Buyer has paid finance off but disappeared

[EnthusiastOwned]

How bizarre,

It does happen though. I took a £300 deposit on a car many many moons ago, then the guy just vanished. He didn't reply to any form of communication so I eventually sold the car on after a few months.

Personally though £15k paid off on finance, I'd be waiting months rather than weeks.

[nitrodave]

i'd give it a couple of months at least. £15k is a massive amount to forget about.

if you don't hear from him he's either dead or in jail.

[blongs]

kevinpiper said:

The finance company have clarified with me that the money has cleared, he paid via chaps. I have a letter stating that nothing is owing and my direct debit has been stopped by the finance company.

All a bit strange but appears above board.

I'll give him some time. annoying but hey, i'm not paying any finance charges now! Every cloud and all that.

This is how it would appear if they have used some stolen internet banking credentials though, if the bank fraud team later look into it the finance company will probably send the money back to the bank/original owner and re-instate the debt on the car.

[AndrewEH1]

If there is no contact in a couple of months might be worth taking to the Police.

They may be able to trace the buyer? Especially if the £15k was stolen.

[toerag]

nitrodave said:

i'd give it a couple of months at least. £15k is a massive amount to forget about.

if you don't hear from him he's either dead or in jail.

in jail for killing the last person who sold a car he had part paid for

[Fidgits]

As others have said, hang on for another week or two, if he doesn't reply/answer, send him a message to say you are going to readvertise the car, and if it sells before he contacts you again, you will put the £15k into savings/escrow to return it to him.

and the good news is, if you do advertise it, its now clear of finance... just ensure you dont touch that £15k for at least 6 months!

[Sy1441]

I recently managed a group of 8 jewellers where we sold predominantly higher end pre-owned items (Rolex, Omega, Patek watches along with Diamond Jewellery) and we offered a scheme where a customer could pay anything from a 20% deposit to reserve the item and pay the remainder within 6 months and collect it when it was paid in full. The amount of people who would pay a £1k/£2k deposit and vanish never to be see was astounding.

[regprentice]

Accidental overpayment is a fairly common scam. An example I remember reading about had someone sell a saab to a punter in norway.. they 'accidentally' over paid and asked the overpayment be wired back to their personal account.looked legit,cash in the bank, turned out the original payment had been paid fraudulently and the aim of the game was to obtain the refund only.

Do you have an address for him? After a reasonable period (say 30 days) i would write to him recorded delivery and advise him that you will be charging interest on the 7k for the inconvenience of being unable to complete the sale. As you have now entered into a contract you are effectively granting him £7k credit.

He may simply not be getting your texts (happens to my wife a lot for no apparent reason). If he's brown bread the executing solicitor should work out what's going on and will be in contact... but could be a few months.

It will be reasonable for you to give notice to complete the sale and then move on as long as you can show you have been reasonable and tried to contact him. The car will be ageing and possibly adding miles while you wait and in the end he might want cash knocked off the price to compensate for this.(despite it being his fault).

My old boss used to get pissed on mcewans export and the book holidays on the net without remembering. Could be the same here though i doubt it as paying the finance is a fairly complicated and deliberate act.

[GC8]

ging84 said:

The interesting thing here would be who ends up being scammed, you or the finance company, i guess they still could have a claim on the car, which would effect the current owner, so perhaps the scam is to temporarily clear the finance, so they can sell it to someone else before it all catches up

They have no claim on the car. That is pub myth perpetuated by HPI adverts. The OP would be liable if the finance wasnt paid. If the finance company said that it was and then discovered fraud, I would expect that a court would have to settle the matter.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

It does happen.....
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=21&...

[Du1point8]

hora said:

A. You shouldnt drive it. Its not yours and you shouldnt readvertise either. Why would you? If somethings happened- accident. How st would you look as a human being? IMO if someones paid for a car. You STOP driving it immediately. Forget the V5. Its merely in your name/not proof of ownership.

But they haven't paid for it yet... they have put a very large deposit on the car and not finished the transaction, I would say the OP can still use it (long as its not a huge 2000 mile tour of Europe) and keep trying for 2 weeks before saying that they will readvertise it and then put the £15k in an account for refund when he does contact them again... if he ever does, as long as OP doesn't spend it.

[MondeoMan1981]

I would wait a while.....The source of funds repaying the finance may not be legit and clawed back later, some kind of scam?

[crossy67]

Another scenario for you.

OP gets board of waiting, sells the car then original buyer turns up wanting his 15k back. OP gives a refund, a month later someone somewhere discoveres 15k has been removed from their account, gets in touch with the finance co who issue a refund then ask the OP for the 15k he held onto and gave back to the original buyer/scammer.

I should have been an evil genius.

[GC8]

The finance company are responsible for their own affairs, I think. If they arent dilligent enough to protect their interests then they cannot expect their customer to bear the responsibility for their loss.

[Du1point8]

crossy67 said:

Another scenario for you.

OP gets board of waiting, sells the car then original buyer turns up wanting his 15k back. OP gives a refund, a month later someone somewhere discoveres 15k has been removed from their account, gets in touch with the finance co who issue a refund then ask the OP for the 15k he held onto and gave back to the original buyer/scammer.

I should have been an evil genius.

Very easy to stop.

You only send the £15k of funds back to the account it was sent from and no other, then no one has lost out and OP is safe, but its the finance company on the hook for it now and Im sure they have due dilligance that doesn't leave them open, or would hope so.

[Thankyou4calling]

I don't think this happened.

[wildcat45]

I would flag this to the finance company ASAP. Call them, ask for their fraud department and talk to them.

They'll probably have experience of this and know the procedure you should adopt - not using the car, keeping the cash safe etc. It may not be a scam, it may be more common than you think as the chap said about the second hand Rolex watches.

Either way you have flagged it up early if there does turn out to be a problem. They will also be able to investigate it, contact his bank and the like .

Afterall it could be them getting scammed too.

As I see it, this is a pain as it is an incomplete deal. Again perhaps a bit of legal advice is in order about how long to wait before selling, and if you didn't sell, charges for your time and hassle. Cars are big things just to have hanging round, taking up space in your garage on your drive, costing to insure, tax and stopping you moving on.

[Wacky Racer]

Thankyou4calling said:

I don't think this happened.

Are you saying the OP has made this up? The thought did cross my mind too, but apologies to the OP if this is not the case...just seems rather strange.

Personally, I would still keep putting the amount you were paying away in a pot at home, that way you are no worse off...(you still have use of the car), in case things go tits up, and if they don't you have a nice little sum to spend as you wish.

[Thankyou4calling]

Wacky Racer said:

Are you saying the OP has made this up? The thought did cross my mind too, but apologies to the OP if this is not the case...just seems rather strange.

Personally, I would still keep putting the amount you were paying away in a pot at home, that way you are no worse off...(you still have use of the car), in case things go tits up, and if they don't you have a nice little sum to spend as you wish.

PH gets lots of time wasters. They get advice, some good and some not so. The thread lumbers on until the penny drops that the OP has long since dissapeared leaving the contributors to argue amongst themselves over a situation that is fictitious.

Is this? I don't know. A new member posting on an extremely unusual circumstance and we've heard nothing from them for a couple of days.

Perhaps he is spending the £15,000 and driving around in his car.

I would be and I definitely wouldn't be telling a public forum I'd never been on but I could be wildly wrong.

[feef]

If it had been paid off in cash, then I'd suggest he might have been doing some laundering, but with a CHAPS payment, I'm not so sure.

All sounds very odd.