A Twist To Innocent Buyer
Friday, 27. July 2018
I’ve mentioned on many occasions that you don’t need to carry out an HPI or Experian check on a car, before you buy it, in order to keep the car if it turns out to be on HP, PCP or Conditional Sale finance. This is very true.
So you can ignore the threats by the likes of HPI that you could lose your new car along with the money you paid for it if you failed to carry out an HPI check. The fact is that section 27 of the Hire Purchase Act 1964 says that if you have not been advised that the car is on HP by the seller and it turns out that the car was on HP you are an innocent buyer and you keep the car.
I suggest that you carry out a check before buying a car, especially if you are buying from a private individual. Even if title passes it can still be quite painful fighting off a finance company that is determined to get their car back.
So whilst it may seem fairly straightforward from a legal standpoint it isn’t always that simple. For example, if you did a straight swap with the other person, who still had finance on the car but didn’t tell you, title won’t pass. Or if you swapped say a painting or your stamp collection for the car again title won’t pass.
The reason is that some cash needs to exchange. Title will pass if you part exchange your car plus some money for the car on finance. So this is the key, some cash must be part of the deal. By Graham Hill
