advice please!

spanspoon

hi

i bought a car last month, i traveled home yesterday to find the police outside my house and they told me the car had been reported stolen.

they let me keep the car.

basically i bought the car from a dealer who had bought the car a week earlier at auction and the auction house is now in liquidation. the dealer paid the auction house for the car and i paid the dealer. the problem lies with the original owner who did not receive payment from the auction house.

does anyone know:

where i stand in keeping the car?
would the car be classed as stolen or would it be a civil debt?
who is most likely to end up out of pocket?
is it worth speaking to my insurance company to take legal advice and if i did this would it affect no claims etc?

any help would be greatly appreciated!

poppasmurf_bewdley

Most auction houses offer a package (either included in the price or for about £20) which indemnifies the purchaser from just such a thing as happened to you. Whether the auction house itself going into liquidation make a difference depends on if the warranty is with the auction house or a separate company.

It could be, of course, that the garage you bought the car from didn't take out such an indemnity, in which case they will have to take the loss. You should be covered as you bought the car from a garage - so long as the garage remains solvent.

Ebe_Scrooge

Unfortunately if the car is stolen you will usually be out of pocket. That's the harsh reality, which is where the value of an HPI check comes in.

However, I would think you have a claim against the dealer, much more so than if you'd bought privately. I'd suggest a phone call to the dealer initially, see what they have to say. Then it may be worth calling your insurance company, especially if you have legal cover, they *may* be able to help you chase the dealer if he's not playing ball. I'm sorry, I don't know the legal situation with regards to dealers here, but I would think they have a duty to ensure they are legally entitled to sell the car in the first place - after all, that's why you pay more from a dealer than for a private sale, precisely because you do have more comeback.

paddedjohn

Dont worry too much about it, the original owner took the car freely to auction so the car cant be stolen, the proceeds from the auction of the car are all they can chase.

spanspoon

well the plot thickens.

the initial owner took the car to a garage and asked them to sell the car.

the garage then sent the car to auction.

the initial owner rang the auction house to say NOT to sell the car but they then 'mistakenly' sold the car!

i've spoke to the police officer in charge of the incident who's said i can keep hold of the car but not to sell it on.

at the moment the officer has no evidence of a crime but is making inquiries into this and for the initiall owner to seek advice from the citizens advice bureau to claim his money back as his insurance obviously won't pay out.

so i am now playing the waiting game but will be straight onto my insurance company tomorrow to seek legal advice.

:mad:

s_b

i wouldnt worry
you have clear title
the original owner will have to take action against the selling garage that auctioned it and the selling garage will have to be a creditor of the auction house
leeds i guess?
i am hearing a few stories of traders in a mess over the auction house going under
i remember the same thing happening 20 years ago when 606 at bradford shut

spanspoon

yep it's an auction house in leeds!

i'm guessing there's gonna be a lot of people in the same situation!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

spanspoon wrote: »

yep it's an auction house in leeds!

i'm guessing there's gonna be a lot of people in the same situation!

i wouldnt worry. easy for me to say though, you have good title to the car, the garage you bought it from had good title to the car, the dispute is between the previous owner and the garage he took it to to auction off, all that lies in your wake is if the investigation takes a long time to resolve by the police you cant part ex or sell private as theres an ownership dispute, whilst out and about be prepared to be pulled quite a bit as the ANPR may flag your car up as stolen.

police officer used his common sense 'discretion' here by letting you have the car in your possetion, what usually happens is they take it away untill investigations are complete you then collect the car.