Car Repossed Help

[tony wright]

Daughter bought a second hand car last July and bailiffs have just turned up and taken it away as it has outstanding finance on it. Guy we bought it off lives a couple of miles away and seemed very genuine, he bought it to get back and forward to work for a few weeks while his car awaited parts that were on back order ( Audi S6). We did a typical phone check at the time and nothing came up on it, i.e. no cat C, finance, milage okay etc. Car was only eleven hundred pounds so didn't seem worth doing a proper hip check. Does she have any comeback with last owner or telephone text check or any other way, or is she screwed? Car is also a lot better now than when she bought it, full MOT new discs and pads as well as tyres.

Worst part is she is due her first baby in 4 weeks time and really could do without the stress as obviously she is very upset..

Edited to say it seems like a loan was taken out with one of those high street lenders (money, something) and the car used as collateral.

Edited by tony wright on Thursday 11th February 16:47

[tony wright]

Daughter bought a second hand car last July and bailiffs have just turned up and taken it away as it has outstanding finance on it. Guy we bought it off lives a couple of miles away and seemed very genuine, he bought it to get back and forward to work for a few weeks while his car awaited parts that were on back order ( Audi S6). We did a typical phone check at the time and nothing came up on it, i.e. no cat C, finance, milage okay etc. Car was only eleven hundred pounds so didn't seem worth doing a proper hip check. Does she have any comeback with last owner or telephone text check or any other way, or is she screwed? Car is also a lot better now than when she bought it, full MOT new discs and pads as well as tyres.

Worst part is she is due her first baby in 4 weeks time and really could do without the stress as obviously she is very upset..

Edited to say it seems like a loan was taken out with one of those high street lenders (money, something) and the car used as collateral.

Edited by tony wright on Thursday 11th February 16:53

[tony wright]

Getting worse by the second. She didn't reiceve any paperwork from him as he opened the letter on his I pad and then asked for her email so he could send it to her. She now can't open the e mail so has no details at all on the car and where it's gone and only has his name after handing over the keys.

[tony wright]

They managed to open the attachment on their standalone as wouldn't open on the pad. Its six pages long and looks legit. They are on their way round to the police station now on return they are going to contact the phone text checker as it was checked using my Wife's phone but she has replaced that with two new ones since then. I'll have to wait for their return to get the info on balifs and finance company. Hope there is some come back on the bailiffs as she was pretty upset and told them her husband would be home in ten minutes but they refused to wait. I spoke to them on the phone but other than getting her to check their ID and take pictures of the V5 (which she also handed over) I didn't know what to do (I live 15 min's away).

[tony wright]

Just got off the phone to the police. Didn't want anything to do with it, civil matter contact CAB or a solicitor as it's buyer beware. I told them a phone text showed up nothing but they suggested that it would necessarily show up via that system and anything other than full hpi was the only way to do it. I didn't do a full hpi as I assumed phone text was enough and car was only eleven hundred pounds.

[tony wright]

Spoke to the finance company (mobile money) and apparently the debt was from 2014 (Clair Freeman) so nothing to do with the guy we bought it off. I asked if they could give the details of this Woman so at least we could look towards small claims in the future but they refused due to data protection (DVLA happy to give them my daughters info though). They also said it had changed hands a few times since then so if that's the case why couldn't DVLA warn or advise people of the issue and why issue the V5 if the car won't belong to them. Apparently the only way out of it, is to make them an offer to buy car back as it's now their asset, but they wouldn't give me any idea of a figure. Going to see cab tomorrow but not holding my breath as it looks like she's stumped.

Any advice for my visit to CAB in the morning would be gratefully received.

[tony wright]

JacquesMesrine said:

Is there some trap that we're not falling into with the £1100 cost of the car? You've mentioned it several times, often prefaced with "only". If it was "only eleven hundred pounds", then why bother, just buy another one that's "only eleven hundred pounds"?

The issue was £15 hpi check on the car, we looked at several cars before buying this one and paid £3 a car to check via phone text (some cat C/D) imagine if it had been £15 a shot, obviously hind sight is a wonderful thing but that was the reason behind stating the price. Eleven hundred pounds is a lot to my Daughter.

