Nothing dodgy!

Have a car coming to end of its PCP – online valuations (yeah, I know) suggest it’s worth maybe a grand and a bit more than the settlement figure.

The dealer for next car won’t take it off me (apparently I drove too hard a bargain 8) which of course is bollocks – he just doesn’t want the hassle).

Trying to sell it privately will be a nightmare won’t it? I’d have to tell the buyer to pay off the finance and then give me the rest. Or find someone who’d trust me to pay it off once sold – which isn’t going to happen is it?

Any other ideas? I’m going to have to find a trader and take a hit on what I’d get privately aren’t I?

Trying to sell it privately will be a nightmare won’t it? I’d have to tell the buyer to pay off the finance and then give me the rest. Or find someone who’d trust me to pay it off once sold – which isn’t going to happen is it?

The former is what I did – they called & got a settlement whilst I was there – I paid them the o/s amount & them the balance.

That’s the easiest way.

If you are so confident it is worth more than you owe on it, then why not pay off the finance, then sell it ??

If you are so confident it is worth more than you owe on it, then why not pay off the finance, then sell it ??

I’ll let you have a think on the answer to that one. 🙂

The former is what I did – they called & got a settlement whilst I was there – I paid them the o/s amount & them the balance.

That’s the easiest way.

Ah, ok. So it’s not unusual then? I suppose with the amount of cars floating around on PCPs, this is perhaps more common than before. I haven’t sold a car privately in over 20 years. But back then “outstanding finance” rang all kinds of alarm bells. Maybe not so much anymore?

Stick the details in webuyanycar.com and see what its worth – if the price is close to what you’d be happy with then sell via that route. They’ll try and knock ££’s off when you get there for any little scratch they can find, but my experience was fairly positive – especially considering the cars condition (dents, damage etc).

Private shouldn’t be too much more hassle than normal. Lots of cars that are sold need the finance sorting out. It is more of a hassle but its only two transactions for the purchaser and it can all be done without too much faff.

If your buying a car with outstanding finance then the seller is supposed to give you the finance settlement figure and finance details so you can confirm it with the company. The finance company should be paid directly and any surplus given to the seller. This website is useful:

http://www.parkers.co.uk/car-selling/2012/buying-a-used-car-with-outstanding-finance/

Can you sell on a car with oustanding finance on it? Technically it still belongs to the finance company until you have paid for it.

A mate of mine got in trouble over this, but it was 20 years ago. Things may have changed.

As long as the settlement is paid by due date, I imagine it’s no great shakes Harry.

Thanks for that post slackboy. Useful stuff.

No issue putting a car up for sale if it has finance on it. Its only illegal if you don’t tell any eventual buyer prior to transaction.

I’ve just been in a similar position. Try Pistonheads for selling privately. Try drivethedeal for selling to a dealer. Think its about £30 and if you don’t get an offer within a certain range you get your money back.

You can also just take it to A.N. Other dealer and see if they are interested. If its a desirable car / or just a well spec’d car then they probably will be.

When i sold the car, i sold it back to the dealer who paid off the finance (minus the small amount i owed over and above what the car was worth which i paid directlt to the finaince company).

Harry_the_Spider – Member

Can you sell on a car with oustanding finance on it? Technically it still belongs to the finance company until you have paid for it.

A mate of mine got in trouble over this, but it was 20 years ago. Things may have changed.

No, but Yes.

Technically you can’t sell it until you’ve paid more than 50% of the total cost of the finance agreement when the balance of ownership passes to you – at that point you can technically sell the vehicle and you don’t have to settle the finance, but most people won’t buy a vehicle unless it’s unencumbered and if the new buyer needs finance, the new finance company is very unlikely to accept a second charge on it, however good the paperwork to support. (this is for consumers, sole traders and partnerships. Ltds, LLPs and PLCs have different rules).

However you can sell it if you settle the finance at the point of sale – in 95% of cases, the seller will present the buyer with confirmation of the settlement figure and the buyer will pay that proportion of the sale price to the finance company and any remainder to the seller – how much of a faf that it depends on the buyer – some will happily hand over the cash and ask the seller to settle it, that is madness but some people do it, most will take a letter or e-mail as ‘proof’ and pay the finance company over the phone / bank transfer – some want to dial the finance company independently using a number they’ve taken from their website they’ve found independently, have the seller give their KYC data, get the settlement independently and then ask for confirmation it’s been settled – these days I don’t blame them, it gets horribly messy.

In the past, when most people didn’t HPI (other providers are available) vehicles they pay cash and the seller would either fully intend to settle and human nature takes over, or never intended to settle in the first place – and the poor buyer wonders why someone is towing their car off their drive. You’d think having the V5 and an invoice would make the vehicles yours, but it doesn’t and as long as the finance company lodges their claim on the database they can take it back for non-payment. You can find outstanding finance on surprisingly old cars these days, it used to be that no one would finance anything older than 3-4 years old, but these days with the second-hand subprime supermarkets and the dreaded log book loans companies they’ll finance anything smoking with 4 wheels.

I don’t really know how the market it now, but 5 years ago the finance companies did very little for 3rd parties, they could do with a better system for people settling finance from them, there’s an opportunity to offer finance to the new buyer if nothing else.