Hi there

We are looking to buy a new 2nd hand caravan. We have seen one we are interested in and have been asking questions about it.

Tonight we emailed the person and asked if

1. it was CRIS registered

2. any outstanding finance on the van

He replied to us and said it WAS CRIS registered but in his old address as he has just moved and hasn't updated all his stuff yet, he did give us his new and old address as well.

He said there WAS outstanding finance on the van but this would be paid off with the money when the van was sold.

We think we know what we are going to do (most prob leave it) but we just wanted to ask your advice what YOU would do. Its not that we don't trust him, there are some honest people around but 10 grand is a hell of a lot of money to lose if he isn't trust worthy and we're not willing to take that risk.

What would happen if he didn't pay the finance off when the van was sold? would we be liable?

also if we do leave it as we are 99% sure we will, how do we tell him without offending him?

Thanks

Nicky and Ade

Dont touch it with a barge pole.

If you buy it and he doesn't pay off the credit then it can be repossed and you will end up with nothing.

Thanks people

I agree it does sound like a lot of hassle and to be honest i wouldn't really know where to start. My hubby also said with the van only being a year old on HP, there is robably more outstanding finance left on the van than what he'd get selling it anyway, so unless he has money sitting around it probably wouldn't all get paid off. All we want to do is buy a caravan thats legit and hassle free. 

The caravan in question is a 2007 ABBEY Vogue 540 6 berth single axle. We have looked around a couple of dealers near us and at Highbridge but they only have new ones and are about 13 grand which we can't really afford and we'd still have to get an awning etc, we thought we'd buy privately and get more for our money too.

sounds ropey to me, is the van stolen??? is there proof that the old address was actually his address

like cathy said, dont touch with a barge pole

go to a dealer and get haggling

It is ok to buy a caravan which is on finance, as I sold a car with finance.  First of all I got the finance company to send a letter stating how much was owing, they give a date that this will be valid to, the buyer then writes a cheque to the finance company to pay it off, any balance after the finance is paid off  then a seperate cheque is written direct to the person.

You then both place cheque in the envelope to the finance company, and go to the postbox together, wait about 7 days for the finance to clear, ring them and check, then the buyer can give the additional monies for the van as normal and can take the caravan.  It's the buyer who is taking the risk, but as they know where you live, it should be ok. 

Hi i sell vehicles for a living and have a consumer credit licence which comes from the office of fair trading, this allows me to sell any vehicle to the public if they require it on finance, Be careful, any vehicle inc caravans that are on finance belong to the finance company and it is illegal for anybody to sell a vehicle that is on finance, even if they say they are going to pay it off, Believe me its in the small print ,Your only option is to pay the finance off directly to the finance company and receive a receipt from them giving you clear title to the van once your funds have cleared  (usually 10 working days) and any balance left to the person who is selling. The only person who can obtain a balance for the finance which is outstanding is the one who's name is on the agreement this is because of the data protection act,just be careful before parting with your hard earned cash,If you buy one on finance they will take it off you

Tim 

Hi all

Thanks for your replys, just wanted to let you know we've now found a van, from a dealer, think we got a good deal too.

Its a brand new sterling Europa 540 2007 demonstrator model. Window price was 13,475, we said we had an Abbey Alfa 540 (1990) to maybe part exchange but didn't know whether to sell it privately or not, we' been offered £1000 at 2 other places, he said we could have the new van for 11,800 without part ex or 11,500 with part ex, he said you can look at it 2 ways, i'm either giving you a lot of discount off the new van and £300 for our old van or a lot for your old van and nothing off the new van. As it was the last one we asked fpr a price with the extra bits we needed and he said he could do us this deal..

Van, Apache Torino awning, ground sheet, microwave, cd/radio, motor mover, hitchlock, wheel clamp all for 13,890 so we asked him to hold it for 24 hours for us to decide and we'd get back to him today. We weren't sure about microwave so asked how much less that would be,, he said about £115.

Went back today and said we wanted the van but didn't want the microwave, we asked about the cost of an alarm and the theft busters thing where they etch all the van and stuff inside and microdot it, it was about £300 for the alarm and £200 for the theft busters, He said he'd do it instead of the microwave for the same price, well we were well happy. After we'd done the deposit etc my hubby asked what groundsheet it was and it was the open weave, hubby said he wanted the close weave and so he said he'd swap it for that too :) 

All in all i think we had a bargain, do you agree??