Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Sell my car? Computer says "NO".

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!)

Surprising that this hasn't been picked up by their current insurance company - I'm assuming they've insured it in the 10 years

So all those years of it driving around and the cops havent had thats its a cat B flag up on ANPR ! !

Sorry to read of your issue Ian, Though I suspect it is perhaps a foul up in the data bank. I`m guessing you used the DVLA system to check MOT history for the reg to see what comes up..?

I have known where the same reg was apparently issued to two vehicles many years ago, one of which was not used on the road for most of it`s life, and only when subjected to a HGV inspection given the possibility of road use, did the issue come to light... Unfortunately I do not remember the way it was resolved.. sorry.

I suspect it can be sorted it though how much time that might take these days..?

Likewise. Could it be the wrong reg?

I had an MB E Estate delivered by MB Fleet Sales. It was already reg'd as LS63__E. When I went to register this for London ConCh it said it was a Pink FIAT500. On investigation the company that MB Fleet used to prep the car did many makes and had fitted the wrong plates and the FIAT had my plate LS63__D. They got swapped and so things were resolved. During that period I had not checked if the plate was right as I would not question something like that.

Once I was aware I did a check on some of the sites that refer back to the DVLA against Reg including tyre sales (Blackcircles etc) as well as the DVLA against my V5c as well, this showed the reg I had on the MB as also being a pink FIAT500. Well lets just say I am not confident enough to get away with driving that.

Have you tried doing an HPI check yourself?

Try starting the process for putting a car up for sale on auto trader - that does a basic check for nothing & would show if it is CAT B , by putting in the numberplate it should also confirm that the plate is assigned to a Fiesta not a Bike.

May also be worth a call to whoever the car is insured by - they will have access to the database to see if there is a record of any claim showing against that plate.

Me too..!

I think one of your first ports of call should be to the current insurers, Ian. They accepted the risk on the basis of honesty, and if there is a large marker against the registration/VIN then they should not only be aware but asking questions of the proposer.

It's really unusual, I must say. But given the huge numbers of the database, perhaps not unusual. Either way, it's rotten luck and your mum & dad must be so upset by it all.

Just to be clear, there is nothing against the registration number for the car, it has a clean V5 and 14 years of continuous tax and insurance. The car has been owned by my parents from new. They have never been more than 30 miles in it at a time and never made an insurance claim.

Unfortunately, the motor industry doesn't rely on the DVLA, they use the HPI database. In 2010 someone at a Jersey company called Islands Insurance somehow added the CAT B marker against the wrong VIN. HPI claim their database is 99% accurate, sadly my parents are in the other 1%.

I appreciate that mistakes can happen but the frustration is that it is seemingly impossible to correct.

If all else fails do you know a friendly lawyer who could pen a letter on your behalf (or maybe an unfriendly one! 🙂)? ..... surely the potential consequential losses and distress and worry to your elderly parents along with your time spent dealing with things billed at your highest rate could be leveraged to a decent amount? ..might focus their minds on actually doing something about it! .... ... the mere fact they don't have a transparent and prominently published procedure for resolving mistakes in their database must leave them legally wrong-footed and vulnerable?

K

.Islands Insurance are still trading and are normally pretty responsive.