Just put £200 deposit on a car that is advertised as 'HPI Clear' from a trade dealer, and to pay for the car in full next week. I came home then did my own HPI check on the Vehicle only to find out that there in 'outstanding Finance agreement found'?
Will I be able to get my £200 deposit back as I believe this to be false advertising? I have printed the advert off as evidence of the wording of the advert, or do you think I will have to go to court to get my money back which I will no problem?
Would appreciate any help and advise before I go speak to the dealer after the weekend - cheers!
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I got one back from the RAC once which showed out standing finance. The seller put me in touch with the finance company that was named who agreed it was clear. They then told me it can take up to two months following the clearing of finance for that fact to be recorded.
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Mr X is probably right. Finance could have been settled by dealer when they bought the car. You'll find out more when you speak to the dealer.
If not clear then I think that's grounds for a refund.
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I'll "third" this. When I bought my car last year from a franchised dealer, I did an HPI check and it came back as failed, due to outstanding finance. I gave the finance company a ring, and they said that the outstanding finance had already been settled. The best thing to do would be to give the finance company a ring, using the reference number that you received on the HPI feedback form.
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I had reason to HPI Mrs P's car the other week. It showed outstanding finance; since she'd owned it from new and paid cash for it, it was a bit strange. Phoned the company and they were very helpful and was down to an human error. Nice letter in the post the next day confirming the car to be HPI clear. Why "HPi" though ?
Edited by Pugugly on 22/02/2009 at 21:41
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Now I can think of a dodgy motor dealership were they were getting several lots of finance on each car in order to keep things going. Its 20 years ago now but they certainly seemed to do well out of it. Non of them ended up inside ( well not for that scam ).
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If your buying it from a garage then why do you need to hpi check it? The responsibility is at the feet of the garage to ensure that it has no finance and if it does its the garages responsibility to clear it not yours. This of course is different with a private sale when you wouldnt legally own the car if there was finance outstanding and they can take it from you.
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Thanks for all your advise :) I checked HPi for a bit of re-assurance, I was not aware about it being the garages responsability, although for what I have read it does not read as though it is there responsability it states;
'If a loan or hire purchase agreement is still outstanding and you buy the car the finance company will retain a legal interest in it until the loan is repaid in full and they may repossess it. You may believe that as an innocent purchaser you would retain good title on a vehicle in this situation. However, you would have to prove your status as an innocent purchaser to the finance company which, in practice, is an extremely difficult and lengthy process.
which is why I am a little concerned.
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Contact the finance company (or, rather, get the dealer to do it for you). They are very poor at clearing cars from HPI in some cases - often cars get missed, incorrectly allocated etc. or just takes months to clear off the register. Equally confusing, sometimes HPI can show a car clear and Experian not or vice-versa.
I've also known cars which still have finance outstanding deleted off incorrectly.
If it is clear the finance company should be able to provide a fax, letter or similar to that effect and if the dealer contacts HPI on their trade hotline they will investigate it and check with the finance company and hopefully delete it off.
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