Good evening all,

This is a really good one.

Bought an MG4 2 weeks ago brand new, with Cash and had it registered with my Personal Reg which was on retention.

Now 2 weeks later I have rejected the car due to multiple issues.

I took the car back this week, only to now be told that they cant refund me due to the Car showing Outstanding finance, even though they openly admit that I paid cash for the car 2 weeks ago via their card machine.

It would appear now from checking the information with them that my VRM had a finance agreement put against it by Santander in Dec 2020.

I originally bough the Plate from DVLA in March 2020 and it was put onto my then Vehicle which I bought in Feb 2020 from Audi Main Dealer, also Cash purchase.

The plate was removed from this vehicle March 2021 and put onto retention pending my selling the Audi.

The plate has never been on a car that has had any finance against it since buying from the DVLA.

As per above the current outstanding finance was apparently taken out against my reg mid way though my still owning the Audi which was paid for in full by me.

So it would seem that My reg has had a finance marker against it since 2020 but I was blissfully unaware of this until now.

So at the minute I have rejected my MG4 to the dealer as I am still within my 30 day Short term rejection period, but now have no car and no money.... to the tune of £27,000 !!

They have spoken to Santander as have I, we have both been told that they will look into this but will not give any indication of how long this will take !

When I asked give me a ball park...

a day ?, a week ?, a month ?, 6 month ?

They said it would be definitely longer than a week.

Thankfully the dealer has offered me a loaner as I need a car for my Job or I'll lose that as well !!

Has anyone any advise on how to proceed with this ?

I've done nothing wrong here.

We're guessing that someone out there took out a finance agreement on another vehicle and the dealer put the wrong Reg in on the agreement form. (maybe 1 letter or number out)

But why haven't Santander Picked up on the fact that they have lent money against a VRM that cant have matched the Make and model of the actual financed car.

If they had run a check on my Reg they would have seen it was a black Audi SQ5 at the time not whatever the financer had bought !

They have said they need to speak to the original selling dealer (if they are still trading that is)

Then they need to speak to the person that signed the agreement before they can remove the marker against my Reg, even though now they have a 2 year old agreement against a 2 week old brand new vehicle, that they are now showing a financial interest in !

At our end now we are hoping that as we have removed my Reg from the car and given it a new reg, once the new 72 plate reg gets into the system this week that the car will show clean again and they can refund me.

so long as the finance doesn't transfer to the new reg, Which Santander won't have.

Which is the main factor here, as I need to buy another car, but I obviously still need the Finance removing from my plate so I can again assign it to my next car.

What a complete mess !!

Surely someone must be accountable for this screw up, it has caused stress like you wouldn't believe this week.

No car, No money and no idea when it will be sorted.

Seriously considering going to the FCA or the like with this as it is so badly managed by Santander, they should be Financing the VIN not the VRM.

Plates can and are changed across vehicles all the time, the finance should not be following it !

Thanks

Dean

Edited by Dean Jewson on 26/11/2022 at 22:13