Buying HPI Clear car with missing Cat S write-off marker

mierzwin

It got me thinking if there are any more cars like that out there? Do you reckon it was single occurance or does it happen more often?

angrycrow

It will be an admin error due to a handler at the insurers forgeting to enter it on miaftr and the cheque authoriser not doing their job and checking it is on miaftr. Dealer would have had no way of knowing. I do hope you let them know.

missile

Seems you did not buy this car and maybe dodged a bullet?

When buying a second hand car you need to examine for accident repair. The absence of a marker on HPI is no guarantee.

mierzwin

So the site to check salvage records for FREE is out there now. 1.5 million listings from last 3 years...

https://www.salvagehistory.co.uk/

angrycrow

Not a very reliable site, just ran the regs of several cars I know were written off in the last 2.5 years and neither showed up. One went to copart and the other to NSA so that's the two biggest salvage agencies that they don't hold records for.

System

mierzwin wrote: »

It got me thinking if there are any more cars like that out there? Do you reckon it was single occurance or does it happen more often?

Cars that have been involved in accidents and not recorded as write offs? Probably a hell of a lot of them especially those covered by third party insurance. They only get recorded as write offs by insurance companies so no claim, no record. I could pile my car into a tree and if I didn't bother claiming on the insurance and sold it through a salvage auction it would still be HPI clear.

angrycrow wrote: »

Not a very reliable site, just ran the regs of several cars I know were written off in the last 2.5 years and neither showed up. One went to copart and the other to NSA so that's the two biggest salvage agencies that they don't hold records for.

Do you know if the owners made a claim?

rockey100

This salvage has cannot be relied on. Too many missing cars so it's not much good yet.

rockey100

If you bought from the dealer and this cat status was not declared at the point of purchase and included on the invoice you have been mis-sold. That means you are entitled to a refund.

Note, not all dealers use hpi these days and you might find a different result from a different provider.
Usually, the inconsistencies with car check services occur via car finance as different service types rely on different finances houses to update records.

If i owned the car I'd certainly return it and demand a full refund. You already know the car is worth less than what you paid.

Act quickly.

Other check services include Carveto and Cazana to name from a bunch.

System

rockey100 wrote: »

If you bought from the dealer and this cat status was not declared at the point of purchase and included on the invoice you have been mis-sold. That means you are entitled to a refund.

If the owner who stuffed it didn't make a claim so it wasn't recorded as a write off and the dealer bought it after it had been repaired they would have no way of knowing so would have sold it in good faith hence no mis-selling.

mierzwin

Tarambor wrote: »

Cars that have been involved in accidents and not recorded as write offs? Probably a hell of a lot of them especially those covered by third party insurance. They only get recorded as write offs by insurance companies so no claim, no record. I could pile my car into a tree and if I didn't bother claiming on the insurance and sold it through a salvage auction it would still be HPI clear

I was more talking about cars which were written off but insurance company “accidentally” did not put it on register with HPI.