Finance o/s on car bought privately

L

Lorz

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Please help. "We" bought a car privately last summer and were hoping to trade it in for a bigger car due to the iminent arrival of Baby No. 2. Brought the car to Car for Cash stand over the weekend, offered a fair price, deal done, VLC signed, keys handed over and then.... sorry - there's finance outstanding on the car. We don't have any finance on the car. Garage rang back on Monday to say that there is €6k o/s - the car isn't even worth €6k now!

We have no details on the guy we bought the car from - no name, no address and his mobile no is now disconnected. To make matters worse, it would appear the car was also crashed and put back together on the cheap. It failed the NCT this week too.

I assume the person who had the car before us had an accident and didn't have comprehensive ins so didn't clear the finance when they sold it. I'm curious as to why the finance company haven't come after us but now understand that the finance co can come and take the car despite our name being on the VLC. Should I contact the finance co and see if they are willing to write off the o/s finance or give us a reduced settlement figure?

What can we do? It would appear we can't trade it in or sell it privately?
 
Hi Lorz

There is a Key Post on the topic.

Everyone should check if there is finance owing on a car before they buy it.

You bought a car from someone who didn't own it.

Brendan
 
Thanks Brendan - I've checked the key posts but I can't find anything relevant to my post. I know we should have checked if there was finance o/s - I did but we bought on a Saturday so the report said "Finance possibly outstanding - verify on Monday" - which I did, explained to my husband but he chose to ignore it - it's now 7 months later and we have bought the car - there is finance o/s - what are my options? - if any?
 
Im not sure that you have many options here. Unless you can track down the person you bought it from and sue him it looks like youre stuck with the finance. Its the buyers responsibility to check finance. You did check and your husband chose to ignore the result of that check so it looks like youre stuck with it.

Its a dreadful system imo - the finance should attach to the person and not follow the vehicle to new owners like this.
 
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