I purchased a vehicle last June, prior to this had a HPI report done by XXXXXXX.com, this was done by the seller of the vehicle on my behalf. Now the report showed everything with the vehicle was fine, so I went ahead with the purchase. Last Saturday I was hoping to exchange the car for a smaller one at a local garage, but was informed that the HPI report showed the car was Cat D insurance claim, involved in an accident and not enonomical to repair. So I find the car having little or no value, I can not trade it in etc. I contacted the company who supplied the HPI report and asked why it did not show that the car was an insurance write off, they claim the original insurance company made an error on the VIN number so thats why it did not show up. This is incorrect as they checked the reg today and it shows up as an insurance claim, very odd. The company states it is not liable for my losses as the error was not on there part, yet they offer a service that makes sure you do not buy a car that is an insurance write off. Here I am haveing paid for a car that I believed was 100% sound to find out 6 months later, its next to worthless. I am not happy and am getting no where with the company or there head office. So bewarned about HPI checks and what do I do now ?. Lastly, if I want to do a claim against the HPI company I have to send a cheque off for £180.00p before they will look at it, so I paid £2500.00p in June, the PX amount is £300, nice amount to lose.

 

2 words
trading standards

 

You should always have your own HPI done never use the sellers HPI

 

I agree although it was only a £500 car, I had a trader do a HPI for me when I purchased and it came up clear, since then I have found out it was CAT D, I was lucky as it was a cheapy but I learned my lesson....

 

whats the point in an HPI on 500 quid car

 

It might have outstanding finance on it for one, Tony.

As per Tony - always do your own HPI, plus the guarantees only apply for certain conditions and the check has to have been done by you the buyer, as far as I remember.

 

IF YOUR BUYING AND IT COULD MAYBE BE DODGY LIKE ITS TOO CHEEP etc you can show a hp i as proof you bought legit if it goes tits up. i have contacted the old bill before now to check the car i was buying was ok as it was from a salvage yard ( universal salvage now copart) and the rs turbo had a new id in the floor and a old id on the slam panel, the car came back ok and cleared by the copper who checked for me, not a lot of people know you can ask the plod to check cars like that

 

It does happen I sold a shell to Mark on here the other week, we bought it in good faith and checked it's history etc, only for Mark to find out AFTER we'd done our hpi it's been written off

On plus not we refunded Mark, and let him weigh it in so he probably made a few bob on it in the end.

Point is HPi isn't the be all and end all.

 

ive bought a few salvage cars over the times that havent showed right away but later on have showed as listed, sometimes i think its the insurance companys dragging there heels

 

Thats all we could put it down too

 

sometimes if you buy a salvage car it wont go on the list until you apply for the v5c, and then yo find out a vic test is needed.

 

my friends currently got HPI in court for a mistake they made have a search for the post on here doesn't fill me with confidence using them anymore

 

seen this before as well, it wasn't on the vcar it was finance
didn't happen to me personaly, was at my old work, we used to do sales there,
guy came in wanting to sell his rover 200(was a few years ago when these were worth something), salesman made him an offer, guy accepted, so sales did an hpi check, came back clear, gave the guy cash, guy promptly fooked off, couple weeks later car gets sold, when trying to arrange finance foe new owner it came back as having outstanding finance
turned out that the guy had only just bought it and it wasn't showing as being financed yet, we tried legal action against the hpi company but got nowhere, they said it was clear when it was checked
the work ended up a few grand out of pocket after having to clear the finance aswell so they could sell it, so its true the hpi checks aren't 100% garantee'd to be right

 

a lot of the cheaper hpi companies arent worth a shit.they dont even guarantee their information as they say it comes from a third party....

always best to do a proper one from a decent company.

 

some only record if v5 is applied for and normally your hpi comes insured so check it out

 

I had a full hpi check on that black saff that cost me £40! came back all clear..Turns out it was stolen recovered in 1993!!.. So even the more expensive ones aint worth a shit either.

 

hpi are crap, i had a rst with 3 hpi's in its history, all clear and no colour change, weird it was grey under the red

hpi is only as good as the id thats given in this case the id was great ever reciept n everything but the car was a wrong un

 

some hpi companys ask for u to supply the reg and chassis number and reference number of the log book if a mind correctly or they will not guarentee the check

like said above cars sometimes take a while to go on the register , have also heard of cars that are sold by salvage companys as NOT RECORDED and 6 months down the line end up registered as CAT D or CAT C .

 

that just means it had been rung up mate ,

 

no shit

 

In all honesty, be greatful you talking about a 500 quid car. It could be MUCH worse, so drop any kind of court proceedings, really is NOT worth it.

Any system is ripe for errors, the best you can do is get a decent check done, make sure paperwork is sent out and that YOU have done the check and it is in your name. This will go some way to help a claim.

As said, some salvage cars are shipped out quick before they are entered into the hpi list, and so in this case it would really be difficult to claim.

If you want to recoop, then don't px, sell private as a recorded car, I understood your trying to part ex it to a garage?? always going to give you less.

Still bad news though mate,