Here's a bizarre thing. My aged parents, now in their nineties, have decided to give up driving so I have been tasked with selling their car. It's a 2009 Fiesta, nothing exciting but fully spec'd with only 28K on the clock and full service history so it has some value.
My local garage did me a deal and yesterday they were about to transfer me the funds when it all went pear-shaped ... the HPI check said that the car was an Insurance Write Off! In detail:
"
Catagory B Insurance Loss. Bodyshell should have been crushed. Vehicle should not be on the road". Followed by "
Aprilia SR 50" and the date 29/8/2010
Now this is clearly an error, my parents have had the car from new and one of us would have noticed if they'd written it off in 2010! In any case, although the VIN is of the Fiesta, the detail clearly says Aprilia SR50 ... an Italian moped!
Things then got very fraught. The garage rang HPI who say they have to launch an investigation to confirm it's an error and this takes 7-10 days. Not in itself a problem, but the only way the CAT B flag can be removed is for the insurance company that put it there to take it off. We were warned that even if the insurance company still exists (by no means guaranteed), and after 12 years still has the records, they may be unwilling to help. We could be stuck with the car being an unsaleable write-off and I'd have to scrap it!
The garage has been more than helpful. They accept that the car is genuine but with the system saying it's a CAT B write-off it's worthless to them. My parents' car has effectively been written off by red tape.
Has anyone else encountered a situation like this? The car salesman reckons in 22 years he hasn't! Any suggestions to resolve it gratefully received (I have advanced IT skills so hackery isn't out of the question!)
