robby

Help i bought a car 4 weeks ago from a private seller, it was a cheapy but still £2300. I asked the seller if it was on hpi and he said no, i phoned hpi myself and it wasn't listed which set alarm bells off so i phoned the local police station to see if it was genuine. The engine / chassis numbers matched the reg number and it wasn't on the wanted list so seemed ok. I traded it in yesterday as i got bored with it and the dealer found out it WAS on the register as "insurance theft" dated 1999. The dealer still took the car in p/x but cut the price by £500. I've sent the seller an e-mail saying i want compensating for the £500 for not declaring it was on hpi which he hasn't replied to, he wont take my phone calls and he lives 180 miles away.
How do i stand on this and what can be done?

Shark

Sounds to me like you got to take a £500 pill. Could be a long and hard job to get it back from a private seller.

Good luck !

David

robby

hmm i thought a seller was supposed to inform a buyer if it was on the register?

Big Bear

I would take this up with HPI , if they said it was clean then you may have a case to get compensation from them .

Alas

HPI guarantee you up to 10k if they do not give correct info on a car if you have an official report from them. Chase them up as Quote - We will indemnify you against loss you have suffered through the provision by us of untrue, innaccurate or incomplete information. We will compensate you Etc etc.
Alasdair

MattN

Agreed - HPi offer indemity if the information they give is incorrect.

That is of course if you paid for the HPi check - if you didn't then bye bye £500.

robby

when i got in touch with hpi it didn't show on their records, a dealer friend said this was sometimes the case with older cars, that's why i got in touch with the police to make sure it wasn't a ringer with made up plates.
When i traded it in the dealer managed to get it on his system (don't know why it didn't show 4 weeks ago) and he printed out the report showing insurance theft.
The previous owner bought the car off a work collegue who bought it off his mate, the car has been in this group for 3-4 years so one of them has made the claim. The seller now is saying "tough" because i didn't get a hpi report before i bought it, i did ask him if it was on the register and he told me no.

MattN

well, if HPi didn't have it on there records and it had been in the UK for some time i.e. not a recent import, then I wouldn't have touched it.

Or even paid HPi the money just to say they had no record, that way you'd have been covered.

It's in past now and you've lucked out, best just to move on.

Think yourself lucky some people lose 000's