Personal Contract Purchase and Hire Purchase Agreements

Personal Contract Purchase and Hire Purchase Agreements

Motor Finance is rapidly developing claims area. While other areas within consumer finance are more well established, motor finance stands out as an area within the legal sector where the law can change on a daily basis. Due to this, McDermott Smith Law’s Motor Finance Department have to ensure they stay on top of all developments within the law.

This not only makes the department an extremely exciting part of the firm but also enforces a curiosity with the law itself.

The main claim that McDermott Smith Law makes for our clients focusses upon the contractual relationship between the customer and the Lender. McDermott Smith Law and others discovered that in many cases Lenders pay vehicle dealerships (also known as Brokers) an undisclosed fee for recommending them to customers. This often means that customers are not given multiple finance options but instead told that only one finance agreement is “available to them” or “the best for them”. This recommendation is not based on the customer’s needs but instead on the potential monetary gain of the dealership.

At McDermott Smith Law, we investigate the relationships between customers and Lenders in order to find out if a secret commission has been paid. In some instances, we have found that there was no commission and the Lender and Dealer followed their requirements under the law and the Financial Conduct Authority. However, it is more common that we find there was a secret commission paid between the Lender and the Dealer and that the commission was directly related to the APR and Interest Rate that the paid by the customer.

At McDermott Smith Law, we are currently doing everything we can for our clients to both progress their claims and ensure that the unfairness they suffered as a result of these secret commissions are rectified.