Used Car deposit paid but found outstanding finance

ForexRay

Hello,

Today I went to a dealership and found a nice car. I was advised that all the paper work are on order and the car is HPI clear etc. I paid the deposit and hoping to receive the car in the next few days. I came home and it suddenly occurred to me that I forgot to do HPI check personally myself and I did HPI check. To my shock and horror; HPI report says there is outstanding finance on the car.

It says Outstanding Finance = Yes and type is PCP.
What are my options now? The vehicle contract says deposit is nonrefundable.
Any help or advise please?

waamo

This gets asked pretty regularly on this forum. Here are early answers https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5935705/outstanding-finace-paid-deposit&highlight=car+dealer+outstanding+finance

ForexRay

waamo wrote: »

This gets asked pretty regularly on this forum. Here are early answers https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5935705/outstanding-finace-paid-deposit&highlight=car+dealer+outstanding+finance

Thanks for the info. The link talks about stock financing. But my hpi report is not saying stock financing; it says PCP finance. So different situation?

waamo

ForexRay wrote: »

Thanks for the info. The link talks about stock financing. But my hpi report is not saying stock financing; it says PCP finance. So different situation?

Check out post 11 in that thread and some subsequent comments. HP and other finance options are discussed. Hopefully it should cover your situation.

ForexRay

Hello all,

I tried calling the finance company this morning to find out whether there is any outstanding finance and whether they have interest to claim on it. They wouldn't talk to me as i'm not the agreement holder nor the dealer. I will be speaking with the dealership about this. But is there any other alternative to speak with finance company to find out whether they still have interest to claim on the car?

gettingtheresometime

It depends on how long the dealership have had the car and, to be fair, how on the ball their accounts department is.


I used to work in a car dealership accounts department and it may be that the paperwork from the finance company hasn't reached the accounts dept (via the salesman) or even the payment hasn't been processed yet by the finance company.


sometimes we'd get former owners ring up saying that they'd been contacted by the finance company because a payment has been missed due to the fact they'd cancelled the dd under the assumption the finance had been cleared by us.


Tbh what I would do in your situation is to give the car dealewrship a ring tell them what you've found out and take it from there

ForexRay

OK. I found further information after spending additional £30. Here is an update:

I called up Finance company once again and mentioned that I'm interested in buying the Car and HPI report says there is outstanding finance on it and gave the agreement number and last 4 digits of VIN number.

Finance company was happy to check that and they advised there is no outstanding finance and no further financial interest in the above vehicle. I got a letter sent through to my email from finance company as well. So that's great news.

I then requested whether the finance company has not updated the HPI report yet. They checked and advised HPI is clear and updated. So I thought it must be the HPI provider check that I used must be the problem. I used totalcarcheck and paid 8.99 for the first check that showed outstanding finance.

So this time I used hpicheck website and I paid 19.99 + 2.99 and HPI check there shows all clear!

So information was not updated on totalcarcheck website which is a shame and gave me unnecessary hassle. So for now I'm happy to resolve these and will be happy to settle and pick up my car soon.
Another life lesson experienced now.

ForexRay

More update:
I got an email back from totalcarcheck and they advised there are 3 finance registers in the UK and the finance company may have not updated all the 3 finance registers. So finance company has updated one register which shows HPI clear on hpicheck website but totalcarcheck and others might still show outstanding finance.

I'm happy that I got a letter from Finance company that they have no further financial interest in the vehicle. I will probably call the dealership and ask them to get in touch with finance company and request them to update all 3 finance registers which I doubt they will bother to do it... anyway...