Checking if a car is "in trade"
Discussion
I need to check if a car is currently "in trade".
Normally this would be a case of simply phoning the DVLA, waiting on hold for half an hour and then asking the question.
At the moment, however, the DVLA are not accepting calls for obvious reasons, so is there any way of obtaining this information for definite?
Hope someone can help!
Normally this would be a case of simply phoning the DVLA, waiting on hold for half an hour and then asking the question.
At the moment, however, the DVLA are not accepting calls for obvious reasons, so is there any way of obtaining this information for definite?
Hope someone can help!
How about doing a vehicle enquiry at DVLA? Link is below. In my experience, they come up as 'untaxed' . A private owner (apart from the forgetful or odd scrote of course) would keep a vehicle either SORN or with a valid VED. Once it passes into the trade, the most recent owner gets a refund of any unused VED. The date it is 'untaxed' since will most likely not be the last day of a month either.
A recent addition is the most recent issue date of a V5c which can be helpful:
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/?_ga=2.10466...
A recent addition is the most recent issue date of a V5c which can be helpful:
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/?_ga=2.10466...
V8fan said:
How about doing a vehicle enquiry at DVLA? Link is below. In my experience, they come up as 'untaxed' . A private owner (apart from the forgetful or odd scrote of course) would keep a vehicle either SORN or with a valid VED. Once it passes into the trade, the most recent owner gets a refund of any unused VED. The date it is 'untaxed' since will most likely not be the last day of a month either.
A recent addition is the most recent issue date of a V5c which can be helpful:
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/?_ga=2.10466...
That's a good point. The car is question does show up a "untaxed", whereas I ran a check on one of my own personal cars, which I know is currently on a SORN and that shows up as "SORN". It's not a definitive answer though as the previous registered keeper could still be getting tax reminders sent to them and not doing anything about it. A recent addition is the most recent issue date of a V5c which can be helpful:
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/?_ga=2.10466...
The Issue Date is a useful thing, but again doesn't help in this instance as when a vehicle goes in trade a V5 isn't issued, so no info can be gained for this purpose. Hopefully the fact that it's showing as untaxed is a good sign though.....
sc0tt said:
What is “in trade”?
When a vehicle gets passed into the ownership of any company classed as a Motor Trader (Dealership, garage, insurance company etc), DVLA obviously have to be notified, but they don't get put added as a keeper on the V5. Otherwise this would mean a 2-owner car could become a 4 owner car just by passing through two garages. Also, it means that a garage can buy a car and then sell it 10 minutes later as they retain the existing V5 rather than having to wait for new documents to be produced. It's all done via the yellow slip.The only issue is when a trader gets a car that has no V5, but was bought through the trade and then they want to sell it. Unless they want to apply for a new V5, which adds a keeper unnecessarily and means waiting for new paperwork to arrive, it means that the person wanting to buy the car would have to send off the V62 to get the new V5 in their name. Again, fine if it's something they can wait for, but if they want to tax it and drive it away then they need to complete the V62 at the post office, but they can only do that and tax it at the same time if the car is in trade. If it's still registered to a keeper on the V5 (wherever it is), then it can't be done, unless you know the postcode of the registered keeper on the V5, which if it came through trade without the V5 then you won't know anyway!
mbwoy84 said:
I need to check if a car is currently "in trade".
I presume it's a car you're looking to buy.Also guessing you think the seller is trade but posing as a private seller?
The first questions I ask a private seller are "how long have you owned the car? Is it registered in your name?"
That weasles out most of them trying to pretend they're not Trade.
And if I had ten quid for everytime I heard "I bought it for the missus and she didn't like it" I'd be able to buy myself a nice watch.
Also be wary of the "I'll meet you at my work"
I've known dodgy dealers offload something horrid by getting a pay as you go mobile for the advert, meeting you somewhere, then binning the sim card as soon as you've paid your cash and driven off.
Sorry if you know all this already, but I'd sooner speak up rather than another victim get caught out.
Trevor555 said:
I presume it's a car you're looking to buy.
Also guessing you think the seller is trade but posing as a private seller?
No, I'm the Trader. (Own a bodyshop/restoration workshop). I bought the car from Copart months ago as an apprentice project as part of our annual training workshop. The car came with no V5 (that happens more often that not with Copart). The car is a Cat N, so not an S or C where the V5 gets destroyed, they just tend to get lost going from pillar to post. I wasn't in any rush to sell it, and it was never advertised anywhere, but someone who bought a car from us before, which came via Copart for the same reason (no issue that time though as the car was kept for a year as a courtesy car/runabout, so was registered in our company name on the V5 anyway). Also guessing you think the seller is trade but posing as a private seller?
Naturally, I didn't expect to sell anything until the world had returned to something approaching normality, but the person who wants the car is a nurse and needs a car ASAP and after the previous car I sold them went so well for 3 years until it was recently written off they're keen on buying this one.
ChrisDT said:
Check to see if it is taxed online, if it shows an odd date (Not an exact month end) i.e 17/03/2020 then it's most likely in the trade as when you sell a car the dealer marks it in the trade online and it shows the tax ended the date they did it.
It's showing as the 31st of the month. syl said:
Coronavirus can now spread by telephony?
The Red Dwarf Holovirus could be 
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7t0pqb
Edited by CardiffHywel on Monday 30th March 23:18
mbwoy84 said:
ChrisDT said:
Check to see if it is taxed online, if it shows an odd date (Not an exact month end) i.e 17/03/2020 then it's most likely in the trade as when you sell a car the dealer marks it in the trade online and it shows the tax ended the date they did it.
It's showing as the 31st of the month. andymc said:
then it's not in trade
Just done the same check on all of the cars I have that are definitely in trade (I put them in myself upon purchase and have the V5s here) and they are all showing the 31st of the month, apart from one which curiously shows as SORN (The previous owner had it on SORN prior to me purchasing it as a project).I forgot to update this thread to say that the car was in trade and when I went to the post office to ask if I could tax it for the new owner with their details filled out on the V62, it went through no problems.
Just thought I’d conclude with that in case it helps anyone else in future via a search.
Just thought I’d conclude with that in case it helps anyone else in future via a search.
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