What happens with a HP vehicle on a defaulted and statute barred agreement?

[.Nia]

Coming up to 16 years ago I bought a vehicle on Hire Purchase. It was a 4 year agreement and after 3 years I hit financial issues. Ended up offering the creditor who was the manufacturer the vehicle back with a list of the issues common to that model. One issue required an engine casing replacement which would have cost more than was remaining on the agreement. They declined my offer to hand it back after they almost went as far as court for repossession. Ended up on £5 per month whilst my finances were grim. I ended up moving home, things got worse and I kinda ended up forgetting about it after changing banks. I hadn't updated my address with them and I never heard anything over email. I moved again and now at this point I am over 12 years since default and about 10 years since last payment or contact. As the vehicle was on HP and has outstanding finance, who actually owns it? I know it remains the property of the creditor until payments are completed, but the creditor refused to take the vehicle back, in this situation, who actually has ownership? They didn't make any attempts to contact me or repossess the vehicle after I stopped making token payments, so can they be assumed to have abandoned any claim to it? I have no intention to sell it, just curious where it sits legally.

[Pezza54]

You are right. The finance company is still the owner.
Debtors have a duty to notify creditors when they change address and your finance agreement probably covered this
When you stopped making payments and the fc was unable to contact you, they could have reported to the police that the vehicle has been stolen.
You should carry out a vehicle check on the internet

[.Nia]

There was a reasonable period between being unable to continue payments and moving the first time (about 6 months), they just seemed to not care after finding out how many (very common) issues it had. Just said pay what I can afford per month and that was it after ending repossession proceedings, Never chased up the odd month I missed it either. They did also in writing state they had no interest in the vehicle any longer. It was in use on the road since then, registered to previous and current address, and maybe 7 years ago I did HPI checks on a few of my vehicles including this one and it only had a finance marker on it. Thing is sat with a rotting out frame now thanks to crap design choices and may never see the road again.