Confirming car finance is cleared

[Shrimpvende]

Sorry - long time lurker here,

So I have put a deposit down on a car from a private seller after viewing at the weekend. I originally intended to buy it and take it home at the weekend, however the previous owner had outstanding finance on the car as proved by a HPI check. He paid that off on thursday or friday last week, however the finance company's records were not updated by the time I saw the car, hence no purchase. My query is does it really take them 7-9 days as they are telling me before they can confirm there is no outstanding finance? HPI supplied me with their phone number and the policy number so I could confirm with them directly myself.

The car in question is a British luxury performance/supercar (I shall say no more) so there is obviously a fair bit of money involved. The thought of not being able to collect the car for another week or so is making me uncomfortable to say the least. The deposit left with the current owner is an amount I would be willing to lose if the sale fell through, however the car is exactly what I wanted so I don't want to back out lightly.

Has anyone got experience of this that could perhaps shed some light?

Many thanks

[jacobw]

The HPI records can but he should just get the finance company to supply a letter stating it has been cleared and they hold no further interest in the vehicle.
Obviously this is on the basis you'd be happy with that.
Otherwise just wait until they update it.

[papa3]

Shrimpvende said:

Sorry - long time lurker here,

So I have put a deposit down on a car from a private seller after viewing at the weekend. I originally intended to buy it and take it home at the weekend, however the previous owner had outstanding finance on the car as proved by a HPI check. He paid that off on thursday or friday last week, however the finance company's records were not updated by the time I saw the car, hence no purchase. My query is does it really take them 7-9 days as they are telling me before they can confirm there is no outstanding finance? HPI supplied me with their phone number and the policy number so I could confirm with them directly myself.

The car in question is a British luxury performance/supercar (I shall say no more) so there is obviously a fair bit of money involved. The thought of not being able to collect the car for another week or so is making me uncomfortable to say the least. The deposit left with the current owner is an amount I would be willing to lose if the sale fell through, however the car is exactly what I wanted so I don't want to back out lightly.

Has anyone got experience of this that could perhaps shed some light?

Many thanks

Should have paid the settlement yourself and the balance to the seller, that way you know its done. Clearance times vary from company to company but most will provide a confirmation email within 5 working days.

[bigandclever]

Shrimpvende said:

Sorry - long time lurker here,

So I have put a deposit down on a car from a private seller after viewing at the weekend. I originally intended to buy it and take it home at the weekend, however the previous owner had outstanding finance on the car as proved by a HPI check. He paid that off on thursday or friday last week, however the finance company's records were not updated by the time I saw the car, hence no purchase. My query is does it really take them 7-9 days as they are telling me before they can confirm there is no outstanding finance? HPI supplied me with their phone number and the policy number so I could confirm with them directly myself.

The car in question is a British luxury performance/supercar (I shall say no more) so there is obviously a fair bit of money involved. The thought of not being able to collect the car for another week or so is making me uncomfortable to say the least. The deposit left with the current owner is an amount I would be willing to lose if the sale fell through, however the car is exactly what I wanted so I don't want to back out lightly.

Has anyone got experience of this that could perhaps shed some light?

Many thanks

Question really is, can you afford to not wait? Lack of confirmation it's finance-clear could cost you a lot more in the long run. Anyway, you know there have been no working days since Thursday last week, right?

[Shrimpvende]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately the seller had already made the payment before I went to see the car, otherwise paying it off myself would have been a better option. I am absolutely not proceeding with the purchase until I have written confirmation from the finance company that the full balance has been cleared. The bank holiday timing has been really unfortunate in delaying all of this, obviously 7 working days puts it into the middle of next week. I'm just not keen on the idea of the car still being used in that time and having mileage put it on etc when I originally intended to collect on Saturday. I know there's only a small chance but anything that may happen to the car between now and me picking it up can alter the condition from that which it was in when I agreed the price and left the deposit. Then there's obviously the little kid in me that wants the car ASAP.

[zedstar]

My experience of selling my mums Audi was I paid the balance to Audi Financial Services, they then sent me an email to confirm that they held no further interest in the car.

