice needed

[FromtheZoo]

Hi. This is probably going to be quite a long one but I am desperate for some advice on what next steps to take.

I very stupidly bought a very expensive car on finance, on behalf of my friend. He begged me to help him out as he had bad credit and said that he would pay me by bank transfer every month for the amount set on the loan agreement. I know that this is so stupid of me but I've known him my whole life, he's always helped me when I've needed it and he's never given me a reason to think he wouldn't stick to his word so I decided to go ahead and do it for him. Both the car and the finance agreement were taken out in my name.

At first and for quite some time, he made the payments on time and everything was fine. Then I started receiving quite a few parking tickets to my house and it was becoming very annoying to keep filling out the forms and giving his details so I decided to put the log book in his name so that he was the registered keeper. Again, this worked out fine and he continued to pay me on time for quite some time.

Then, he started to miss payments, would ignore my texts about the payments and would then make very late and delayed transfers to me. I started to feel uneasy about the fact that the car was registered to him and that he was becoming unreliable with transferring the payments to me. Eventually after some back and forth, he agreed to transfer the car back into my name.

Since then, he has continued to miss payments and make late transfers to me, he continues to ignore me most of the time and on top of that I have been receiving a lot of parking and traffic fines, I've appealed them all but some of them have come back and said I am liable to pay for them because I'm the registered keeper.

For the last few months, he hasn't paid me anything at all, he ignores all my calls and texts and I don't even think he is at his usual address as I've gone there and he hasn't been there and I have also received parking fines for somewhere quite far away in a different part of England. So I have no idea where he is.

I've contacted the police and told them everything, but they came back and said there is nothing they can do as it's a civil matter and as he has made some bank transfers to me, he could claim partial ownership of the car. Even though the car is registered to me, the finance agreement is in my name and the payments come out of my account. I also have all evidence of me trying to contact him to get the car back and him ignoring me. But apparently it makes no difference.

Ideally I would like him to give the car back to me so I can take it back to the dealership or sell it and end my finance agreement. I'm really struggling financially to pay for this car and also his fines on top of that. But I am at a loss as to what I can do about this now that the police won't get involved. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

@nursejekyll

Do any of your other friends know where he is living?

I've asked around and the most I've heard is that he goes back and forth between here (London) and the West Midlands, which is where most of the fines are coming from. He apparently has family there. But no one has been able to give me an address or anything. I know his family here in London and have spoken to them loads of times about the situation but they won't give me any information about where he is and just say they don't know anything. Really frustrating.

Even if you haven't yet met the 50% threshold, you don't have to wait until that's been met through making your normal monthly payments.

You can make it up to that figure and do a voluntary termination in one go. If that's not realistic due to the amount needed being too high at present, make any additional payments as and when you can. That way, you eat into the balance and reduce the overall interest cost at the same time. You should be able to ask the finance company to reduce the term rather than reduce the minimum contractual payment.

What you've done is to arrange what is known as an 'accommodation deal', and I'd be a bit more circumspect about it if I were you.

The problem is that I don’t know how you are going to get the car back to get it to be sold?

Are you now the registered keeper? Can you ask your friend to return it and if they don't report it stolen?

@CheddarGorgeous

Are you now the registered keeper? Can you ask your friend to return it and if they don't report it stolen?

The police wouldn't be interested. This is clearly a civil matter.

Have you messaged and asked him to return the car? If not you could do so, and give him a deadline. Neither of you own it until it is repaid so your message needs to say that because you couldn't afford to cover the payments when he stopped paying, the owner (finance company) have terminated the agreement and demanded the car back. If you don't return it they will report it to the police and he could be caught driving a stolen car. It's a bit of a fabrication. Might scare him enough to return it?

@PotteringAlong

The problem is that I don’t know how you are going to get the car back to get it to be sold?

This is my issue. Thanks to this thread I see I do have some options but I still need to locate my friend and get him to give me the car back. Without the car I can't do anything.

@CheddarGorgeous

Are you now the registered keeper? Can you ask your friend to return it and if they don't report it stolen?

I'm the registered keeper. I can't report it as stolen the police said it's a civil matter and they won't pursue it

@MargotMoon

Have you messaged and asked him to return the car? If not you could do so, and give him a deadline. Neither of you own it until it is repaid so your message needs to say that because you couldn't afford to cover the payments when he stopped paying, the owner (finance company) have terminated the agreement and demanded the car back. If you don't return it they will report it to the police and he could be caught driving a stolen car. It's a bit of a fabrication. Might scare him enough to return it?

I have said to him to just return the car back to me and that if he returns the car to me I wont contact him again and he doesn't need to give me any money. Just to get the car back. But he still ignored that. I think your idea to message him that is great though and I'll try it! Hopefully it will scare him into giving it back.

OP he won't know what the police have told you, tell him that the car is now reported as stolen and he has to return it now.

I agree with cheddar tell him to return the car or you will report it as stolen. Hopefully he won't realise that this is indeed a civil matter and will return it to you rather than potentially being pulled over by the police, albeit hypothetically.

If that doesn't work, hire a repossession agent to retrieve the car.

Tell his family that the you are reporting the car as stolen and he must return it. It will get back to him.

OP you also should be concerned about it being properly insured. Especially if it is now registered to you in London, but he is the only driver, and it gets written off in Birmingham or somewhere. Be a complete nightmare were he to crash it or were it to be stolen or even driven through a massive flood.

I doubt the police ruse would work. He's in the wrong, must know he's in the wrong,
and unless he's as thick as two short planks as well, he will have checked that out .

www.ownvehicle.askmid.com you can do that as its registered to you.

Get a valuation from We Buy Any Car - that should at least give you an idea of what you’ll get for it vs the settlement figure.

Any luck, OP?

@MargotMoon thanks for checking in! no luck, I text him the other day and said I'd reported the car stolen to the police and to return it to me ASAP and he replied to me instantly saying I better undo that and that he will pay me money on Sunday (today). I said I didn't want any money I just wanted the car back and then he didn't reply and I haven't received any money as of yet! So lost with what to do and I feel sick with anxiety over the whole thing.

@Timeonmyhandsfornow I have checked askMid and the car is insured

Send him a letter before action stating the facts, giving him a reasonable deadline to return the car (or pay the money if you prefer) and stating that you will take legal action without further notice if he does not meet the deadline. Assuming he does nothing, you will then be able to take him to court.