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Hi all.
I bought a 2006 Mazda Axela last year for $8,000. I drove the car for 3 months, then downgraded. I sold the vehicle for $7,300, bought myself a cheaper car and paid off some loans with the leftover cash.

The car has now been repossessed from the buyers. They are taking me, alongside the person I got the car from (who took out the original loan), to the disputes tribunal. They want $7,300. I DID NOT KNOW about the money owing, nor did they. I was never contacted by the finance company, and sold the car in good faith. Neither of us got any PPSR checks performed on the vehicle at the time of purchase. Rookie move.
I did offer them a PPSR check at the time of sale, and have proof of this.

The hearing is June 28th. I do not think that the seller who sold the car to me will show. I cannot contact them. Am I going to lose this Tribunal case, and owe the buyers $7,300? I cannot afford it at all. Surely it is buyer beware? I have proof that I did not mislead them in the sale, and did not know of the finance myself. Will I be okay?

If you have bought a vehicle privately, and it has been used as security for a loan or purchased using finance that has not been repaid, then the lending company has the right to claim ownership and repossess the vehicle.

If this has happened to you, you can take the previous owner to the Disputes Tribunal under the Sale of Goods Act to try to get a refund. However if the previous owner wasn’t able to make the payments on the car in the first place, they may not be able to repay you either.

Because you have sold this vehicle to another person, they may try to claim compensation from you If they were persuaded to buy a car based on misleading statements from yourself.