I phoned Audi up and got them to confirm on the phone too, this was on speakerphone and the buyer was happy enough with this. IIWY OP i'd get the seller to allow you to ring the finance house and check it directly.

[Shrimpvende]

Thanks Zedstar.

My worry is that if I phone the finance company directly the only thing they can/will disclose to me is whether there is still finance outstanding against the car. Unfortunately when I spoke to them on Friday their system was still showing finance outstanding and she said it could be 7-9 working days until their records were updated (let alone external records such as HPI). I would have thought the finance company would know pretty sharpish whether they had received payment or not as in your case - speaking to them on the phone and receiving a confirmation email would be enough for me.

Cheers

[datum77]

When you went and saw the car and agreed to buy it - you SHOULD have done 1 very simple thing.......

While you are there with the seller, he should have produced his finance documents, and WHILE YOU WATCHED AND LISTENED, he should either ring the finance company or do it online and settle the finance while you listen in. He will then receive either a text or an email or both within about 10 minutes stating that the finance company have no further financial interest in the vehicle. He could then let you have a copy of either that proves that the finance agreement has been settled.

You may have complicated the process if all you paid, at the time, was a deposit. If your seller is relying on YOUR agreed purchase price in order to settle the finance, (this assumes that he doesn't have the means to settle the finance from his own funds - and is relying on YOUR money to do so), then you are both dragging the whole thing out unnecessarily.

You could have transferred the WHOLE purchase price into his account via a bank transfer. You would both then apply paragraph 1 above. Regardless of what a bank might tell you - it takes around 10 minutes to transfer money from 1 account to another. (In order for the banks to cover their arses, they will tell you it takes up to 3 hours - it doesn't, as I have done this process hundreds of times, and it takes 10 minutes).

If, as you say, you are waiting for him to settle the finance, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR YOUR MONEY, then why didn't you both agree to do that on the day?.

[Shrimpvende]

It's ok, I'm thankfully now all sorted. I phoned the finance company again this afternoon and they emailed me a copy of the letter of clearance which states the reg and VIN and says they have no longer have a financial interest in the car.

I've never bought a car with any sort of outstanding finance before so this has all been new to me, however thankfully has worked out in the end. Just to be clear, the seller paid the finance off in full the day before I went to view the car, however the finance company couldn't issue anything to him due to the bank holiday. All he had was their receipt of his payment, which in my eyes was not the letter of clearance I wanted - after all the amount they sent the receipt for could have been less than the full settlement figure. There was never any question of the finance being paid off - just that I couldn't get the correct confirmation from the finance company that it had been within a short time frame. Thankfully this has now been resolved.

I'm collecting the car tomorrow afternoon now anyway so only had to wait a couple of days longer than planned - better that than proceeding at risk over the weekend!

Cheers

Edited by Shrimpvende on Tuesday 18th April 19:34

[rich12]

You rang a finance company to whom you have no connection with and they sent you a clearance letter??

[bigandclever]

rich12 said:

You rang a finance company to whom you have no connection with and they sent you a clearance letter??

Is that surprising? When you do a proper hpi check you get the name of the finance house, contact details and a reference number. Give them a bell, ask the question 'is it clear?' and if it is get a confirmation by email.

[AtAli]

I have had a similar issue.

Deposit paid to garage. Garage advertised as all cars hpi checked.

Arranged finance Thursday. Funds to be paid to seller on Monday.

The Sunday night previous, paid for car verticle hpi check. Which flagged up outstanding finance.

First thing Monday phoned the finance company the previous owner had used. They confirmed they "still had an interest" in the car.

5 min later phoned my finance company and asked them to hold payment to the garage. They chose to cancel because no funds had been released.

Then got in contact with seller/garage. Asked them to clear previous finance. They did and screenshot receipt of funds paid which included the account ref and finance company paid to.

Had to reapply for finance and just waiting on them to resend e-docs to sign.

48hr after payment of the outstanding finance company said I can phone them and it will show on their system if its clear.

