Buying a car to re-sell...insurance issues?

[daemon]

Shuvi McTupya said:

SantaBarbara said:

House sales are quite different though.

How so?

If I buy a house at auction to turn around in a month for a quick profit everyone would pat me on the back , I wouldn't have to tell the prospective buyer that I was a professional house builder and give them a warrantee . They would be responsible to have the house inspected if they so choose.

I don't really see why everyone gets up in arms when you are talking about a road legal sub £1k car rather than a £500k building.

Because the processes and law are different. As part of conveyancing on a property you engage with a solicitor. The solicitor will perform searches to establish with local authorities any future plans (for example are they building a motorway through your back garden next year), searches to ensure the seller has title to the property (ie, actually owns it ), environmental searches, flood risk searches, etc, to name but a few.

There will also be legal contracts drawn up, describing the transaction and whats including in the sale. If the house is a new house, the seller (builder) is obliged to have an NHBC approval / warranty on the house and will be expected to put right any defects or faults found for the first 2 (?) years and outside of that faults will be handled through the NHBC warranty.

If you were to take ownership of the house and the contractual obligations were not met - for example the oil boiler needed a costly repair or items described as included in the sale were not present - then the buyer would have legal recourse against the seller

Likewise if you're reselling property for profit, its classed as a business and you will have to pay tax on profits, etc.
Are you really suggesting that we should have that due diligence legal process with selling a car OR should people who are selling a car for profit not just fulfill their legal obligations and man up and declare they are trade, rather than try to weasel out of it with various excuses to justify their behaviours?

[Shuvi McTupya]

I don't think the law says all that must happen in order to sell a house!!

I could give you a briefcase full of cash for your house and buy it on a whim if I wanted, and you were happy to accept it. And you could just give me a receipt and the 'V5'

As far as tax goes, I am not bothered about that side of things in the slightest. I would quite happily tell the tax man I made a profit of a couple of hundred quid.

And if someone wants to employ an inspection company to 'survey' the car prior to purchase I have no issues with that either.

Edited by Shuvi McTupya on Thursday 10th August 13:02

[SantaBarbara]

Come back Arthur Daley, all is forgiven

[Shuvi McTupya]

I happen to like buying things for cash, that doesn't mean anything illegal is happening or anyone is being ripped off.

Of course We could use the very upstanding banking and solicitor industry for every transaction.

Biggest thieves around if you ask me, just give me a nice wad of folding!!

[speedking31]

daemon said:

speedking31 said:

daemon said:

Say your dad went out and bought a car with his hard earned to get him to work and back or to potter about in it and it turned out to be a complete shed of a thing needing a fortune spent on it to get it up to the standard you'd reasonably expect. He'd bought it "in good faith" from what he thought was a private seller. You then googled the buyers phone number and it turned out the seller had had a string of cars for sale recently, but when you ring him to confront him he says "sorry pal, private sale. I just do this as a side line".

You'd be happy about that would you? Because i suspect not.

What if you googled the number and it turned out it was a private seller? Would you be better off?

<SNIP>If you bought a car off a private seller, then thats not an issue?

If you bought a car off someone who is masquerading as a private seller to avoid their responsibilities as a trader, thats a different issue.

What difference does it make to you as the purchaser?

If someone masquerades as a trader and you buy a car expecting a warranty, something goes wrong and they do not cover it, then you are worse off than if they were a legit trader. But if you buy from someone who you think is a private seller, then you are not relying on the warranty, and you are in no different a position if they are really a trader or not. You would have carried out the same due diligence as if in a private sale, not relying on any implied warranty.

[Gad-Westy]

Speed Badger said:

I once bought a Ford Orion <snip> Does this make me a bad person?

I'm afraid so, yes.

[lewishollings]

The Spruce goose said:

you sell the car as spare repairs with fault listed i can't see any come back. i think when people don't list a fault and sell as trade there is an issue.

The problem with you being honest you may as well just stick it back in the auction as another poster said, it might be immaculate but it is an old car with a very small amount of potential buyers, even less with a known fault.

Very small amount of potential buyers? Completely disagree with that, it's a car fit for a first car scenario, all you need is a buyer with a dad and a bit of know how I find.

[katz]

Shuvi McTupya said:

I don't think the law says all that must happen in order to sell a house!!

I could give you a briefcase full of cash for your house and buy it on a whim if I wanted, and you were happy to accept it. And you could just give me a receipt and the 'V5'

As far as tax goes, I am not bothered about that side of things in the slightest. I would quite happily tell the tax man I made a profit of a couple of hundred quid.

And if someone wants to employ an inspection company to 'survey' the car prior to purchase I have no issues with that either.

Edited by Shuvi McTupya on Thursday 10th August 13:02

but if something went wrong with the house- subsidence- and you found out that the seller was really a part time house developer, you would expect that they would be kept to the same standards as any other developer. The value of the property is irrelevant, £500 or £500K