With Loan wolves who can kill your car

IF you buy a good secondhand Audi A4 you don’t expect it to have a sudden death after five months.

That is exactly what happened to a reader called Jill Benson. One day she turned on the ignition and the car simply wouldn’t start.

She called the AA and a mechanic worked for an hour before it became clear there was nothing wrong with the car.

It stopped working because Jill’s A4 had been fitted with a device called a “kill switch”.

She was told it would have been fitted by the dealer on the instructions of a finance company.

The device allows them to switch the car off if repayments are missed. Jill, of Rainham, Essex, paid £3,995 for the Audi on what is called a PCP finance agreement, but had missed two payments.

Poor

I contacted the finance company, who for legal reasons will remain anonymous for now, to find out if this could really be true.

I’d never heard of kill switches in the UK. The firm declined to respond to my questions. Since then it has have refused, saying the deposit is non-refundable. Geoff Ashland YOU paid a deposit on a specific colour of sofa. They cannot fulfil the order so the contract is broken. They have an obligation to refund. I PAID a so-called professional gardener to been reported that kill switches are being used by finance companies in relation to customers with poor credit ratings and that the FCA are investigating this.

It seems likely the kill switch in Jill’s car was fitted by the finance company. But I can see no mention of this in the terms and conditions. And there is no mention in any of the other paperwork Jill signed.

My view is that a finance company cannot install a kill switch unless they have clearly informed the consumer, who agrees to it. Jill, in my opinion, can now claim damages. tidy up my garden for the summer. He’s made a real mess and has pulled up flowers as weeds. I want my money back what can I do? Rita Green THE Consumer Rights Act 2015 says traders must carry out services with “reasonable care and skill”. He has not, so will have to refund you and put right any damage. I LIVE in a third floor flat. If I order something online, does the retailer have to deliver to my front door or the main door downstairs? Rajesh Pablo

you state they can deliver elsewhere, a trader’s obligation is to deliver to your front door and hand goods to a person within your house. The goods are at the trader’s risk until such time as they actually do this.