condition of car re half rule

Re last reply please read my question I am looking for specific info re CONDITION of car which I have not been able to find if available on previous thread please advise

Plastic10, in the link provided to you in your last thread titled "Opel 50:50 and half rule" it clearly states that you are liable for any damages to the vehicle. Please read the information in the link for more details.[broken link removed]

So the car must be returned in showroom/as new condition without any allowance for wear and tear/supermarket carparks etc.?

It states you must pay for any repairs so I would assume they want it back looking as new as possible. By the way plastic10 I have had no experience in this myself and am just reading the link back to you, please read the link as it is all explained there.

I was hoping that someone would be able to share their experiences and how any such minor damage would be treated by the finance co. The car I would be returning would have in excess of 50% of hire purchase price paid off already. Would this be taken into consideration re minor damage?

I would assume minor wear and tear would be taken into account but depends no how bad it is

Hence my enquiry

Hi Plastic10
I am also very interested in this subject, I will be handing back my vehicle in a few weeks under the Half Rule.
I don't understand why your previous thread was closed by the moderator?? I was looking forward to that discussion opening up and wanted to hear what experience other poster's had when returning their vehicles with regards to how their finance provider had responded to the condition of their vehicles when returned etc.
I have lovingly drove, minded and services when necessary my vehicle but there are a few minor signs of wear and tear so I am planning to take a lot of pictures of the car before I return it and may even get a mechanical report done so that if the finance company come back with issue's or send me bill's then I hope to have some recourse..
Will post my experience on here when I return the vehicle..
Graftgirl..

Hi there,

I handed my car back using the half rule. I was worried because I had one problem with the car occur before it was to be returned so I just got that fixed. Now the car was four years old so it had the odd stone chip but other than that it was decent condition.

My thoughts were, seen as how I bought it second hand from garage, how could the finance company differentiate what wear and tear occurred before I purchased it to after? So I just washed and hoovered it as if I was selling it and took a few photos as evidence of condition.

I brought it down to the auction place where some guy with his clipboard walked around the car and then drove it down to the back of the yard for further examination.

Waiting for nearly an hour I was then presented with a report from a different guy stating "both front wings and the bumper replace". I was shocked and said what are they on about the car is excellent and never been crashed. He wasnt sure either if it meant that it needed to be replaced or had been replaced, however, they had a price of about 2,000 at bottom of the report. He replied that sorry he is only the messenger but his friend got a similar report but they never followed up.

I naturally told him the car was going back cos I couldnt afford it so there is no way I would be paying that. I never heard anything after that. I also saw the car on carzone with a dealer so I assume once it was bought by the dealer it was no longer a problem for me.

So I would say just have it in the condition you would expect if trying to sell it yourself and you should be ok. I signed a voluntary termination which and not a voluntary surrender. on the recorded phonecall I made sure the lady clearly stated that the VT was different to the VS and in no way affected your credit.

So now I am happy and slightly better off each month. I hope it works out well for you also.

Thanks Graftgirl and Minitauro for your input. I cant understand why thread closed either coz different question but one that needs some clarification from peoples own experiences. When are you handing back your car graftgirl and how long since you handed yours back minitauro?

Hi Plastic10,

I handed mine back last month. Ive been trying to make more people aware of the half rule as not many know about it. Many are delighted to hear that they can hand it back easily enough especially the way things seem to be going in this country presently.

Plastic10 and Graftgirl, the reason the second thread on the 50:50 rule was closed was simply so that — as per our — discussion might be kept in the one place and not dispersed across a few different threads. It makes the information more easily accessible to other users besides the original poster. AAM is a community forum.

As it is now, the discussion is spread across three different threads, one of them closed.

Thanks for replies Graftgirl and Minitauro. I am glad to hear that others believe this is in fact a seperate thread and though all guidelines are available thru various links nothing IMHO beats actual experiences of others who have gone down this route.

DrMoriarty I think you misunderstood the route that Plastic10 was taking with the discussion regarding the half rule.
While the half rule has been discussed on AM(and not in great length,IMO) the particulars of the discussion that we were hoping would develop on here where more to do with the experience's that people were having after handing back the car, for example, did the finance company take issue with the condition of the vehicle when it was returned? Does the finance company generally expect remuneration for wear and tear.
Will update more when I am in the process of returning my vehicle with my finance company. Hope to do this in about 3 weeks.

Minitauro: Thanks for posting your experience
Graftgirl

Thanks Graftgirl, but there's no misunderstanding. If you reread the post where I closed the second thread, I simply asked plastic10 to keep his questions about the half rule (however 'seperate') in one thread. He hasn't done that. Fine.

I hope plastic10 gets the answers he wants when he returns his car. If not, I'm sure the fact that a person on the internet seems to have successfully returned a different car willl be a great help. Or maybe he could try a different forum?

Thanks to TheShark and MrEbear for linking to the relevant information.

Exactly Graftgirl. Have you already sent your letter of termination? If so have you stopped making payments? I am trying to get some idea of the timeline regarding returning the vehicle once the letter of termination has been sent. Am I still liable for payments once letter sent and car not returned?

I have not formally notified the finance company yet but I have discussed it with them over the phone. So they are aware that it's likely that I will exercise my right to give back the vehicle under the half rule.
I have one more payment to make before I return the car.
I plan to send the letter, then arrange the transfer of the car right before I make the final payment in a few weeks.
I don't want there to be any overlap and to have to pay anymore than the 50% as the payments on the car are high.
I am not sure if you are liable for payments between the letter of notification and the date the vehicle is returned, I suppose when it is in your possession then you are benefiting from it so there would be payment expected for this period so if as you say you have over 50% paid then I would organise the return of your car asap so as to not incur any further charge on a car you are not keeping..

Thanks Graftgirl. Would appreciate any input from anyone else who has gone through this process recently. I am sure there are many people who like myself have only recently realised that this option may be available to them and once thay decide to begin the process this discussion will be very helpful.

And so I am back to tell my tale...
Formally notified the finance company of my intention to use the Half Rule with a letter stating just that.
They were very good to deal with and we arranged a date soon after that for the car to be collected.
A very nice guy who works for the finance company arrived to my home and drove the car away just like that!! There was nothing said to me about the condition of the car, in fact it wasn’t looked over.
I have a letter to state that I returned the car under the half rule and have no further obligations to the finance company.
Checked my credit bureau details since to see how the loan had been filed and it shows the letter “T” which stands for “Terms Revised”
I am very happy with how the process went and that I was able to offload my big expensive car that had depreciated to almost half of the half of the loan that I owed on it..

I hope you took your insurance discs from the windscreen. You may be due a refund of some of the premium.

Does anyone know if unused road tax can be reclaimed?, if the disc is surrendered?

I'm sorry if this is considered a different issue but I'd have thought refunds of insurance and tax are relevant to the half rule as it relates to cars.