Lloyds Banking Group PLC
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Many holiday home “owners” are still victims of this caravan sales scam
As with the payment protection insurance scandal which rattled on for years the caravan mis-selling scam we have unearthed also has major implications. This is probably why the main instigators have tried to cover their tracks and keep it all from public view. One such protagonist is the Lloyds Banking Group which, through its subsidiary Black Horse, forked out a lot of money to fend off our very small claim. In one sense the efforts have been in vain as we have evidence that clearly reveals the depth of the sales scam and there are people today still caught up in paying far more for their holiday homes than they should because of the “finance package” they signed when they bought it. What we discovered in 2013 continued until late 2019 and perhaps affected scores of new caravan owners who bought from Haven before and during this time with finance from Black Horse or a similar company. This is aptly demonstrated by past pages from the Haven website we have saved such as the one dated 13/12/2019 which features an example of a “Pre-owned holiday home package”. The costs involved are: van £14,218 + site fees £2,682 + rates £572 + gas & electric £288 + insurance £235 = total of £17,995. From this a £3000 deposit is deducted leaving £14,995 to be borrowed which is £777 more than the cost of the van. Bearing in mind none of the first year costs should have been added on to the loan, and the deposit should have been taken off the £14,218, this would have left £11,218 to be borrowed which is £3,777 less than the loan based on the “package” version. What a scam! On 18th July 2021 we sent the following email to Lloyds Banking Group’s interim CEO, William Chalmers:- ‘We are writing to complain about the disgraceful way we have been treated by you and Lloyds Banking Group and to express our disgust at the response we received 30th June containing the following erroneous statement:- “Having liaised with the relevant team, they have confirmed that they have nothing further to add to previous responses issued to you, and that as the internal complaints process has now been exhausted, they will not be responding to you further. Therefore I am sorry to confirm that we cannot progress your complaint further from here. Further emails from you will be sent through to our team, but you may not receive further responses if issues raised in your correspondence have already been addressed.” ‘This is an outrageous lie, Mr Chalmers, as we have received no “responses” at all from “the relevant team” to any of the issues we have recently raised with you since 1st June this year and none have “already been addressed”. These yet to be addressed issues include:- 1. Black Horse hire purchase loans being substantially increased by including the cost of several “extras”, such as site fees, insurance and “non-domestic business rates”, in with the “cash price” of the caravan, thus increasing the loan and subsequent repayments for up to 84 months. 2. As a result of this we were over-charged by more than £3,000 on a hire purchase loan for a caravan supplied by Bourne Leisure through its Haven Holiday Park at Doniford Bay, Watchet, Somerset, in June 2013. 3. Although we had called for a “root and branch” investigation to be carried out by LBG this did not happen and we were further victimised when Black Horse spent £43,234.20 in legal costs (including £5,000 for a London barrister) fending off our County Court claim for £4,370. Surely something must be adrift for a company to spend that sort of money against such a small claim from two litigants in person – would you at least agree on this one? ‘Mr … an expert on Consumer Credit Law advised us that site fees and other intangible items should not have been included with the sale of the caravan on hire purchase. Any “extras” such as site fees and insurance for the first year should have been paid for separately, possibly by way of a different kind of loan if necessary. ‘We have sent you all the documentation supporting our claims of wrongdoing by Black Horse and the longer this blatant cover-up goes on the worse it will be when it all comes into the open, as it surely must. We are doing our best to expose this scam and cover-up and it is “all out there” on Trustpilot, which has had 8,500 visits to date. What a pity for LBG that these reviews are so negative (see attachment). ‘We sincerely hope you will get to grips with this situation and ensure that all our concerns are properly addressed so that we do not have to take them to Charlie Nunn when he takes over the reins from you in due course.’ NO REPLY