Incorrect Information given by Bank

foxglove

New Member
Oct 29, 2011
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I am new to the site and hope someone out there could give me some advice or let me have comments regarding this situation:
My daughter and son in law bought a static caravan in June 2009. We went with them when they signed the paperwork. We believed this was a loan for £20,000 caravan (although the sales person didn't go into the transaction in any detail).

Early this year my daughter and son in law split up. They now wanted to sell the caravan. Before doing anything they checked with the Bank, who they make the monthly payments to, that it was in order for them to sell the caravan. They were told that the as it was a loan agreement the caravan belonged to them and as such they could do with it what they wanted.

With this clarified they have tried in earnest since March to sell the caravan, putting it on various web-sites etc. Upto last month they had still not sold it (primarily because the site fees are so high no one wanted to take it on). Earlier this month a trader agreed to buy it from them to take away from the site. They phoned the caravan site to arrange for disconnection and to pay any outstanding electricity charges. They were told they can't sell it as there is outstanding finance of £15,500 still owing. My daughter argued that this was incorrect and they had bought the caravan with a loan and it therefore belonged to them and this had been confirmed by the bank concerned.

My daughter checked with the bank again who this time said it was correct, there was finance on it and they couldn't sell it. She explained she had been told in February by the bank that it was a loan and they could sell it.

The bank checked their telephone monitoring system and agreed that they had listened to the conversation and incorrect information had been given to them. They are now sending a complaints form to my daughter.

Does anyone know if we have a case for claiming compensation in view of the fact that in february my daughter would have asked that the caravan be re-possessed by the caravan site had she known about the outstanding finance on it and that she couldn't sell it. She would have lost a lot of money obviously but would not have gone on to pay site fees of £2600, water rates of £221, advertising costs and costs for petrol going back and forth to the caravan site, which is what they did whilst believing the caravan was theirs to sell.
I am sorry this is so long. I hope it is clear and not too confusing. Please let me know if anything isn't clear. Thanks.