Shortfall on sale of reposessed vehicle

[Sconhome]

Can anyone advise on what to do based on a similar experience?
I returned a truck which was on finance for disposal as I no longer required it due to the downturn in work etc.
It has taken over a year for the truck to be sold through auction by the finance house. There is a shortfall of €8500 (€15,300 truck sold for €6800) which the finance house now expects me to pick up and pay.
The issue is that a reserve of €10,000 was agreed and any offers below that were to be discussed.
My view was a shortfall of more than €5000 would be more than a years repayment and I would look at parking the truck for a year, pay the lease and look again at a sale or hopefully things would pick up again. Having already paid over 10k on the life of the lease I am now looking at a total payout of 18.5k and having nothing to show for it at the end.
Does anyone know what the procedure is in relation to shortfall accounts?
Do I have any possibility of reclaiming the asset and continuing the lease as outlined above?
Should the finance house not be responsible for some of the shortfall?

Any advice or comments are welcomed.

 

[VOR]

Do you have the reserve in writing? If so, write to the fin. house and say that you are willing to pay the €5,000 and no more than that.
Make sure that they write off the loss of €3,200 against their profits and not against your account. That will ensure that you are not showing on the Irish Credit Bureau with a bad debt of €3,200.
Also, make sure they don't pull a fast one by selling the shortfall to a third party debt collector.
If they sold for less than the reserve without notifying you, you should make sure they write off the balance outstanding and not report it on the bureau as still outstanding.

 

[Sconhome]

VOR thanks for that advice.
The reserve was agreed in a meeting in their office, at my request. I was very up front and told the finance house that I was in bother and would have to dispose of at least this item.
Had since re-negotiated 3 other accounts in the same house and this shortfall was being used as a stick to prevent the deal going through.
I spoke with the agent on the phone and prompted a reminder of the meeting, after a bit of discussion I received and email confirming the 9k reserve and agreeing to settle for the balance above 9k.
I turned the screw and have also received written confirmation that my credit rating is to be unaffected by this and the finance house will pick up the diference.
Thanks again for your prompting.