Car HP Agreement for a car I don't have - HELP GREATLY APPRECIATED PLEASE!!!!

jonnyhm

Hi All,
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated...

I purchased a used (53 reg) car on HP in July 2007.

In the first few months lots of thing's went wrong with it and it cost me around £1,500 to keep it on the road (it came with a 12 month warranty but nothing that went wrong was actually covered...) Then April 2008 it finally died for good. What went wrong with it was going to cost £2,900 to fix so I got rid.

I part exchanged the car for a value of £500 with a small dealer and purchased an old banger from him.

He basically took my car, knocked £500 off the old banger and that was that.

Since then, I've continued to pay the finance every month on the car which I no longer have or no longer own. I've been doing this for a year now.

Today, I've just found out that it's illeagel for a dealer to buy a car off someone with outstanding finance on it.

Does anyone know where I stand / what I should do?

Do I tell the finance company I no longer have the car?

If so, what are the likely to do?

What happens if I stop paying? (apart from my credit rating goes down the shoot..)

I'm coming up to nearly half way through the 4 year agreement - is there anything I can do?

Please help - it's been a living nightmare for the last 2 years.

Thanks.

jonnyhm

Thank you for your reply, much appreciated.

I have an invoice from the small dealer who sold me the old banger and gave me £500 part ex for the car I have on HP. It doesn't mention anything about finance on it - it just says "£500 Part Ex".

Yes, I sent off the yellow "transfer to the motor trade" section of the V5 form and sent it to the DVLA on sale.

CLAPTON

why do you say its illegal for the dealer to buy the car?
did he know it had finance on it?

now it's certainly illegal to sell it with HP owing as you don't own the car.

Apples2

I think you will open a complete can of worms

There can be no question you still owe the money, you agreed to pay £xxxx for the car on finance. You still owe that money.

I'm sure there is a term to describe the dealer, Innocent recipent or something similar.

At the half way point you may have been able to return the car. On the basis that you flogged it to a garage kind of dispels that option.

You need to continue paying untl the 4yrs are up.

jonnyhm

Yeah, I think your right.

I've been paying for this car now for a year without having it so I may as well carry on and not risk any further action taken against me.

My only defence is I didn't know it was illeagel to part ex a car that still owed finance. From the dealerships I've spoken too today they said it's the responsibility of the dealer who bought the car off me to check it had no finance outstanding. The dealer knew it had finance as I was moaning to him in his office when signging it over that I'd still got money to pay on it and how I was ripped off by the garage I purchased it from in the first place.

Anyway, I got a settlement figure today which isn't that bad so I'm gonna save for the next few months and hopefully I can settle early.

Many thanks for all of your replies & advice.

...and here's to only buying NEW cars with a full 3 year manafactures warranty in the future!!!!!!!

DeeDee07

We had a car on HP and because its HP and you are hiring it until you have paid it off the HP company MUST PAY for all repairs as the car is still legally theirs.Yes its true i also saw on Dont Get Done Dom and he did it with Welcome Finance.Dunno if its much help now but something for the future