Buying 2nd hand car - but owner has HP unpaid - not his to sell?

worded

Ive heard of people selling cars with unpaid HP.
Say I buy it and then the HP company comes looking for their car and repossess it.

Is it possible?

If so – is there a way to 100% preventing this happening? Like phone every finance company?

Im thinking of getting a motor bike via ebay (after inspecting it!) but fear the
source of finance on it.

Eoin

worded wrote:

Ive heard of people selling cars with unpaid HP.
Say I buy it and then the HP company comes looking for their car and repossess it.

Is it possible?

Pretty sure it is possible

worded wrote:

If so – is there a way to 100% preventing this happening? Like phone every finance company?

Im thinking of getting a motor bike via ebay (after inspecting it!) but fear the
source of finance on it.

There is a company that you can ring that can check this out for you - I don't remember the name of them, but I'm sure someone will post it here. If not, search for Hire Purchase in the forum and you should get a hit.
<edit>
check this post here </edit>

bazz26

Yes the Finance company can reposses the car if the payments are not complete. I think in the eyes of the law the car is not their's to sell. I think this is written in the small print on the HP contract.

There is a place in Dublin you can ring, give them the reg of the car and they will tell if there is any outstanding finance owned on it. Cannot remember the phone number but it has been posted on here before. I think they charge around €15 for the service and accept credit cards over the phone.

Most garages will go through the same procedure when taking a trade in also.

Eoin

bazz26 wrote:

There is a place in Dublin you can ring, give them the reg of the car and they will tell if there is any outstanding finance owned on it. Cannot remember the phone number but it has been posted on here before. I think they charge around €15 for the service and accept credit cards over the phone.

Most garages will go through the same procedure when taking a trade in also.

Yep, number is in the link I posted earlier.

CrowdedHouse

eoin_s wrote:

Yep, number is in the link I posted earlier.

Mike should sticky that number,very handy to have.

mike65

Stickied!

A while back Liveline on RTE Radio 1 had a few calls on a scam which worked by selling on cars with oustanding credit on them. Can't remember details though.

Mike.

worded

cheers all ........

"Hire Purchase Information" 01 2600905 can tell you if there is outstanding payments on the car,e tc.

Our man in Havana

There is a 1972 court case about this. Apparently if they have the log book they can sell and the HP crowd cannot come after the new owner.

The only course of action is against the seller. They can sue the seller but they can't touch the buyer.

worded

There was a radio prog about this. I only heard about the prog.
Basically people were scammed.

Theres no "log book" with recent motor bikes only a change of ownership form which is posted.

Are you certain about what you are saying? If wrong you could cost someone thousands.

Our man in Havana

Cavet emptor!

Would you take the advice of an internet stranger? more the fool you if you did.

kluivert

HP Agreement states ownership does not pass untill the final payment has been processed.

However, should the repayments be in excess of 2/3 rds of the final amount the finance company can not arrive at the door one day and reprocess the car.

Dilbert75

The car I bought earlier this year had finance outstanding on it - so I stood in the bank beside the seller as he paid off the finance with my cheque. Job done. (If you handle it a bit sensibly, it needn't be a big deal. Anyway, I had his car and he had a crossed postdated cheque in my bank, so wasn't in much position to argue).