Car purchased privately not knowing still owes Finance. Please Help...

nrashid

Hi All,

My friend has gone and purchased a vehicle couple of weeks ago she purchased the car from a private person. The previous owner looked legitimate, the hand over of the cash and paper work took place at his home.

The car was advertised in the autotrader and was appearing to be cheaper than the market value. To her surprise she performed a HPi check online today and found that the car was still owing finance. The registartion documents have not been sent off on her name as of yet. The grim part is that the previous owner is not contactable. The police hve been contacted but they mentioned that it would be a civil matter. As the car is legally still owned by the Finance company, can anyone advise as to her stance on this matter? The vehicle is worth £7000 and down payment of £5000 was paid. What rights does she have? Can anyone suggest any quick wins or any similar events where this was resolved?

Thanks

Stageshoot

Really there is not much to be hopeful

IF the car is on finance then they are the legal owner of the vehicle. Its not nice to hear I am afraid but its down to due diligence. You said yourself "It was below market value". That would be the alarm bell. Not meaning to lay the boot in honest.

But your friends only options are to try and get hold of the seller "Quickly" use every rescorse available - Knock on neighbours doors, try all you can to locate them and use any means at your disposal to "Persuade" them legally of course that they need to rethink what they have done.

Otherwise once the finance payments go overdue the company will look to get the car back, and if the docs are in your friends name they will come knocking, if they are not they will use the insurance database to locate it. Its all down to time it will happen. Your friend may be worth talking to the finance company now rather than have it hanging over them.

Times are hard people are desperate and a car is easy to shift for quick cash and people like your friend are always the ones to get caught with things like this as the seller cannot auction it or go to a dealer as it will always get HPId

Good Luck.

BYALPHAINDIA

Yeah, Well said.

I can 'Echo' what Vicky has just said.

You will have to make it your 1st PRIORITY to track down the previous owner - (The non contactable one) They never are once they have your money!!

At the end of the day, You don't want the 'Big Boys' coming round and Rep'o your car.

It is not your mistake, It is the previous owner who has the outstanding balance to pay.

People are not that hard to find these days, What with the Internet etc.

I find it VERY surprising even in this day & age, People are trying to sell vehicles with outstanding Loans/Debts or whatever.

Always best to do the HPI check beforehand, But that is easily said than done!!

Nothing to do with the police, The police aren't interested anyway.Lol,But you could 'threaten' to take the owner to a small claims court if under the 5,000 threshold?? Or when or (If) you do find them, Tell them they can expect a 'Solicitors' letter in the post in 3 working days.

That might 'Gee' them up??


All The Best With The Search.

BYALPHAINDIA

nrashid wrote: »

Hi All,

The previous owner looked legitimate, the hand over of the cash and paper work took place at his home.

You don't have far to look then.

All The Best.

maxdp

jonny_bravo wrote: »

saw this thing on panorama about unenforcable finance and loans dont know if thats anyhelp looked it up only website iv found doin it so far is www.claims.350.com

SPAM REPORTED

nomoneytoday

Surely the HPI should have been done before collection?
It's a worthless piece of paper afterwards...

bigstevex

Less than market value should have rung alarm bells straight away. Make sure you ALWAYS HPI a car, its only about £5 with the RAC and as your friend will find out is a lot less than £5000, unfortunately thats what these hpi check companies are for. I trust your friend got a receipt for what they paid? If it goes to court the person your friend bought it off could claim they only paid £x amount because they told them it had outstanding finance.

Also is the seller uncontactable because they won't answer at their address?

Alias_Omega

Find out how much is owed on finance..

You can pay them the cash instead of the seller, though i think the seller might of sold the car to pay the finance off..

zappster1966

One of the last things the finance company wants to do is take back the car, especially since there's every chance they'll take a hit if they have to sell it at market.

Your friend could always investigate the possibility of explaining their circs to the finance company, see if they could get some kind of deal to take the car off their hands ?

But I have to agree with other contributors. The car belongs to the finance company. Here's hoping the previous owner surfaces & pays their debt off.

BYALPHAINDIA

I think it's best not to contact the Finance Co - let them come to you.

They have got more time than you & they get paid to come and see you or Rep'o the car etc.

There is a danger here, That if his friend contacts the Finance Co, They will go straight to his friends house & Rep'o the car - Without asking questions about the previous owner & his outstanding debts.

Finance Co's don't think the same as the consumer.

You have to be a move 'In front' here as the friend could end up with no car next week?

NO CAR - NO WORK - NO WORK - NO MONEY?

BFG_2

Find the previous owner and 'persuade' them to hand back the money.

Anything else [court, finance company, police, solicitor, ] is simply wasting your time, money and energy.........I say this from bitter experience.