late husband`s car loan...

[jenpat]

My husband died in August this year and when going through his paperwork, found that 1 month earlier the car we have was purchased with finance from a finance company..I phoned them up and told them of my husbands death and would they take the car back.( I don`t drive ) they said they were not interested in the car and only wanted the outstanding debt of �10,000.00!
My daughter phoned them later and said that wasn`t it true that the debt died with the person..whoever was talking to my daughter said that yes, that was the case, just send the death certificate to them. This I did and a week later a letter arrived saying that they wanted to sue my husband`s estate..I wrote back saying that he died intestate and as he did not leave very much it was deemed unnecessary to obtain probate so no estate as such..they have since sent another letter asking for a letter off a solicitor to state that there is no estate..Why should I have to pay for a letter...it looks like they will hound me until I cough up money I don`t have..may I will apply to them for a loan!

[O'Reilly]

jenpat,

my condolences to you regarding your Husband. My Uncle dies some years ago and my Aunt had the same problems with a finance Company who demanded full settlement of the outstanding debt for his car. I eventually was able to arrange that the garage (who sold my Uncle the car) took it back to resell and it left a shortfall of interest of �500 .......my advice to you would be to get to a solicitor immediately (with car purchase agreement, letters from finance company and also death certificate) and get the solicitor to write to the company. he will also give you advice regarding the selling of the car. I think you can get this advice for free as normally solicitor's allow half an hour of their time for no cost. He may well deal with this and I would expect that he will tell you his cost (assume something like �50) you must act IMMEDIATELY before this finance company starts to turn the screws, employs a bailiff and heaven's knows what else.

[factor-fiction]

I'm sympathetic- but I'm a bit puzzled. Surely the estate now has an asset in the form of a car which hasn't been paid for. If this were sold the estate would have some money to pay of some of its debts such as to teh finance company. I'd complain if i sold someone a car and they died before they'd paid me- I'd expect something back.

[Ethel]

I agree with factor30. The fact that your husband did not make a will is neither here nor there.

His debts must be paid from his estate, of which the car forms part.

Sell the car to help meet the debt. This is why many people take out insurance on debt - to pay the debt off in the event of death.

[bednobs]

It sounds like the company are doing exactly the right thing - of course they arent interested in the car - they gave your husband money, not a car. You may as well have said to them - here have some curtains and a fitted kitchen in lieu of the money!. Again, i agree with the others about being puzzled - the car forms part of the estate, so sell it and pay them back their money, or at least as much of it as you can

[themas]

I agree the car needs to be sold and the proceeds used to pay off his debts. However, if he had other debts as well as the one for the car the money should be shared out between them prorata to the size of the debts - it should not all go to the finance company. Otherwise, if any other creditors find out what has happened they could claim that the person winding up the estate (presumably you) had not done so properly, that they had been disadvantaged as a result, and that you were liable to them for this.

[Whickerman]

you may well find that the car's not yours to sell, check the small print carefully.

[Oneeyedvic]

You need to establish whether or not this is a Hire Purchase Agreement or a loan agreement (it will be printed on the document usually at the top).

If it is a Hire Purchase agreement then the agreement is now in default. If you have not paid more than a third of the total amount repayable (which includes any deposit) then the finance company would be within their right to repossess the car and can do so without a court order. If you have paid more than a third then they will require a court order to repossess the vehicle.

If you have paid more than half the amount of credit then you will be able to Voluntary Terminate the vehicle - essentially hand the vehicle back.

If it is a loan agreement then you will be able to sell the vehicle without any issue - and the money will go into your husband's estate. Obviously if your husband has any debts then his estate must pay them before anyone else can benefit.