hire purchase

[johnant]

can anybody tell me about hire purchase as im buying a car and the person has 4000 outstanfding on it saying that they are paying it off when sold does this affect me if i buy and he dont pay it off?
thanks john

[alunrw]

Worth looking onto this a bit further, sure someone will have a better answer, but have found this from another forum explaining the position briefly


You should always consider carrying out checks before you buy a car. There are agencies, such as HPI, who will search their databases and let you know whether the car has a finance agreement registered against it, or whether it has been declared an insurance write-off, and also whether it has been reported stolen. Incidentally, stolen cars (in common with other stolen goods) will always remain the property of the person from whom they were stolen.
Something interesting to note is that with Hire Purchase agreements (unlike a loan) the car belongs to the finance company right up until the last payment is made.

[alunrw]

Sorry, what it briefly implies is that if you buy the car and they don't pay off the balance , the car still apparently belongs to the finance company until it has fully been paid off.

As above though, sure someone will have a better response, personally i'd be a little bit wary?

[tali122]

yes, i believe if original owner doesn't pay ,its property of finance company, thats why HPI is designed to discover these problems , if there were no ramifications/consequences invoved there would be no point in a hpi for outstanding finance

[Oneeyedvic]

DO NOT GIVE HIM ANY MONEY.

You must get a settlement figure from the finance company (I would do a HPI check myself) and pay the finance company any balance outstanding and give him the rest (ie if you are paying �6,000 for the car and there is �4000 outstanding on finance, you would pay the finance company �4000 and �2000 to him).

If you just give him the money, and he does not settle the finance, the finance company are well within the rights to repossess the car leaving you with nothing.

[Loosehead]

What vic said, don't trust them to pay off the Finance.