Since then he has pretty much ridden it to the moon and back, completing the NC500, weekend trips to France and even down into Spain with me and my wife on our bikes. He has put a lot of ‘big bike’ riders to shame with the miles he has covered.
After passing his full test and saving some more pennies, the day came for him to chop in the mighty MT and get his first ‘big bike’ which he planned would be a Ducati Scrambler. Whilst it was fair to say it was quite a jump up in power, he is a sensible rider and by that point he had covered about 30,000 miles, so I wasn’t particularly worried.
However, when it came to chopping in the MT, the dealer did an HPI check on the bike and discovered it had outstanding finance from a previous owner. I couldn’t believe it. So, with that, the Ducati deal was off as he needed the trade-in money to make the numbers work. Thankfully, I had not purchased the MT off some random person, but from a dealer in the next town so I had someone to go back to.
However, whilst they have been friendly enough, they reckon they acted in good faith, and I need to speak to the finance company and track down the owner they bought the MT from to sort it out.
I have duly spoken to the finance company, but they will not give me the old owner’s details and reckon they own the bike due to the outstanding finance and want it back. They are now threatening to take my son to court if he does not comply. Help!
Answer
I am gutted to hear of your troubles. This sounds like a right royal cock-up. Firstly, I am afraid the finance company is right from what you have said.
If a previous person purchased the bike and did not pay off the finance, the bike still belongs to the finance company. Therefore, I am afraid your son will ultimately have to give the bike back to them unless someone pays off the finance (and I do not suggest you do this).
However, there is a silver lining to this particular cloud. Firstly, you purchased the bike off a dealer, rather than some ‘random person’ as you say. Therefore, you at least have someone to ‘aim your sights’ at and without doubt it should be the dealer. Whilst they say they may have been acting in ‘good faith’, the fact is they did not have ‘good title’ of the MT-125 in the first place, i.e. because it still belonged to the finance company.
Therefore, legally, they cannot pass the ownership or ‘good title’ on to you, even though you paid them money. As such, the way to deal with this is ask the dealer to give you your money back. Don’t get fobbed off and don’t get involved in tracking down the previous owner, etc. That is not your problem. The buck stops with the dealer as far as you are concerned and if they will not give you the money back, you will have to take them to the Small Claims Court.
As long as you get your paperwork in order proving you purchased the bike from the dealer, etc., you will win. If the dealer in turn want to chase down the previous owner for their money, that is a matter for them.
Andrew Prendergast
More Bikes December 2023
