Bought outstanding finance car

[LEMOJ 0]

Hello Dear Members,

I recently started trading a few months ago not well informed about the outstanding finance cars.

I am in a situation and i need your expert opinion.  I bought a car 07reg  from private seller advertise on gmtree a month ago for the amount 1500 with good faith, eml light on, no mot and rusty arches. I spent about 450 to get it fixed and sold the car for £2400 within 2 weeks. (at that time I did only a basic hpi check if the car is in cat but did not bother to do a complete hpi check about outstanding finance,  MY MISTAKE i know).

Now after a month or so the seller called me and informed me that the car which he sold to me has an outstanding finance about £2000. and he is trying to settle it down with finance company. and he did this because he was broke and some family emergency etc. Now my questions are, WHAT SHALL I DO NOW? and where i legally stand? should i tell the customer I sold car with good faith about this and ask him to return? will the finance company will write to new keeper about outstanding finance? or shall i wait for him to clear the outstanding debt?

 

[EPV 631]

Hop onto eBay for a false moustache and cheap tickets to Paraguay 

[justina3 518]

I would change the last letter of your user name to a N, 

 

 

says me who wears a skirt part time

[Ocsltd 133]

25 minutes ago, EPV said:

Hop onto eBay for a false moustache and cheap tickets to Paraguay 

 

13 minutes ago, justina3 said:

I would change the last letter of your user name to a N, 

 

 

says me who wears a skirt part time

[trade vet 697]

What type of loan  is outstanding.It could be a personal loan from a bank.

[LEMOJ 0]

No it is not a personal loan. Some motor finance company financed it. Thanks 

[trade vet 697]

6 minutes ago, LEMOJ said:

No it is not a personal loan. Some motor finance company financed it. Thanks 

OK...next,get a copy of the finance agreement and the sales invoice. Why...to check that everything matches,cash price,deposit,chassis number ,p/x allowance,reg no’s ,cost of road tax etc.Sometimes there can be mistakes and you could argue that the finance agreement is void.I have done this before where a previous customer has gone somewhere else and got stitched up and asked for help to unwind the deal.

[Screenman 47]

This old guy did not know there were different levels of HPI checks, never to old to learn.

[AutoJacob 34]

You could tell a white lie to the car finance company (after obtaining the finance ref #) and say you bought the car in good faith as a private sale, show reciept and give them a week or so and they should write the finance off the car and pursue him personally.

I have successfully done this a few times.

Hope this helps

Edited March 25, 2018 by AutoJacob

[trade vet 697]

41 minutes ago, AutoJacob said:

You could tell a white lie to the car finance company (after obtaining the finance ref #) and say you bought the car in good faith as a private sale, show reciept and give them a week or so and they should write the finance off the car and pursue him personally.

I have successfully done this a few times.

Hope this helps

Hi AutoJacob

I am struggling to understand.You lie to the finance company and show them a forged receipt.So the finance company goes back to the hirer and who tells them he sold it to the trade who would settle it off.They then establish that you are infact a trader and you have retailed it.Would it not be right to say,you are then in ‘deep shit’.

[AutoJacob 34]

8 minutes ago, trade vet said:

Hi AutoJacob

I am struggling to understand.You lie to the finance company and show them a forged receipt.So the finance company goes back to the hirer and who tells them he sold it to the trade who would settle it off.They then establish that you are infact a trader and you have retailed it.Would it not be right to say,you are then in ‘deep shit’.

What you're saying would mean that the previous owner has an understanding of how outstanding finance works on a vehicle that has been sold (that shouldn't of been sold), also we're assuming that the previous owner knows the difference of selling to a private individual and a trader when it comes to outstanding finance.

It's worth a shot in my opinion, either way if he can't get the finance cleared from the vehicle he will have to refund the customer before it goes to the repossssion stage.

[have a word with the wife 299]

3 minutes ago, AutoJacob said:

What you're saying would mean that the previous owner has an understanding of how outstanding finance works on a vehicle that has been sold (that shouldn't of been sold), also we're assuming that the previous owner knows the difference of selling to a private individual and a trader when it comes to outstanding finance.

It's worth a shot in my opinion, either way if he can't get the finance cleared from the vehicle he will have to refund the customer before it goes to the repossssion stage.

think its called ......fraud ?

[trade vet 697]

8 minutes ago, AutoJacob said:

What you're saying would mean that the previous owner has an understanding of how outstanding finance works on a vehicle that has been sold (that shouldn't of been sold), also we're assuming that the previous owner knows the difference of selling to a private individual and a trader when it comes to outstanding finance.

It's worth a shot in my opinion, either way if he can't get the finance cleared from the vehicle he will have to refund the customer before it goes to the repossssion stage.

The previous owner does not have to settle it off.Unless things have changed,the onus is with the dealer to settle and then pursue the previous owner.When this happened to me,I persued  the previous owner through the court and was awarded £5 per week.However,If the previous owners purchase documentation is flawed,Lemoj might have a chance and the finance company could pursue the supplying dealer for the balance.It could have been a negative equity deal with a warranty,gap and road tax and negative equity loaded onto the selling price.However the VAT sales invoice may not reflect this and the figures may differ from the finance agreement......The previous owner could then claim a void deal because of the flawed paperwork and If successfull,Limoj would be off the hook.

