My Dad is sitting with a situation with his vehicle finance bank.

Dad bought a vehicle for his transport business a few years back. Towards the end of 2018 he experienced some dips in the business and fell behind with his instalments. The bank’s lawyers then communicated with Dad that he needed to pay a certain amount by a certain date in Jan 2019 to bring his account up to date, failing which the vehicle would be repossessed. Dad communicated this to his lawyer seeing as the bank’s lawyers were now involved. Dad managed to put together the entire amount required by the bank and paid it to the bank before the set date in Jan 2019. He then provided all the proof of payments and other documentation to his lawyer to send to the bank’s lawyers as confirmation that he had adhered to the requirements.

Dad then continued making his monthly instalments with no issues, his account was up to date. On 9 July 2019 Dad’s vehicle was repossessed by the bank due to non-payment of his account, i.e. the bank said Dad did not make the payment set for Jan 2019 – the one that he paid before the set date even arrived. After talking to his lawyer, Dad discovered that the bank’s lawyer did not receive the proof of payment made in Jan 2019 nor any of the documents that went with it (even though it was paid on time). Dad’s lawyer failed to provide the information to the bank hence the bank was under the impression that he did not pay (even though the payment was made into their account).

Dad’s lawyer lodged an appeal, long story short, the matter was eventually ruled by the court that Dad was not wrong in any way. Also the bank’s lawyer did not check whether the bank had actually received the payment before instructing for the vehicle to be repossessed.

The vehicle was released back to Dad on 23 Dec 2019. A week later the bank debited his account with a monthly instalment. In Jan 2020 the bank told Dad that he needs to pay arrears of over R70,000 (for the months they wrongfully held the vehicle) failing which the vehicle will be repossessed.

Dad lost almost 7 months of business income because of somebody elses’ mistake. No one has said anything about him being reimbursed for the business income he lost. Also, how can he be expected to pay for the months his vehicle was wrongfully sitting with the bank when he had zero income?

Considering this is a business vehicle, i.e. scholar transport, and my 71 year old Dad’s main source of income – what recourse does he have in this situation?