Help Needed

[jamiects]

i bought my t-sport feb 2009 for a decent price on a decent mileage, it was bought through a private sale off pistonheads.

a year on and i came to trade the car in against a new vehicle and when the garage did a hpi check much to my shock it came up on toyota finance!!!!

the first thing i did was track down the person i bought it off, he admited that he did still have outstanding finance on the car and admitted not telling me when i went to view the car, he stated he will carry on paying the finance on the car and was not willing to clear it in a lump sum. in theory its partly my fault for not doing a hpi myself, but on the other hand the person i bought it off commited fraud by selling the car.

I was advised by my solicitor that if i was to sell the car i too would be commiting fraud and could get prosicuted.

I could to get the courts involved and prosicute the person i bought it off but in the prossess i would have the vehicle taken off me and lose out, tthen if he is made to pay the outstanding finance he would get the car back and not me as he has payed for it, again making me lose out. When i bought the toyota i signed a recipt saying the date and amount but the previous owner kept this and would obviously not state that he still has it, for obvious reasons.

any advise would be much appriciated

[eddieinvader]

You should have had him to sign a receipt for you as proof of purchase I always do this if I buy a car private, but cannot say this would have held up in court anyway, at least you would have had something with his signature on it to go in your favour, as it stands it does not look to good for you.

[-Ish]

well what you could do is ring up the finance company and ask them about this particular situation without dislosing any details of your car and mentioning any names, just make up a car and name and do an enquiry. it might give you some options on what you could do.

did the previous owner state why he wouldnt pay off the ammount... and did you mention to him thaat he is comminting a serious offence by selling you the car and not paying off the finance.

otherwise unless you can sell the car privatly im not really sure what else there is to do.

keep us posted,

[jonny__g]

honestly not sure but i would always do a HPI check on any vehicle that i am looking to buy. I'll assume you didn't do this for the PH purchase.

That aside, unless the previous owner actually denied there was outstanding finance owed, i'm not sure what you can do. I'd imagine that because it was a private sale then it's up to you to find out this info as a private seller as very little legal responsibilities compared with traders. It's a bit rubbish for you too say the least as you would expect a seller to be honest and state that there is outstanding HP on the car.

maybe you should try asking someone in the car trade. i found this on the web, this is just a snipet:

http://www.consumerrightsexpert.co.uk/BuyingAUsedCarYourRights.html

Buying Privately

Buying privately might be a cheaper option, but it's much riskier, because you have far fewer rights. The only qualification is that the car needs to be "as described." If a private seller lies about the car's condition, then you can sue him.

Sometimes dealers pretend to be private sellers. It's an attempt to get rid of dubious cars and avoid their obligations. If you see several ads with the same phone number, watch out. If the seller is really a dealer, then your Sale of Goods Act rights apply.

good luck :)