Previous owner still has finance on my car!

[Scotty2209]

Morning folks,

first things first, i think i should explain the situatuion......

Last august i bought my car from a local dealer, (traded in my old car plus cash to pay for it) everything with it has been fine so far, but now another car has caught my eye and i've decided to get rid of my current car. so, i went to the garage the new car is at, had a look at the new car, liked it, had the owner give me a trade in price for my car, went to the bank to get funds sorted out ready for buying,

now the fun begins........

before taking my car as a trade in the garage owner, quite rightly, did a HPI check on it, turns out there's outstanding finance on it, now i never did a check on my car when i bought it because the dealer i got it from's website says all their cars are HPI checked, so i took this in good faith,

I checked with HPI myself, got the details of the finance company, and went back to the garage i bought my car from, they seemed surprised that the car had finance still on it and said they would get in touch with the finance company and try and sort it out,

so the current situation is, that the garage admitted they never HPI'd the car when it came in or when it was sold to me, and they are trying to sort it out for me, obviously until this is sorted i can't trade in the car, because it's technically not mine to sell, it's still owned by the finance folk,

by the way, i'm in scotland and i know scottish law can sometimes be different, not sure if this is one of those times!

so....... ladies and gentlemen of pistonheads..... where do i stand with this, and what can i do to get things moving along faster??

as always any help or advice greatly appreciated from you guys,

Scotty

[Scotty2209]

markcjd said:

Scotty, big dealer or a small place? The dealer, as mentioned, is liable to you, but you could still end up shafted.

If he is small time or dodgy it is not unheard of for the dealer to simply shut up shop. Where in Scotland are you?

Sorry, should have been more specific when i said dealer, its not a big dealer like an audi or vauxhall dealer, its an independant little garage,

i'm up in aberdeenshire, the garage itself is on the outskirts of aberdeen

the only couple of things i can think of doing to progress things is going to citizens advice or getting a solicitor involved to try and work out where i stand with this and get them to send a letter to make it obvious how serious i am about this?

[Scotty2209]

boy said:

This is a tricky situation since the loan is secured on the chassis number of the vehicle. Even if you find out from hpi which lender it is they might not talk to you re this as you aren't the person who borrowed money against the car. Citizens advice might be the best starting point .

actually the HPI report gave me a heap of info on the finance agreement, who it was with, a contact number for the finance company, the agreement number, the first thing i did was phoned them and they, like you were saying, did ask for the chassis nuumber of the car and confirmed it matched the car the finance is against, it was the guy at the finance company that told me about being able to claim as an "innocent purchaser" he was actually a really helpful bloke! not what i was expecting!

going to citizens advice on monday, and speaking to the garage i got the car from again, and i've got a letter drafted up for the finance company, to be honest if i think the only option i really have is just to keep pushing the garage to sort it out and try and get ownership signed over to me, but i'll just have to wait and see i guess!

once again, thanks for the advice so far guys, at least if anyone is searching the forum in the future if they're in a similar situation theres some helpful stuff for them to read!

[Scotty2209]

skeeterm5 said:

And thats where your mistake is - the op purchased from a DEALER and hence this protection is voided in the original transaction.

S

what about the next point in the hire purchase act?

(3) Where the person to whom the disposition referred to in subsection (1) above is made (the “original purchaser”) is a trade or finance purchaser, then if the person who is the first private purchaser of the motor vehicle after that disposition (the “first private purchaser”) is a purchaser of the vehicle in good faith without notice of the relevant agreement, the disposition of the vehicle to the first private purchaser shall have effect as if the title of the creditor to the vehicle had been vested in the debtor immediately before he disposed of it to the original purchaser.

the first person to buy the car who is a private purchaser (not a motor dealer?) is still covered? probably wrong saying that though!