[AutoJacob 34]

9 hours ago, have a word with the wife said:

think its called ......fraud ?

There's worse things happening in the world, some times you can't play by the book - in this case OP made a cock up.

OP also mentioned he has just started trading so may not be a ltd company, vat registered as this may be his first, second or third car that he has sold.

[trade vet 697]

1 hour ago, AutoJacob said:

There's worse things happening in the world, some times you can't play by the book - in this case OP made a cock up.

OP also mentioned he has just started trading so may not be a ltd company, vat registered as this may be his first, second or third car that he has sold.

Limoj is a newbie or amateur and has admitted he has been negligent so he has asked us for help.I am sorry but I don’t think your suggested remedy is the answer as it could create more problems for him.Finance companies often have their own fraud investigation departments so they are used to dealing with this sort of thing.You say he has to refund his customer,surely the customer has good title.Have things changed....

[MattR 177]

Hi Lemoj. We all have lessons to learn, I think the first one is not to trust joe public and ALWAYS hpi or experian check a car. I get the idea from your post that the person who sold you the car is trying to settle the outstanding finance. If so, encourage him to sort it out ASAP. Liase with the finance company to find out when this is done. If it doesnt happen, I think that the responsibility is yours re the outstanding finance. I hope for your sake I am wrong!

[Arfur Dealy 823]

4 hours ago, tradex said:

http://www.lawgistics.co.uk/read-news/1257#sthash.l8gIS3Va.Ni90h1P5.dpbs

 

Worth a read. 

That is exactly why you HPI check the car properly. I mean, lemon says he checked but opted for the cheapest possible option ? it beggars belief you would spend your money on buying a car from scumtree and opt to not protect yourself. A very hard lesson to learn, you’ve opted to be cheap for which you are paying the price. 

[whitestone679231 113]

Lesson number 1 if buying from the public check double check and check again, they are all out to swindle you, sell you a pile of pooh faults and all and say you are fair game because you are a professional. At least if you buy of the trade you have more chance of being treated with a little respect by fellow professionals. 

[trade vet 697]

1 hour ago, whitestone679231 said:

Lesson number 1 if buying from the public check double check and check again, they are all out to swindle you, sell you a pile of pooh faults and all and say you are fair game because you are a professional. At least if you buy of the trade you have more chance of being treated with a little respect by fellow professionals. 

Do you mean like BCA after they have charged you £25 for a AA assured inspection which turns out to be badly flawed.

[BHM 994]

2 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

it beggars belief you would spend your money on buying a car from scumtree and opt to not protect yourself. A very hard lesson to learn, you’ve opted to be cheap for which you are paying the price. 

+1

[trade vet 697]

Hi Limoj

Can you surface please and let the guys know what you intend to do now.

[It's me 612]

37 minutes ago, trade vet said:

Hi Limoj

Can you surface please and let the guys know what you intend to do now.

well ropes on special offer at wickes this week

[MattR 177]

12 minutes ago, s and b said:

well ropes on special offer at wickes this week

I always keep a length of rope in the office drawer. 

[LEMOJ 0]

Thanks to everyone who shared their valuable opinions. This is a indeed a lesson for all of us to be very careful when purchasing or px from people.

At the moment I am just encouraging the guy to settle down his matter with finance company, apparently he assured me that he is in touch with with the finance company and matter will be sorted soon. I have decided to give him a week or so to see how he settles his matter.  fingers crossed

I have taken the details from hpi the finance company name, ref and telephone.

To be honest I am a bit confused  not sure how to sort out, the only thing that comes to mind is to take the car back from the buyer refund him and take legal action against him? 

If you have any better solution to come out of this trouble please let me know? I am not a ltd company and neither vat registered.   I will keep updating you guys.

[trade vet 697]

22 minutes ago, LEMOJ said:

Thanks to everyone who shared their valuable opinions. This is a indeed a lesson for all of us to be very careful when purchasing or px from people.

At the moment I am just encouraging the guy to settle down his matter with finance company, apparently he assured me that he is in touch with with the finance company and matter will be sorted soon. I have decided to give him a week or so to see how he settles his matter.  fingers crossed

I have taken the details from hpi the finance company name, ref and telephone.

To be honest I am a bit confused  not sure how to sort out, the only thing that comes to mind is to take the car back from the buyer refund him and take legal action against him? 

If you have any better solution to come out of this trouble please let me know? I am not a ltd company and neither vat registered.   I will keep updating you guys.

Hi Lemoj

Firstly,you cannot just claim the car back from your customer and refund them,they have good title to it,you may have to pay them consequential damages on top.I would demand that the previous owner  gets you a copy of the balance and settlement figure from the finance company,the original finance agreement and the purchase invoice they were given by the supplying dealer showing their signature.If there are discrepancies in the paperwork,that could be good news.If there aren’t,you will just have to settle the balance yourself.In this situation,I have never known a seller settle the balance afterwards.Also bear in mind,that if the agreement is registered with HPI you may have difficulty recovering the balance from the seller if you persue them in the small claims court.Despite What some people might say on here,variations of this happens to all of us at some time.I hope your seller comes with the money,keep us informed...and good luck.