BMW Financial Service (GB) Ltd v Hart

Facts

BMW Financial Services (GB) Limited, successor to Land Rover Financial Services, hired a Land Rover Discovery to Mr Damon Hart under a hire purchase contract signed by both parties on 1 March 1999. The total price was just over £35,000 less a £500 deposit, the balance of amount payable being £39,967.25, payable by 36 monthly rentals of £690.40 followed by a final balloon rental of just over £15,000. Clause 11 entitled the owner to terminate the hiring on default, and clause 12 set out the customer's liability on termination or on acceptance of his repudiation. Mr Hart failed to pay the July and August 1999 rentals, and on 26 August 1999 the owner issued a notice accepting his repudiation and terminating the agreement, deemed served on 28 August 1999. He then left the United Kingdom; the vehicle was recovered and sold, the proceeds being credited. A claim form was taken to Leeds County Court on 26 August 2005, the deemed date of issue for limitation purposes, and after an order for substituted service made on 25 July 2006 default judgment was entered on 28 September 2006 for £37,558.31. Mr Hart returned in or around 2011 and applied on 7 October 2011 to set the judgment aside. HHJ Derek R Halbert, sitting in the Chester County Court, held the claim time-barred and set the judgment aside. The owner appealed.