Do you make a receipt when selling cars privately?

[DannyVTS]

Well, do you? The last 2 cars i bought privately have both had homemade receipts

If all goes to plan i will have sold my car tomorrow.. Will it be wise to make one of these "sold as seen" receipts? I/e do they actually have any legal value?

Danny

P.s, if anyone wants to donate a template, i'd be more than grateful

[magpie215]

ta da

2 second google search revealed

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/car-buyers-gu...

HTH

[lordlee]

DannyVTS said:

Well, do you? The last 2 cars i bought privately have both had homemade receipts

If all goes to plan i will have sold my car tomorrow.. Will it be wise to make one of these "sold as seen" receipts? I/e do they actually have any legal value?

Danny

P.s, if anyone wants to donate a template, i'd be more than grateful

Always, just to cover myself. Always put sold as seen too.

[WeirdNeville]

I do, and I also put down the date and time the vehicle was handed to them. I then keep a copy, signed by both of us.
This is to clear up any issues if they then decide to test the vehicles performance through a Speed camera 20 mins later, and it has in fact helped me out once when a car I sold got caught on camera doing a prohibited right turn a couple of days later.

[anonymous-user]

I've never sold a car, but when I bought mine I signed 2 receipts and so did the seller. We took one receipt each. The price was on it, date, "sold as seen", both our names and the registration number of the car.

ETA: Time is a good idea judging by the above! I hadn't thought of that.

Edited by MSTRBKR on Sunday 21st November 09:32

[STW2010]

You can get a blank receipt from the What Car website too. I've used these in the past two sales that I've done.

[Greg_D]

i always put 'sold as seen and inspected' to head off any claims that they didn't look for 'x' that may subsequently fail

Greg

[Ozzie Osmond]

ALWAYS have a receipt. There's no fancy form. It just needs to make clear (1) who's sold (2) what (3) to who, (4) the price. Ideally you want two copies and both people sign both copies; buyer keeps one, seller keeps the other.

Also ALWAYS have a clear receipt if you pay a holding deposit. It needs to add a date by which the sale is to be finalised because if you're the seller you don't want to fooling about for weeks trying to get the buyer to pay and collect.

"Sold as seen" means nothing in a private sale so don't kid yourselves. All the risk is automatically on the buyer unless something else is specifically agreed (and in reality, written down and signed). On the other hand it doesn't do any harm.

And please - NEVER buy a car you haven't driven. Even if you only get to drive once your insurance is arranged.

[Greg_D]

i always put 'sold as seen and inspected' to head off any claims that they didn't look for 'x' that may subsequently fail

Greg

[NUEZ]

I always print out two copies of the pistonheads advert and get signatures and addresses of both seller and buyer on their.

Always add ''inspected and sold as seen, no warranty given or implied''

[WeirdNeville]

Ozzie Osmond said:

"Sold as seen" means nothing in a private sale so don't kid yourselves. All the risk is automatically on the buyer unless something else is specifically agreed (and in reality, written down and signed).

Exactly.
I have never written this on a recipt, just because I think it immediately looks like you've had the buyer over.
Nothing could be further from the truth, I sell my cars openly and honestly, and I am very up front about any faults I might know about. Generally though, I fix those faults before trying to sell the car, even if they haven't annoyed me enough in my ownership to fix at the time.

Nothing would sour me more than the seller penning "Sold as seen" onto the receipt moments after I've handed over cold hard cash, and as it means nothing, I don't want the poor buyer to be driving the car home wondering what's about to fall off, break, or if the car is even safe.

Time, date, Reg number, and price paid is fine for me, along with new keepers address.

[bazking69]

When buying o selling I always make sure the receipt says exactly what I want it to.

[12gauge]

I always offer a sold as seen piece of paper with signature. Not sure what the point is given no warranty is implied. I guess nor does the buyer, as they always turn down my offer to write the 'receipt'