The car I have just purchased privately has been repossessed by finance company

[BMW Removed]

On Aug 21 2015 I purchased a 2009 BMW 730i Ld privately (not from a trader or dealer).

It had been advertised on Autotrader with a full 9 page HPI Check.

I paid £12,500 by way of £12,000 bankers draft to the seller along with £500 cash.

 

On 28th October a woman knocked on our front door saying she was from Bow County Court

and wanted to speak to my wife in regards removing our vehicle in respect of a court order she held.

 

 

The court order was from a finance company to the owner previous to the seller I purchased the car from.

Transpires that the previous owner sold the car to the seller we bought from in July 2015 with finance of £7,000 still owing to the finance company.

 

 

Our seller sold the car on to me within 1 month with what appears to be a forged HPI check stating there was no finance on the vehicle.

The seller didn't register the vehicle as he said that because he was selling the car on so quickly, he didn't have time to register it.

 

The 'Bailiff' who we later found out was a Collection Agent for the finance company said that she was removing the vehicle immediately from our front drive.

She said that if we tried to prevent her from taking the car then a truck would come to lift the car off of our drive.

 

 

My wife and I simply couldn't understand this was happening to us and has caused us huge distress.

Concerned by her threat to forcibly lift the car from our drive,

I phoned our solicitor (who doesn't specialise in matters of this kind) and he spoke to the collection agent

saying that under section 27 of the Hire Purchase Act 1964,

where a motor vehicle is subject to an HP or finance agreement,

while the vendor does not own it and has no right to sell it,

 

 

a private purchaser who buys the car in good faith without notice of the HP or conditional sale agreement

obtains good title to it and that the collection agent therefore had no entitlement to our vehicle.

 

 

Whilst I was speaking to Mr Lucas, the agent asked for the car key so she could take down the vehicle mileage.

At that point I said I was calling the police as we had good title to the vehicle and she had no authority to remove it, especially from our property.

 

 

I went into my house to call the police and a minute or two later looked out of our front facing window to see the vehicle was gone.

 

A number of questions.

 

1. The finance company is now in possession of the vehicle, does this section 27 of the HPA 1964 require them to return the vehicle to me

and if they refuse what are my options?

I don't have the money to seek a solicitor to take out an injunction preventing them from selling the car / return the car to me.

 

2. If they refuse the car I don't have the money to issue proceedings in the court for the £12,500 I paid for the car in good faith, again,

what are my options?

 

3. My car is probably worth about £13,500 as I spent £1,000 on repairs last month.

The outstanding finance I understand is around £7,000.

Do the finance company have the right to pocket the difference and is there anything I can do about this?

 

4. The collection agent falsely represented herself to us and our solicotor as a court bailiff,

do we have redress against the collecion agency

 

We now have no car and no money to purchase another one, it is all very distressing.

[citizenB]

I will try and find someone who can help.

 

How did they remove the vehicle, did you give her the key ?

[unclebulgaria67]

I will try and find someone who can help.

 

How did they remove the vehicle, did you give her the key ?

 

If there was no court order, then this is a theft by the collection agent and the finance company will have to return it. Report to the Police if they fail to do so. Also pretending to be a court bailiff is a criminal offence. You cannot claim to be an officer of the court under a warrant, if this is not the case.

[BMW Removed]

Thank you for responding.

Yes, I was on my drive speaking to my solicitor on the phone and she asked me for the key to check the mileage.

Stupidly I gave it to her without thinking,

passed the phone to my solicitor who spoke to her,

 

 

she passed the phone back to me because she didn't want to acknowledge what my solicitor was saying

about my having title to the goods under section 27 of the Hire Purchase Act 1964.

 

I then went into my house to call the police on the advice of my solicitor,

came out less than 2 minutes later to find my car gone.

 

There was a court order dated 17 August 2015 that the claimant (the finance company) do recover against the defendant

(the person who sold the car - with finance outstanding

- in July to the person we bought the car from),

for goods wrongly kept by the defendant.

 

What nobody seems to be able to explain to me

that it seems clear under section 27 of the Hire Purchase Act 1964

that even though the person I bought the car from (in good faith and without any knowledge of outstanding finance)

may not have had title to the goods, by me paying for those goods means the title passes to me lawfully.

 

 

It's all very confusing and even if this section 27 does apply in my case,

how on earth do I get the car back from the collection agent / finance company?

[dx100uk]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?265444-Bought-car-with-HP-still-on-it-now-Finance-company-want-it-back!!!

 

 

http://cse.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-pub-0964707606882478:652l7hswbgv&ie=UTF-8&q=section+27+of+the+Hire+Purchase+Act+1964&sa=Search+CAG#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=section%2027%20of%20the%20Hire%20Purchase%20Act%201964&gsc.page=1

 

 

don't think theres a lot you can do really.

 

 

bar suing the person you got the car from.

 

 

sad trick that is pulled nearly every day.

 

 

sadly the bottom line is you should have done an HPI yourself.

 

 

if whomever took your car had a return of goods order from a court

then matters not what they claimed to be

 

 

dx