Selling car with HP Finance

princessjane · 25 January 2012 at 3:17PM

Thought this might be the best place to ask this question... I bought a new car in 2011

and now I want to sell it so I can use the payments to pay out my other debt. The car was bought with a HP finance agreement. I have got a settlement figure and I have also been in touch with the garage that sold me the car to ask if they would buy the vehicle back but they can't.. at the moment. What can I do? Am I legally ok to sell the car or should I be paying off the HP before?

Any help or advise would be appreciated.

TrickyWicky · 25 January 2012 at 3:18PM

HP is a hire agreement meaning the car legally belongs to the garage until you clear off the balance. Therefore I wouldn't sell it.

See if you can borrow the outstanding, pay the garage off and then sell it.

Notmyrealname · 25 January 2012 at 3:41PM

You cannot legally sell the car because it belongs to the finance company. The standard advice for people on this forum looking to buy cars with outstanding finance on them is to run a mile and go find something else. Other than TrickyWicky's advice, if you can find someone to buy the car get them to pay the outstanding amount to the finance company. Get a settlement figure first because you may find its more than you think.

princessjane · 25 January 2012 at 4:21PM

Thanks. Might try again with the garage. We have the settlement figure and the car has held its value well so if we break even we will be more than pleased. So if we did sell the car we can tell the buyer to pay the finance direct themselves and therefore be upfront about it being on HP? Otherwise I suppose its lend the money from someone or borrow by personal loan. thanks for all the answers.

rodenal · 25 January 2012 at 5:48PM

The best way is to find a buyer and pay the car off on a credit card or even better if somebody can loan you the cash - then just use the buyers money to pay that back. You always risk said buyer not coming back but then if the car is priced correctly it won't take long to shift.

hollie.weimeraner · 25 January 2012 at 9:37PM

Of course you can sell the car, there is absolutely no reason why not. What you must do though is pay of the loan with the proceeds. If the buyer has anything about them they will carry out an HPI check prior to purchase which will show outstanding finance on the vehicle. there is no reason why they can't pay the finance off and let you have the balance as full payment.