Bought a car which had full finance outstanding

hamza_villa

Hi everyone, im new to this so please be patient with me lol.

right now il start with the story. ive been saving for 5 years to buy a car and a few months ago whilst browsing i came across a car at a very reasonable price. being naive and excited i didnt bother with any hpi checks and just bought the car for £24500.. a few days ago some guys tried to take the car away but i didnt let them. they said they'll give me 2 weeks to try and sort it out. basically the person i bought it off took the car out on finance a month before he sold it to me.

Its quite obvious that this was his plan all along but thanks to my own naivity i am now left in the !!!!. What am i suppose to do? i will be seeking legal advice during the week but was wondering if anyone knows anything about it. i read somewhere that if the name on the log book has been changed more than 3 times then the finance company can not take the car. Although i find this very hard to believe and highly unlikely, i was wondering if anyone had any knowledge on this?

as you can imagine it has been very distressing and can potentially do alot of damage if i have to give up the car so please guys if you have any advice get back to me.

Torby

£24500 to buy a car and you didn't do a check that costs less than a fiver?....I think you may have problems getting any money back, you may be able to involve the Police under the guise of some some sort of fraud taking place....but they may also want to know where you got £24500 from...especially if the fraudster denies it, I hope you didn't pay the guy cash.

~Brock~

You could have some trouble with this one.

It is usual for someone in this position to be able to claim protection under s27 of the the Hire Purchase Act 1964 as an 'innocent private purchaser', and thereby keep the goods.

The onus of proof that you did not know about the finance companys interest would be on you, and would be helped/hindered by how much you paid vs how much the car is worth (you appeared to be attracted by the 'very reasonable price' which to others could have aroused suspicion).

However, in your particular circumstances, the seller appears to have inentionally set out to defraud the HP company, and if this can be proven by them then title cannot pass to you because if the car was obtained by him fraudulently then it is as good as stolen, and in the case of stolen goods title cannot subsequently be legally passed.

See Shogun Finance v Hudson 2003 for an example of the above scenario.

You need to seek legal advice quickly.

standupguy

Do you know the type of Finance the seller took out?

If it was a lease then you have no title in the car and the Finance company will be able to recover it.

However if it was a hp agreement AND you were unaware of the Finance outstanding at the time of sale then you will be classed as "an innocent purchaser" under the Consumer Credit Act and proper title will have passed to you and therefore now your property.

You could assume it is a hp agreement unless and until the Finance company can prove otherwise by way of showing you a copy of the original document.

Simply call the Finance Company and tell them that you were unaware of the Finance outstanding and therefore you are regarded as an " innocent purchaser" under the CCA Act. You are aware you have proper legal title and get them to confirm that they have stopped recovery action.

Morglin

standupguy wrote: »

Do you know the type of Finance the seller took out?

If it was a lease then you have no title in the car and the Finance company will be able to recover it.

However if it was a hp agreement AND you were unaware of the Finance outstanding at the time of sale then you will be classed as "an innocent purchaser" under the Consumer Credit Act and proper title will have passed to you and therefore now your property.

You could assume it is a hp agreement unless and until the Finance company can prove otherwise by way of showing you a copy of the original document.

Simply call the Finance Company and tell them that you were unaware of the Finance outstanding and therefore you are regarded as an " innocent purchaser" under the CCA Act. You are aware you have proper legal title and get them to confirm that they have stopped recovery action.

I have heard of problems with this, as it doesn't always apply - the best thing the purchaser can do is to get some professional legal advice.

Lin

hamza_villa

Thanks guys

i did a text hpi check which cost £2.50, but there was no mention of outstanding finance, it just said it was not subject to a total loss claim by insurers.

I totally understand that its my own fault for not doing a full hpi check. Which may become a strong factor in the overall outcome. I just need to know if anyone has been in the same situation and has come out successful and what i need to do

hamza_villa

(you appeared to be attracted by the 'very reasonable price' which to others could have aroused suspicion).

The car is an audi s3 which was at the time marketing at around 28k.. the guy told me he was emigrating due to a death in the family and needed to sell it within the next couple of days hence the low asking price. he made it very convincing. I have since been to the address where i met him and low and behold there are new tennants.

~Brock~

hamza_villa wrote: »

i did a text hpi check which cost £2.50, but there was no mention of outstanding finance, it just said it was not subject to a total loss claim by insurers.

These 'text check' services are a bleedin waste of time because they do not check for outstanding finance, which would be another cost to them from either Experian or HPI. They rely on the innocent private purchaser laws to imply that its not important enough to include in the list of what they check.

I people can be bothered to check a car then they should check for everything in my opinion.

SailorSam

I think i may have told this story before so please excuse me for repeating myself.
I bought a Capri, V reg so that will give you an idea how long ago it was off a guy i worked with.
Several months later i got a phone call from a finance company to say there was a outstanding debt and if i wanted to keep the car i needed to pay it.
The seller had left work but i knew where he lived so went to see him. He said tell them there has been a mistake, you were suppose to pay. He said if i did this he would give me the money each month to make the payments.
I got back onto the finance company and told them what had been said, but emphasised i wasn't responsible but if i received any money would forward it onto them.
Needless to say i never saw 'my mate' or any money, but i never heard from the finance company either. I had the car for several years afterwards.

hamza_villa

interesting story, although the significant factor is the fact that the finance outstanding on my car is £29495 so i doubt very much that i wont be hearing from them again.

How long ago did u buy the capri? lol the fact that its a capri says it all i guess

mrluke

is he still living at the address ?
have you been round there to see what the hell is happening ??? :money: