Whats the procedure for

buying a car which has a financial interest from a finance house.

personally i would walk away from it and avoid it. kaz would be the one who would know. I have done a bit of digging years ago and i found you have no rights to know anything and the finance company wont tell you anything so all you need is a dishonest person and then the finace company will want to know where the car is so they can repo it off you. = in my opinion avoid at any cost. to risky
Maybe there is a specific saveguarding procedure but i think i would not waste my time
because i think if a person needed finace to buy a car its probably never serviced as they did not even have money to buy how on earth are they going to service the thing then.
but hey thats my reasons they dont need to be true for me to avoid em.
but if they dont tell you they have finace on it then you have a good chance that my version will come true.

Beno-Its not super difficult-just frustrating.
The person with the finance has to get a non refinancing settlement figure from the finance company. Its important this is correct.
The problem is that because of the privacy act YOU can't just ask for a settlemet figure .It has to be the owner.
You don't want the loan balance you want the SETTLEMENT figure.
You also need to ensure this settlement figure is in wrighting/e mail and has a clear expiry date.
The normal logistics then is that you pay the settlement figure directly to the finance company and the balance to the seller.
I would be walking away if the seller insisted on being paid or if no clear settlement figure was produced.
I'd also want an assurance that the security will be released by the finance company.Im in slightly unfamiliar territory here re a private individual so don't take the following as gospel.
For me (as a dealer) once the owner has given the finance company permission for me to talk to them then I deal direct with the person there.

cool thanks Kaz