Outstanding finance on car

blameyourelf

Wondering if anyone will be able to shed some light on our rights/options here.

Bought a car in August 2010 from Verve (VW dealer in Glasgow) for about £5000. 2005 plate, 2 prev owners, full service history, the car had been bought initially from the same dealer, and then presumably part exchanged a few years later and sold on to someone else (via verve I think) before being part-exchanged again. Then we bought it, outright. Dealer did all the checks etc (or said they did) and because we were buying from a reputable dealer, we didn't do our own detailed checks.

My girlfriend wrote the car off over Christmas. Insurance company has been taking a while over things, and we phoned them today. Apparently a finance company is owed £4800 on the car. The write off value is £4600, and with our £250 excess, that leaves us owing the insurance company/finance company money! Apparently the car had a different, private, registration plate at the time the finance agreement was taken out, although the original registration plate was on it when we bought it, presumably explaining why the finance wasn't picked up when we bought the car. The registration plate fits nicely with the name registered as the previous owner, although oddly the address is c/o the Verve garage.

Presumably there's been fraud somewhere along the line here. We're going to phone the garage/finance company and probably the police tomorrow. From what I understand the dealer has a responsibility to ensure there is no outstanding finance on cars they sell unless they explicitly state that they do. What do you think our chances of having any legs to stand on are here? Are the insurance company obliged to pay the finance company first even if we are the innocent victim; as I understand it they cannot repossess a car that you have bought in good faith and with reasonable research into its history, don't know if the same applies to insurance claims.

Cheers,
Jamie

Hammyman

You have a strong leg to stand on and you're right in the fact that this lands squarely at the feet of the dealership you bought it from.

I would be going and seeing the dealership.

Kilty_2

blameyourelf wrote: »

name registered as the previous owner, although oddly the address is c/o the Verve garage.

FYI the last time I traded a car in and transferred my private plate to a new car, the garage changed the old car to be Mr Kilty C/O XYZ Motordealer Ltd

I assume it makes the paperwork easier at their end for their trade in. What it meant for me is that DVLA didn't know who I was when I phoned to enquire why I hadn't recieved notice of disposing of the vehicle :wall:

Kilty_2

I'd remove the parts of the post that name the dealer BTW in case this gets nasty.

corbyboy

I would say that a fraud has been committed and you are the victim.

I think the garage who sold you this car might be in a lot of trouble.

NeverAgain_2

I would guess the VW dealer has taken the car in p/ex good faith from Mr Private Plate man.

He will - or should - have signed a declaration at the time to say it was free of finance.

It seems daft he would do that and buy another car from the same garage, making him easy to trace.

I wonder if the finance was taken out by the first owner.

corbyboy

NeverAgain wrote: »

I would guess the VW dealer has taken the car in p/ex good faith from Mr Private Plate man.

He will - or should - have signed a declaration at the time to say it was free of finance.

It seems daft he would do that and buy another car from the same garage, making him easy to trace.

I wonder if the finance was taken out by the first owner.

But the car was bought from the same garage when it was brand new. They would have to be totally stupid to not check the finance they originally supplied was not paid off.

harveybobbles

Or its just a clerical error? And the finance company dont have an interest in the car and need to be reminded? Jeez...

thenudeone

You have a very strong case against the Garage.
If you paid even a deposit by credit card then you can always claim directly from the credit card company if the garage goes under or plays difficult.

After having to pay twice for a warranty when the motor dealer went bust before paying the warranty company, whenever buying a car I now
-Obtain a copy of the hpi check done by the garage (or get one myself)
-Get the garage to write "No outstanding finance" or "outstanding finance will be cleared by us" on the receipt (this is essential if you want to claim under hpi's guarantee)
-pay at least £100 deposit by credit card

Unfortunately vigilance and prudence are definitely the name of the game when shelling out thousands of pounds!

Flyboy152

harveybobbles wrote: »

Or its just a clerical error? And the finance company dont have an interest in the car and need to be reminded? Jeez...

This is most likely the case.

However, in the vastly unlikely case, the liability rests with the dealer.

Flyboy152

thenudeone wrote: »

You have a very strong case against the Garage.
If you paid even a deposit by credit card then you can always claim directly from the credit card company if the garage goes under or plays difficult.

After having to pay twice for a warranty when the motor dealer went bust before paying the warranty company, whenever buying a car I now
-Obtain a copy of the hpi check done by the garage (or get one myself)
-Get the garage to write "No outstanding finance" or "outstanding finance will be cleared by us" on the receipt (this is essential if you want to claim under hpi's guarantee)
-pay at least £100 deposit by credit card

Unfortunately vigilance and prudence are definitely the name of the game when shelling out thousands of pounds!

To qualify for a section 75 claim, it doesn't matter how much is paid by credit card.