Petition Protect car buyers from previous owners' logbook loans

Due to the Bills of Sale Act 1882 still being in force, if you buy a car second hand from a private seller, you may be "inheriting" that person's logbook loan. This means that the car does not belong to you (even though you have paid for it and have all the documents for it), but to the logbook loan company, who can come and seize it from you at any time. The police will not do anything, as the car legally belongs to the logbook loan company.

At present, logbook loan companies do not have to register these loans anywhere (the Consumer Credit Trade Association Code is voluntary). This means that logbook loans will not show up on HPI or any other checks. I feel that new legislation should be put in place to make such registration compulsory, so that a prospective purchaser can check whether the car they intend to buy has a logbook loan registered against it. See BBC Watchdog programme of 10th May 2011 for more details.