bit of an emergency question - oustanding finance on ebay car?

apprentice_tycoon

My son is planning on buying a car that's listed on ebay, we did the Vehicle Status Report check through ebay and it states that there is outstanding finance on the car (it was bought buy the seller in April) - how bad is this?

We are planning on phoning the seller but I assume he'll say that when the car has been sold he'll use the cash to settle the finance is this all OK, do we walk away from this?

I'd really like help with this soon as my son is planning on veiwing the car this afternoon and it's a long train journey, leaving at 2pm....

skylight

I would walk.

There was a big advertising campaign on TV not so long ago about cars with finance still outstanding on them - your son could lose the car and there is nothing he can do.

The second risk you run relates to finance. Used car buyers risk taking on someone else's debt as many second hand cars have "outstanding finance". Here, a bank or finance company has a legal claim to a car and in some cases they can repossess the car leaving you with nothing
(Taken from BBC website)

bleugh

run!

simple. don't buy it

Bossyboots

Agreed. Run.

Mark_petty

Don't go near it, trust me I know from personal experience. Here is my post I did a while ago about HPI:

I've been going through hell over the last few weeks with bloody hpi.
Basically I bought a car off a friend last year for £6k (cash) being a mate didn't do a hpi check (I know I should have done it) . A year later (now) we try and trade the car in for a bigger one (baby on the way ) as the clio 172 isn't big enough. Was told it has hpi :evil: My mate had it a year we had it a year that leaves 1 year owing.
Did the hpi to confirm and it came up true. Rang mate he said he paid it straight away which I don't believe as I spoke to the finance people and they said he still owes money and that he has been paying monthly.
My so called mate said the finance company will send u confirmation, guess what no letter nothing.
My mate still kept saying that he has a letter to prove it. So I said let me have a copy I waited for the post to arive, no letter. Rang him again he said I should have it. So I said I will come and get it, his reply 'I sent u the only copy'

I have had such a stressful couple of months as 6k is alot to loose also my mrs is expecting the end of the month so had to keep most the stress to myself and to be without a car at such a critcal time would be bad.
Also was doing my full motorbike training, which wasn't good thinking about other things when I should of been concentrating on riding.

Its been going on since end of Jan, lies after lies he kept saying I have rang the finance place and its sorted. So I would ring them and they haven't even heard from him
He basically lied to cover his own back but the lies were so blatent. Here are some examples: he said he has moved house so I drive to his old house to find his car there
I try ringing him, no answer so he txt's me and says sorry I'm driving, I mean how mad was I, he can't answer his phone but he can txt :evil:
I went to his work and asked him to ring them while I was there he said I'm too busy come back in 10 minutes and we will do it. So I go away then when I arrive he says "Just rang them everything is fine" I went mad at him as why couldn't he wait to put our mind at rest

I reckon he told the finance place not to give any of his account details out because at first they told us "They had interest in the car" but recently they say "We are not authorised to give any info"

Basically not worth the stress so pay the £30 and don't buy if it has any owing.

Anyway eventually after a couple of months he seemed to do the right thing and paid the remainder off, he said he would send us a confirmation but havent received anything but did another check and it seems fine now
me and the missus are very happy and we have learnt from our mistake - learn from us

essay over

apprentice_tycoon

Thank you all for your help with this - the seller returned our phone call and seemed genuinely surprised that there was any finance showing on the search (he didn't know which search till my OH explained that it was the one linked on the listing) and my OH had to explain that the buyer would in effect be the new owner of the HP debt too. He said that he needed to speak to someone about this so we got the impression that it wasn't his car and he was selling it for someone else.

Needless to say our son is looking elsewhere but there are over 10 bidders on the car - it closes this evening, so they have either not done the search or are happy to assume that it will be sorted out at the time of the sale, it wasn't a very expensive car at all but it's still money that our son can't afford to lose

Solar1

Please ensure that any car your son buys is subjected to a HPI check. Otherwise he could lose the car and his money.

We had two occasions in the past where we were about to buy cars which still had an outstanding debt on them.

The first was a car the seller was prepared to sell to us for £4500, a great buy until we found that she owed £4750 on the car. The seller insisted that if we brought the car, she would paid the money over to the finance company (of course she would!!!!!!).We said that we would still buy the car if we went to the finance company offices with her and made the payment direct to them ( we would have all the paperwork ready and a receipt for the car and keys etc) She refused and was quite affronted when we then refused to buy the car.

The second case was where the seller told us that he owed £250 on the car ( confirmed by HPI check) . When we brought this car we paid the £250 by cheque to the finance company and the buyer reduced the price of the car by the same amount.

When your son is looking for a car it is also worth phoning the main dealer if the car is four years old or less. If the car has been main dealer serviced which it normally would have been then they will normally have details of the mileage when it was serviced. Thus, if you are buying lets say a 4 year old Volvo which has 20,000 on the clock if at the 3 year servce it had 40,000 miles on the clock beware !! ( Yes been there done that as well !!). The main dealer would likely be able to tell you if the vehicle was ex flleet.

sevlow

Prospective purchasers should allways get an HPI check for cars they purchase, and this is really easy and cheap to do (I think about £13 for 3) if you follow the link on ebay.

But I dont think we should get to fanatical about sellers of cars with outstanding finanace(HPI) - after all, many of us have finance on our cars and car dealers have pefectly good procedures for taking such cars and ensuring that no one gets caught out in the process.

Firstly run the HPI check anf if positive ask the seller how they intended to complete the sale & clear the finance. This should give you a feel about their intentions.

In some cases the seller will be unable to clear the finace because they don't have the funds to do so are are waiting for your cash, before thet clear the debt.

In such cases obtain the finance companies details and give them a call. They will advise you what to do. You could pay the finace company direct and subtract this from the purchase price, then you know that the finance is cleared.

lapat

dont touch it your son will either lose it at some stage back to the finance company or he wont bea ble to sell it on without paying off the debt

all the best with your car hunt

lil_me

We've previously sold a motorbike with finance left on it and used the money to pay off the finance before changing keeper, but always a risk.

mcwarre

sevlow wrote:

But I dont think we should get to fanatical about sellers of cars with outstanding finanace(HPI) - after all, many of us have finance on our cars and car dealers have pefectly good procedures for taking such cars and ensuring that no one gets caught out in the process.

Whilst I agree with your sentiment..... It is generally a buyers market out there. Do NOT take a risk as you will lose against the finance companies. If you want to risk it then it's down to you.

Car dealers have perfectly good procedures agreed; eBayers don't. Avoid a car with any finance still owing on it if getting from ebay. Promises mean nothing when it comes to, potentially, losing both the car and your money............