Tomorrow il phone them to confirm.

Hopefully in time for my financed too be processed and paid by the weekend so I can collect.

[papa3]

At a dealer this is one of 2 things.

1. A stocking loan. Short term cash flow funding. Won't be able to obtain payment from lender until cleared.

2. Just arrived and admin still working to settle or show clear. If lending is with same house they will release funds as they can contra settle.

[ninjag]

papa3 said:

Should have paid the settlement yourself and the balance to the seller, that way you know its done. Clearance times vary from company to company but most will provide a confirmation email within 5 working days.

Could the seller not potentially say, "thanks very much for clearing my finance" and keep the car? lol

[J1990]

ninjag said:

Could the seller not potentially say, "thanks very much for clearing my finance" and keep the car? lol

Technically? Yes.
Legally? No. I believe that would qualify under 'Obtaining property by deception' i.e. you got them to clear your debt under the guise of giving them the title to your car.

[ninjag]

J1990 said:

ninjag said:

Could the seller not potentially say, "thanks very much for clearing my finance" and keep the car? lol

Technically? Yes.
Legally? No. I believe that would qualify under 'Obtaining property by deception' i.e. you got them to clear your debt under the guise of giving them the title to your car.

It was a gift your honour....

[exelero]

Shrimpvende said:

Sorry - long time lurker here,

So I have put a deposit down on a car from a private seller after viewing at the weekend. I originally intended to buy it and take it home at the weekend, however the previous owner had outstanding finance on the car as proved by a HPI check. He paid that off on thursday or friday last week, however the finance company's records were not updated by the time I saw the car, hence no purchase. My query is does it really take them 7-9 days as they are telling me before they can confirm there is no outstanding finance? HPI supplied me with their phone number and the policy number so I could confirm with them directly myself.

The car in question is a British luxury performance/supercar (I shall say no more) so there is obviously a fair bit of money involved. The thought of not being able to collect the car for another week or so is making me uncomfortable to say the least. The deposit left with the current owner is an amount I would be willing to lose if the sale fell through, however the car is exactly what I wanted so I don't want to back out lightly.

Has anyone got experience of this that could perhaps shed some light?

Many thanks

I paid mine off not long ago, and yes it really took them a week to send me the confirmation email

[Franco5]

A cautionary tale…

I viewed an A4 15 years ago where I met the seller at his workplace and agreed around £15k for it. He told me that there was still finance on it with VWFS which was confirmed by my HPI check and that he was selling as he’d been offered a job abroad. I’m the suspicious sort but he was a professional guy not some scrote, had keys to lock the office door as he came out and then we drove to his home that he again had keys to so I got a decent feeling about the whole thing. When we agreed the price he paid the outstanding balance over the phone while I was there and I agreed to collect it a week later as the payment took time to be processed in those days. He used my phone, I dialled the VWFS number and it was all on speaker. At the end of the week before collection I phoned VWFS to double check that the finance was cleared and they told me the payment had gone through and that they “no longer held an interest” in the car. I got them to confirm this on an email to me which they did (I still have that email to this day). All OK so I thought. Went to collect the car the following weekend, paid the seller and drove home. The HPI check I had bought was on some kind of 2 for 1 offer so I had a free check available. I still don’t know why to this day but a couple of months after collecting the car I thought rather than let the check expire I’ll just use it on the car I’d bought. I did so and it showed finance still outstanding. Brown trouser time! I called the seller’s mobile straight away and it was the longest 10 seconds of my life thinking if he didn’t answer that I’d been stitched up. He did answer and I explained to which he replied “I wondered why the cash was still in my account”. Other than that he was a decent guy and said he’d phone VWFS and settle straight away which he did. The one thing I took away from the whole experience…VWFS are total and complete fing s which remains the case to this day.

Edited by Franco5 on Monday 1st August 21:02

Edited by Franco5 on Monday 1st August 21:07

[IC3]

I was looking at a car I knew had finance, the HPI showed that the card had no finance on it, when I questioned the HPI companies about their liability they all went silent. So you can't really trust HPI 100%...