Should I report this to the police?

DesertIsland

I did an HPI check on a car I wanted to buy and it showed as having outstanding finance on it. The check also returned a reference number and a company name for more information on the financial agreement. I called the company and found out they are debt collectors who own the debt and by extension- the car, as well.

The trade dealer did not declare any of this on the ad and was surprised when I told them on the phone. When I called them later they said the seller does indeed owe money on it, but would pay it back once the car was sold. I said "Yeah, right" and put the phone down.

This is fraud and I'm thinking whether I should not report it to the police- I was clued up enough to do a £15 check, but some other person might end up buying the vehicle only to have it repossessed.

What do you think?

harveybobbles

If you buy a car from a dealer then the problem is theirs. A buyer has protection from this.

If you bought it private then it could indeed be taken off you.

forgotmyname

I think the owner maybe in trouble for selling a car he doesnt own.

Did you tell the company the garage were selling the car or contact the debt collectors?

Maybe they are selling it for the seller, commission only?

Depends on the cars value and balance i guess.

londonTiger

the dealer isnt stupid. they would be fully aware of the outstanding finance when doin the paperwork on the car.

technically a trade sale is safe from outstanding finance issues and the trader has to bear it. but its better to be on the safe side. they might slip the car to you under their personal name rather than their trade name or worse the log book might not even pass through them, so the log book goes from the previous owner directly to the you without going through the dealer.

Which is what happened to me because the dealer literally got the car the same day he sold it to me, (but that's an excetion because the dealer was a family friend).

There;s no reason for a dealer to hold the stance of "i'll pay the debts after selling it", it seems fishy to me,

londonTiger

police arent going to bother with this, firstly these things are civil matters not criminial, but even then no civil breach has been comitted yet.

may want to report him to trading standards, once the complaints reach a certain threshold they'll investigate.

Sgt_Pepper_2

It's common for such cars to have outstanding finance. The dealer clears this upon sale of it.

TrickyWicky

If you're that worried about it, you could buy the car but clear the finance on it yourself with approval from the dealer and finance people.

I'm sure this is pretty common and as others have said its a civil matter not criminal at the moment. Of course if you bought it on the understanding that the debt would be cleared and it then wasn't well that could be fraud. Until that happens though..

Bowling_4_Gold

It's not dis-common for the dealer to settle with the finance company upon sale. This is what happened at my local auctions recently, where a 2009 BMW was being sold. They had permission in writing from the finance company to say they could sell it and that it would be settled upon sale. It was also mentioned that the car could be still showing as 'on finance' for a considerable amount of time even after it had been legitimately settled.

rdwarr

Although it would probably be OK I'd still prefer to buy a car that was 100% HPI clear.