Despair for R699 car owners as scheme collapses
Banks now call for full repayments - amounts not affordable for all those involved
A group of 550 consumers, all affected by the collapse of the so-called R699 car sales scheme, will head to court later this month to have their contracts between banks and car buyers declared null and void.
The hearing into the scheme has been set down for August 7 in the Eastern Cape High Court in Port Elizabeth, a lawyer representing consumers told eNCA.
The group will be lead by Duncan Heuer of Pieterse Cary Finlaison.
After papers were served by the consumers’ representatives on Thursday last week, the Satinsky Group, which runs the scheme, plus Absa, Nedbank and Standard Bank, filed their notice of opposition on Friday last week. On Monday, they (Satinsky and the banks) filed their opposing papers,” Heuer said.
The coming hearing opens up the possibility that class action could be taken against the banks that supported the scheme, launched in 2008 by Andre Venter, the CEO of the Satinsky Group. About 17 000 people were believed to have been affected by the scheme which offered to cut repayments on new cars to about R699, if the motorists drove a minimum distance with pasted advertisements about the scheme on their cars.
The scheme collapsed earlier this month with banks now calling for full repayments – amounts not affordable for all those involved, eNCA reported. Heuer said they were there to assist consumers who had been affected by the R699 deal.
Heuer said the consumers’ rebate started decreasing, and having attempted to contact Satinsky, they received no assistance.
“In terms of the Credit Act, they had not complied with their advertising,” he said. “We are looking at the best interests of the consumer to try and do what is possible in the legal framework so they could be relieved of this burden.”
