Car Finance Experts Get It Badly Wrong Costing Customers Dearly

Tuesday, 4. May 2010

I am, without doubt, the leading expert in car finance in the UK. However, wherever you look there are ‘experts’ who will not fail to give bad advice. This seriously winds me up because it can cost people a lot of money and in some of the worst cases, their home. It’s bad enough when this bad advice is given by well meaning friends down the pub or an accountant who is really not specialist, as I am, in vehicle finance. But what really annoys me are people, who write blogs and advisory articles, that completely mislead because they have guessed at the answer to a problem. This happened recently in a blog which started well by warning drivers about a growing problem, highlighted by the Finance and Leasing Association, who explained that as people became desperate for money during the recession some drivers, were selling their cars that were still on finance to innocent buyers without settling the finance. This was fine and a good warning to those that were thinking of buying a car privately. Of course if you buy a car from a dealer the law protects you although this wasn’t mentioned in the article. However, the writer went on to explain how dangerous this can be for the buyer of the vehicle in what is known as ‘conversion fraud.’ As the seller didn’t have title in the first place title cannot pass to the new buyer and the finance company can repossess the vehicle leaving the buyer out of pocket to the tune of the amount paid as well as being left with no car. This is such a load of nonsense and can lead to HP companies repossessing cars that they are not entitled to and getting away with it because consumers don’t know their rights. Under section 27 of the Hire Purchase Act 1964 (now incorporated into the Consumer Credit Act) if a consumer buys a vehicle in good faith and without prior knowledge that the car was still on HP, PCP or Conditional Sale finance, title will pass to the buyer and the lender must seek redress from his customer who has illegally sold on the car. So the advice should have been, if a finance company tries to repossess a car that they say is still financed by them and therefore owned by them – quote section 27 and tell them to bugger off! There have been recent cases, successfully resolved by consumers, when a crooked online broker, the type that I constantly warn about, called Gwent Fleet Management Ltd., who sold cars that it didn’t own to innocent buyers who, following court cases, were allowed to keep their cars. Know who you’re dealing with and listen to me and not so called experts who haven’t a clue! Incidentally this doesn’t apply to cars that are on lease or hire agreements, title doesn’t pass. By Graham Hill