Bought a car with finance on it...

Dmahmood

Okay Im not sure if this is the right place to post this so if its not the right place i apologize (and would be grateful if somebody could point me in the right direction).


Okay here goes: approximately three- four years ago I bought a car from a salvage company that dealt in insurance write offs. The car was a BMW 7 series that was a Cat D (it had been hit on the front end and had some suspension damage). When I bought the car I didnt do a hpi check ..(obviously thinking it wasnt necessary since I knew the car was accident damaged). And was told that that was the only thing on the hpi check. Since then I have had the car professionaly repaired and it looks and drives perfectly.

I must say that in the three years that i had it i did do a hpi check once but it only showed the fact that it was a Cat D write off and nothing else (i dont have a copy of this as it was done for free at a car show and i cant remember the name of the company that did it).

I tried to sell the car before xmas but didnt have much luck (I had a couple of buyers who did a hpi and were put off by the cat d thing (nothing came up as finance owing on it) . I have just done my own hpi and it comes up as theres finance owing on the car to BMW which is strange because in the three years that ive owned it i have taken it to bmw many times and they have never said anything.

Basically what id like to know is that even after three-four years am i covered by any buyers rights from the dealer who i bought the car off?? could i potentially get a refund or something?? or get him to sort it out?

Would appreciate any help on this subject ......

Thanks

deltic_2

I will have to check this more thoroughly, but i beleive that...

When a car is written off it can no longer be held as security against the loan. Therefore at that point any outstanding debt after the insurance settlement is assumed by the then owner as an unsecured debt.

anewman

And as for buyers not being interested, you'll have to reduce the price. The car might be perfect now, but no doubt when you got it you got it relatively cheapish due to being a write-off - the buyer of your car will expect the same unfortunately.

Conor_3

Your local dealer isn't going to check if there's finance on it. That's to do with BMW Finance and nothing to do with the dealership.

If there's outstanding finance on the car, you don't actually own it and they can come and repossess the vehicle at any time. I think I'd be making an anonymous phone call to BMW Finance along the lines of you're thinking of buying the car but it shows finance outstanding and can they confirm this.

Wig

Logically any car that is written off becomes the sole property of the insurer to dispose of as they see fit. I suggest you query your hpi result with the hpi company that gave it to you.

movilogo

Might be just the HPI data was wrong! The way authorities are losing data, if you wait for few months, you might yourself get the disk one day.

LandyAndy

In 1985 I bought (coincidentally) a BMW from a local trader. About six months later I received a letter from a finance company informing me they were the owners under a finance agreement. I went back to the trader and he advised me to write to the finance house explaining that I had bought the car in good faith. I did this and they wrote back formally giving me title to the vehicle.

h901

if it was a write off
the insurance company paid the owners for the car when they took it off them (paid the finance company probably)
then the car is property of the insurance company
the insurance company sold the car to the car salvage place where you bought it from therefore you are currently the owner