I’m currently looking to buy a Van, and having bought and sold dozens of vehicles in adulthood am well aware of what to look out for,i’m also ultra suspicious of anything scammy and always HPI everything,but TBH hadn’t considered the whole logbook loan possibility.So at risk of ridicule if the answer’s obvious,how would one check against buying something with this kind of debt against it? Would the seller just not have access the logbook as he would he have to surrender it to get a loan against the said vehicle?
Would it also show up on the HPI check too d’ya think?

Its shows on hpi check as a car i looked at was listed

Only one key instead of two can be an early pointer (when sifting/calling). Of course someone can genuinely lose a key but if your the type to pay 5k+ on a car then in my opinion you’d replace the lost key rather than risk being stranded.

Very difficult – they only show up on hpi if the nice log book loan company registers it – and guess what – they do not always do it.
The only way is to check when the logbook was issued – if it is newer than the last change of keeper then there is a risk – as you can apply for a new logbook whenever you want to pay the fee for “loosing” the old one, and then just sell the vehicle.
log book is not proof of ownership – actually nothing is proof of ownership..

You can look around for advice – but last time I checked there was nothing you can really do – even dealers can be caught out – and then it is up to them to sort it out – there is nothing you can do.
Its bad sh1t and needs legislation to sort it out

So long as the car is registered properly with the DVLA, An official logbook loan will show up on an HPI check.

OK thanks guys,I’m usually pretty shrewd but this is something that I hadn’t even considered.
Oh for the days when the damned thing blowing up a couple of miles down the road was worse case scenario !