[tony wright]

Point I'm making is we did check each car first but it was only £3 a text check (waste of money now) but if we had checked each car at £15 her £1100 wouldn't of gotten very far. Anyway point taken it won't happen again.

[tony wright]

Jasandjules said:

You can potentially issue a small claim for the value of the car against the finance company. I'd send them a letter giving 48 hours to return it to you then MCOL time.

The guy we bought car from had the V5 and we completed it in his house. He had not changed the previous owner as he only intended keeping it for a short while (sounds a bit dodgy now). V5 arrived in the last few weeks (bought car last July) but did speak to the DVLA several times and told give it a little longer. They confirmed sending out new V5 six weeks after requesting it (never arrived). Then same process all over again with replacement V5, guess what... that didn't arrive either, back on phone and third one turned up within a week.

After spending the last hour googling the problem it looks like she may be stuffed. There were several stories on CAB trying to get the law changed but no real results of any success. Would the finance company be leaf ally bound to tell me the outstanding finance on car? I ask because they said it's up to me to make an offer and suggested checking similar prices via Autotrader etc, but what if the debt is only 2 or 3 hundred pounds, they then scam me for treble that or more?

Would like to know more on above but no idea what MCOL time stands for. Okay forget that I've now googled it and know what it means.

Edited by tony wright on Thursday 11th February 20:23

[tony wright]

herewego said:

I don't know why you'd text check several cars, surely you'd look at several, make your mind up and do an HPI check after deciding to buy. I also believe log book loans don't show up anyway. The key is the log book loan company retain the V5C so if the seller only has a copy don't buy it.

We checked several cars before we even drove to view (at least two had cat C against them) as seller didn't mention issues (local free ads and Gumtree). Other instance would be viewing this car then hpi checking it at your happy with it but it now shows up with the marker so you now move on again but £15 out of pocket. Before you know it your eleven hundred pounds has dwindled due to all the checks.

[tony wright]

JacquesMesrine said:

Wow, you've had some bad luck in the last year

Just this week you found a stolen scooter being advertised for sale, without the docs
Your nephew got done for speeding in 50 limit roadworks at 57 amd 58 a week apart
Your sons car insuracme rockets for no good reason
Your daughter has her crashed into in a car park then the guy does a runner

And so on.

Blimey, some life you lead

Really no idea what it has to do with anything other than I assume it must be past your bedtime.

[tony wright]

herewego said:

I don't know why you'd text check several cars, surely you'd look at several, make your mind up and do an HPI check after deciding to buy. I also believe log book loans don't show up anyway. The key is the log book loan company retain the V5C so if the seller only has a copy don't buy it.

Interested in this as the present V5 is not a copy and is in my daughters name, finance company said the car had changed hands several times since 2014. Just my Daughters bad luck to get stung with it.

[tony wright]

Okay, looks like she is knackered. I'll contact CAB as well as a local solicitor in the morning and see where we go from there. Thanks to all those that helped and won't respond to the others.

[tony wright]

Thanks for the information. I suppose it would be a futile quest, if she had to go to an outfit like that the chance of recovering anything from her would more than likely be nil. I'm still trying to get my head around the finance company telling me there had been several different owners since 2014, but only now, nearly two years later have they managed to re claim the car from my Daughter.

[tony wright]

Quick question. Turns out the guy my Daughter bought the car from (3 miles away) did actually register the car in his name and is the last registered keeper albeit only for three weeks. We also have the paperwork he produced at the time and this includes a current valuation (at the time) as well as a NICB (National Insurance Crime Bureau) VIN check. So could we look at recovering costs from him and then he can chase the girl who took out the loan in the first place? I know it sounds a bit jack but presently only concerned about my Daughter.

Edited to include Reg No NH07HHL

[tony wright]

AutoClouseau said:

Tony, have sent you a message.

Brilliant Jonathan, thank you very much for your assistance it was really appreciated. I'll keep you updated.

[tony wright]

I'll ring finance company on Monday (there waiting till then before they proceed) and make a cheeky offer. I'll mention parts but imagine they will fob her off. She (make that me) have replaced the front discs and pads as well as a new battery and I suppose we could include a new front reg plate as old one was broken. Once again, thank you all for the assistance.