Hi folks, let's me go straight to my concern here.

I'm going to buy a new car. The problem is that there is security interest on it (from 2013, expires in 2018, checked on both carjam and ppsr site). The current owner told me that according to the previous owner, the debt has been pay off. But the security interest still appears on these 2 sites so I'm quite confusing now. 

I've sent email to the secured company about that but I don't think I'll get the answer for it so I think I can ask you guys then.

I did research about this case and this is the closest I can found:

"If you bought your vehicle from a business that was a registered motor vehicle trader and the “security interest” field on the Consumer Information Notice wasn’t ticked, then you received no warning of the security interest. This means the finance company can’t repossess the vehicle from you. You must tell the finance company to contact the business for their money."

 

"If you bought a vehicle privately or at a car market or fair, special rules apply.

 

If a finance company had a registered security interest in the vehicle at the time you bought the vehicle, then they can repossess the vehicle from you. But, there are three exceptions to this rule:

 

If at any time between when the security interest was created and when you bought the vehicle, the vehicle passed through a registered motor vehicle trader.

 

The finance company can’t repossess the vehicle from you because it was sold through a registered motor vehicle trader after it became subject to the security interest.

 

• Example: Ellie buys a car for cash from Easy Cars Ltd, a registered motor vehicle trader. She sells it a few months later to her friend Henrietta.

   

  Henrietta gets a call from a finance company to say that the car is still on a credit contract to a past owner. Henrietta finds out that the person who sold the car to Easy Cars Ltd used the car as security on a cash loan. Henrietta tells the finance company to get their money from Easy Cars Ltd. The finance company can’t take Henrietta’s car because it was sold through a registered motor vehicle trader after it became subject to the security interest"

   

(Source: http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/for-consumers/motor-vehicles/got-a-problem/money-owing-by-a-previous-owner)

So in this case, since the beginning of the security interest, the car has changed ownership 4 times.

1st owner after security interest is the dealer (A), they sold the car to private owner (B).

B sold the car to another dealer (C)

Dealer C sold the car to private owner (D)

D sold the car to private owner (E)

E is the current owner now. From information he got from owner D, the debt has been pay off. I only got the tax invoice for the transaction between C and D, there is only basic information about the car (colour, make, model, km's, etc), there is no information about the money owning on the car. I can't get the CIN for that.

So my question are:

If the current owner E told me that there is security interest on it, the finance company can come and take the car, I'm understand this. But if the current owner E don't know or unsure about the security interest on the vehicle, can the finance company take the car from me after I bought it? It's similar to the case from the consumer affair website but they didn't mention that whether Ellie knew about the security interest or not.

The car has been Re-Registered and selling cheaper than similar cars so I think it must be something wrong with it but after clearly about the money owning, I can bring it to do pre-purchase inspection but it is another story.

Any help would be appreciate. Cheers :)