HPI checks, are they ever wrong?

[J500ANT]

I've been looking to buy a particular car. I've viewed it, I know (of) the owner and have no reason to doubt anything he has said to me.

But the HPI check i've done only shows one previous owner, it doesn't appear to have registered the current owner.
Year manufactured 2003 Current keeper acquired on 04-Jun-2006 Date of first registration in the UK 18-Sep-2003 Number of keepers before current keeper 1.
The V5C I have seen shows 2 previous keepers with the seller acquiring the car in 2009 iirc, so that bit is incorrect. Also, "The V5 registration document issue date does not match the information provided by the DVLA" which is consistent with the "missing" keeper not being known by the DVLA.

What's my next course of action? I'm going to ring the DVLA tomorrow and see what they have to say.

[nsmith1180]

Have you checked the VIN on the HPI against the car?

Sometimes if there is a private plate involved at a point in the cars ownership it can confuse HPI

[J500ANT]

nsmith1180 said:

Have you checked the VIN on the HPI against the car?

Sometimes if there is a private plate involved at a point in the cars ownership it can confuse HPI

To be honest, I didn't physically check the V5C vin with the car. It does tally with the service book, and all the other documents with the car, I was planning to physically check it before paying monies over.

No private plate involved.

My hunch is the DVLA haven't told HPI that there was a change of ownership to the current owner/seller.

Deep joy.

[updated] Seller has a copy of previous V5C, if I put the issue date of that document in I get the all clear. I'm guessing DVLA didn't tell HPI of an owner change.

Edited by J500ANT on Thursday 8th July 23:26

[J500ANT]

All cleared - HPI blame DVLA for duff info.

[Alex]

J500ANT said:

All cleared - HPI blame DVLA for duff info.

No there's a surprise.

[DamianBPhoto]

J500ANT said:

All cleared - HPI blame DVLA for duff info.

How did you find that one out? Manage to claim back you £3?

[nsmith1180]

Alex said:

J500ANT said:

All cleared - HPI blame DVLA for duff info.

No there's a surprise.

It does happen, I think Swansea send HPI and Experian a data packet once a month or something. With that many lines of data, how easy is it for one or two to pick up a bug?