Asked by the Customer on 07-08-2019 10:48:23
Question posted in the General Law category relating to Eastern Cape

Good day. I borrowed money from a company that lent money on you vehicle. You lease it from them until you can pay them back in full. I made payments for about 16 months and then this year March they contacted me and said I don't have to pay them anymore. I said I can collect my vehicle Natis docs. I Google the company to get contact detail because I was struggling to get the vehicle back on my name. There were a Court order from the NCR stopping them from anymore lending. They were not registered and was charing the consumers a few way more than the should pay. Is there any way that I can get some of my money back that I have over paid.

Posted by Att. Patrick on 07-08-2019 14:46:18

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

Thank you for sending through the Tribunal ruling to the support team. They have forwarded it to me. 

In short, YES, you are entitled to get some of your money back from them. Essentially, it is the money which amounts to any interest payments or admin type charges. The allegation is that they are an unregistered credit provider and accordingly they are not entitled to loan people money, and they are accordingly in breach of the terms of the National Credit Act.

I think however that you should wait for the outcome of the Tribunal's hearing. The reason I say this is because the Tribunal is going to decide on whether the company should be ordered to return the vehicles, and the registration papers, and refund people their money.

This is the outcome that the NCR wants:-

"In the main matter; the NCR seeks an order to declare Option Deals to be in repeated contraventions of various sections of the Act and Regulations. The NCR also seeks an order against Option Deals to be interdicted from entering into any credit agreements; while it remains to be an unregistered credit provider. The further prayers of the NCR are for Option Deals to return all repossessed vehicles that are still in its possession; to refund consumers excess amounts paid; and to transfer the registration of the vehicles back into the names of the consumers. In the result, the NCR also moved for the imposition of an administrative fine."

The Tribunal has not yet heard argument in the matter, and it is accordingly still pending. 

If you wait for the outcome of the hearing, then you won't really need to issue your own court application or summons. You would be entitled to simply ask the company to refund you because of the Tribunal award. 

At present, the hearing has been postponed to enable the parties to file further affidavits and evidence. 

You should therefore keep a careful eye on the proceedings, and wait for the proceedings to finalise, and then jump and claim your money!

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.

Att. Patrick

Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.

Thank you for the reply. How would I know what the outcome would be and when.
They loaned me R 25 000.00 and in march 2019 phoned and said I don't have to pay the lease fees anymore. My account is paid up by the company. I had to fetch my vehicle docs. I paid them a lease fee of 390 a day which was R 8250.00 a month and was for 17 months. How would I know how much I could claim back from them.

Posted by Att. Patrick on 08-08-2019 10:18:06

Well, if you take the R8250 and multiply it by 17 months, you get R140,250 - which is the total amount that you paid them.

They loaned you R25,000 and charged you interest on it. They were not entitled to the interest, so they can only get the R25,000 back from you.

So, you deduct the R25,000 from the R140,250 and you get R115,250 - which is the amount you paid them which you should NOT have paid them.

That's the amount that you should get back.

That is good news. Should be a good savings amount. I only have one more question. Do I need to make contact with them now requesting a refund on my money or should I wait. If they refuse should I make contact with you again to handle my case. Thank you for the good adie.

Posted by Att. Patrick on 08-08-2019 13:10:42

I think that you should write to them now demanding payment, and you should refer to the enquiry. They will obviously refuse to make the payment pending the enquiry, and if they take the enquiry's decision on appeal / review they could buy themselves a couple of months delay. But yes, write to them!

Hi Sir. I did like you told me, and send a request to them to refund me the money. The person I spoke to said he is the Curator only and is busy closing Option Deals Pty Ltd. How do I go about it now. Do I need to make another payment for you to handle it and forward the details that I have of the person I spoke to.

Posted by Att. Patrick on 08-08-2019 15:02:04

I'm afraid that I can't deal with it on your behalf. I can only give you legal advice on how you should deal with it, and whether or not you have a claim.

If a curator is involved in closing down the company, I think that you need to get a lawyer on board NOW to write them a letter demanding payment of the money. 

While I am a lawyer, I can't represent you directly.