Does this car have finance still attached?
If a car has outstanding finance, the lender — not the seller — legally owns it. Run the check before you transfer a single penny.
- ✓ All major UK lenders
- ✓ HP, PCP & lease-purchase
- 🔒 Encrypted lookups
- ⚡ Instant
What we check
Every active UK car-finance product
HP and PCP agreements
The two most common UK car finance products. While the agreement is live, the lender — not the seller — owns the car.
Lease purchase & balloon
Lease-purchase, balloon hire-purchase and contract-purchase agreements are all flagged where present.
Logbook loans
Bills of sale registered against the car. Less common since regulation, but still active and dangerous to inherit.
All major UK lenders
We query the major UK finance houses — Black Horse, Santander Consumer, Volkswagen Financial Services, Close Brothers, MotoNovo, BMW Financial Services and the rest.
The buyer's risk
Why outstanding finance is the most expensive thing to miss
Of every check we run, this is the one that ends in repossession most often. The data exists; people just don't look.
The lender can repossess from you
If finance is owed, the car still legally belongs to the lender. They can — and do — repossess it from a new owner who didn't run a check.
You get no compensation
Repossession of a financed car is lawful even when you bought in good faith. You may have a claim against the seller, but only if you can find them.
You inherit the seller's debt risk
If the seller has any other claims against the car (logbook loan, county-court judgment), the same buyer-beware rule applies.
Frequently asked questions
- There is no fully free outstanding-finance check in the UK — the data sits behind paid feeds from the major UK finance houses. A single VDI outstanding-finance check is £7.49 and includes the full Full HPI report.
- The car still legally belongs to the lender until the finance is settled. They can repossess it from you, even if you bought in good faith. You may then have a civil claim against the seller — assuming you can find them.
- No. The V5C records the registered keeper, not the legal owner. A car with finance can still be sold with a perfectly legitimate-looking logbook. This is exactly what makes the finance check essential.
- All the major UK car-finance lenders. Volkswagen Financial Services, BMW Financial Services, Black Horse, Santander Consumer, Close Brothers Motor Finance, MotoNovo, Mann Island and the rest. If finance is registered, we'll flag it.
- Walk away, or insist the seller settles the finance and provides a settlement letter from the lender confirming the agreement is closed. Do not transfer money on the seller's promise alone.
Run the check before you commit
The outstanding-finance check is included in every Full HPI report.