HI, we are about to go and buy a second hand car, which is only a year old and will cost quite a bit of money (for us anyway!).  This is the first time we have bought an expensive one and someone has mentioned to us today that there could be outstanding finance on it.  This hadn't even occurred to us.  I know (searched just now) that you can pay for a check to be done on the car, but as we are going on Saturday to see/buy the car we won't get results back in time.  Is there any other way we can find out or get round this problem?  Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

Fiona

Try going to a good reputable main dealer with the details, reg etc of the car and for a fee the may[b/] HPI it for you. long shot but worth a try

If it is only a year old I guess ther is a good chance that you are buying from a garage? If so make it part of the deal that they HPI check it for you. Otherwise use comonsense, a lot of cars that are sold at a year old, especially if they are 'family' cars are exhire cars or exmain dealers. If any of these there is a good chance that they will not have finance on, if on the other hand an individual or a company you have never heard of is on the log book then I would suggest agreeing the deal subject to HPI check. 

Thanks for your help.  It is actually a private sale from an individual and the trouble is that we have kept the seller waiting while we organised our finances and we have a 2.5 - 3 hour drive to see/buy the car, so we really need to find out before we go.  A friend has just rung us and told us that we may be able to get a check done by  phone tomorrow so will try that.  Thanks again

Fiona

you can do it by phone or online from this website and you get the results straight away. [url]http://www.hpicheck.com[/url]

It will help if you obtain the chassis no, milage, as well as the licence plate number ,then those doing the HPI check can do a full search.
Did one for my son doing exactly the same as you purchasing privately and it came back the car was a right off, saved my son thousands and the car was advertised and on display on the public highway.

Bazza

Thanks again everyone.  We phoned the AA for a HPI check - they told us there is outstanding Finance (which in itself isn't necessarily a problem) but they can't tell us until Tuesday (being Bank Holiday) how much.  If it is more than we are paying - I suspect it might be as their loan was for five years and they have only paid one year off,- then we have got problems.  Another problem is that we had a bankers draft drawn up for them and now we have been recommended to have this drawn up for their Finance company, so we know it is definitely paid off.  (Yet more costs for car we haven't got yet).  I am now waiting for the seller to fax/email a copy of his Finance statement so we can go from there.

Narrow escape for your son Bazza!

I must admit I never even gave outstanding finance a thought before yesterday.  We have a car we want to sell that we were going to settle the finance on when we sold it - might not be as easy as I thought now!

Thanks again.

Fiona

If the car has outstanding finance on it then DONT touch it with a barge pole. You have no guarantee the the seller will pay it off, and I suspect that in law it is actually not his to sell until the debt is fully paid by the person who took it out.
The vehicle is, if you read the agreement, belonging to the finance company whilst the debt is outstanding,
and not the owners, and have no right to sell it. However there may be a case to purchase the vehicle from the finance company for the outstanding debt.

But as there is such a wide choice of cars why risk hard earned cash on a dodgy deal.
if the bankers draft is not used i would suggest talking to the bank manager, explain the position and see if the draft can be made null and void. I suspect the bank manager will be sympathic.

However if you purchase for cash a vehicle from a dealer, and subsequently find out the vehicle has an outstanding debt on it, then and only then you can invoke " The Hire Purchase Finance Protection Act" which basically states that if if purchased, as I said before, for cash from a dealer and you have a Bill of Sale then the finance company has to try and recover the money from the dealer or the person who incurred the debt in the first place and not from the new owner. this also applies to any purchase for any product bought under the same conditions. BUT NOT ON A PRIVATE PURCHASE

Bazza

If the car has outstanding finance on it then DONT touch it with a barge pole. You have no guarantee the the seller will pay it off, and I suspect that in law it is actually not his to sell until the debt is fully paid by the person who took it out.
The vehicle is, if you read the agreement, belonging to the finance company whilst the debt is outstanding,
and not the owners, and have no right to sell it. However there may be a case to purchase the vehicle from the finance company for the outstanding debt.

But as there is such a wide choice of cars why risk hard earned cash on a dodgy deal.
if the bankers draft is not used i would suggest talking to the bank manager, explain the position and see if the draft can be made null and void. I suspect the bank manager will be sympathic.

However if you purchase for cash a vehicle from a dealer, and subsequently find out the vehicle has an outstanding debt on it, then and only then you can invoke " The Hire Purchase Finance Protection Act" which basically states that if purchased, as I said before, for cash from a dealer and you have a Bill of Sale then the finance company has to try and recover the money from the dealer or the person who incurred the debt in the first place and not from the new owner. this also applies to any purchase for any product bought under the same conditions. BUT NOT ON A PRIVATE PURCHASE

Fiona I would again suggest you read the agreement on the car you currently own very carefully and you also may find that you will have problems selling your car on to another party, as again it belongs to the Hire purchase company.
A legitimate garage may have the facilities to have your car and pay off the outstanding debt you owe but you will get little or nothing  in cash in your pocket. The dealer will get his money back when he sells it on usually for a profit depending on age -debt-condition etc if you can find one willing to do it.
Bazza

Just had a thought (oops thats hard).

have you given thought to taking out a personal loan to pay off your Hire Purchase Company? that way the car will be fully and completely owned by yourself to do whatever you want with. So my thoughts are , look at this option- take out personal loan (often cheaper than HP debt)- pay off the HP debt- sell the car- pay off the personal loan- then purchase a car without Hp owing on it.

Good thinking or what? Must be an Easter thing.

Bazza

Fiona
          The place to check car value is  "  www.glass.co.uk".        This is the same as the dealers use when valueing a car not parkers or mag car guides. The cost is I believe £2.50 + vat but gives the most accurate car valuation.

About the car you were looking at. My Guess is the seller is desperate to get rid of the car to the first mug daft enough to buy it. Remember anyone that does not only loses the money but the HP company will recover the vehicle as well so you loose that  cash twice. Don't forget the outstanding loan will be more than the value of the car, due to the cars depreciation I suspect.

hope the above is of some help

Bazza

Hi Bazza,
I've read some of your postings preetttty goooood on the old legal stuff what!!

Yes on this subject in any case, and the reason why? yrs ago I bought a car from a dealer, that unknown to me it had outstanding HP owing on it, but with some connections I had at the time, when they came to repossess the car I quoted that act and they never returned. So I don't mind passing on my experience to help others.

Bazza  

Bazza thanks alot for your help.  Unfortunately I didn't see your messages until we returned home tonight (with the car!!).  I will let you all know in a week or so (hopefully) whether it was a mistake.  However  I will explain the reasons we went ahead and  bought it (after alot of thought).  We got a HPI check done - a quick one over the phone - that told us there was outstanding credit so I emailed the man selling the car and asked him whether there was and he said there was.  He gave me the name of the finance company and his account number.  The HPI people would tell us no more than that credit was outstanding - which I thought was a bit of a rip off - they said they could do more by Tuesday, but I actually got them to ring the Finance company today and they still told me nothing more.  So I decided to ring the Finance company myself.  The lady I spoke to said although you need to be cautious, alot of people are in the same position - can't pay off their finance until they have sold the car (we are ourselves).  She said the account number was correct and the amount he had told me was outstanding was correct, so he did seem on the level.  Finally she told me (obvioulsy don't have this in writing), that they would chase their client for the debt, not us.  I hope the seller is honest - he seemed like a decent guy but of course you can't tell.  We went to his home - 3 hour drive both ways.

Thanks for all your help - I am worried now though, so I will let you know when I know for sure - he said he will post copies of the settled account to us.

Fiona