Selling cars from your house

[laser7]

There's a bloke at the top of my road who sells cars from his house. He uses the road itself as his showroom but doesn't display for sale signs in the cars. Quite often he'll park the car for sale up onto the pavement completely as the road is double-yellow lines when people come to view the car, thereby blocking the entire pavement.

Are people allowed to sell cars from their house? He's been there for a few years so I guess it must be all above board.

[Cupramax]

Are people allowed to sell cars, yes, are they allowed to completely block. the pavement due to double yellow lines, no.

[Claudia Skies]

Cupramax said:

Are people allowed to sell cars, yes, are they allowed to completely block. the pavement due to double yellow lines, no.

Wrong. You are not allowed to run a car trade lot at your home unless you have obtained planning permission for "change of use".

OP - if this is a nuisance to you it would be best to contact the local authority and complain. You could also contact HMRC and invite them to make sure this trader is properly declaring his income for tax.

[trickywoo]

laser7 said:

Are people allowed to sell cars from their house?

Yes but quite a few people do it on the fly. There are unsurprisingly quite a few rules and regulations. https://www.gov.uk/run-business-from-home

PH is full of idiots ready to call grass and frankly I can't be bothered with them. If this chap is causing problems I'd be letting as many authorities as possible know. If he is above board he shouldn't be carrying out business on double yellows.

[bridboy]

You can sell cars for private sale, if he is running a business from home then he may invalidate his private home insurance if he hasn't told his insurer, also same for the cars if he is buying & using as a trader, not sure what else he would need to register ie with the council for rates and the tax man etc, so if he hasn't done those then no he can't but I have no idea what defines him as a trader against someone doing cars up and selling as a hobby.
the double yellows depend on the restrictions in force for that section.

[andy-xr]

How's the new tax rules working for this guy then? I guess he's registered somewhere to be able to cover the road tax somehow

[JordanTurbo]

laser7 said:

...Quite often he'll park the car for sale up onto the pavement completely as the road is double-yellow lines....

Double yellow lines apply up to the highway boundary (normally the fence, wall or hedge) and include any pavement or grass verge within that boundary.

[SteveSteveson]

bridboy said:

no idea what defines him as a trader against someone doing cars up and selling as a hobby.

It's a bit of a gray area, but I would guess that if someone has more than one car for sale at a time HMRC will not view it as a hobby. They would then do some investigation and ask for details to confirm if it is a hobby or not.

This is what ebay has to say covering the hobby/business divide:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/When-does-eBay-selling-b...

Personally I would suggest the council is the best place to start. They would be interested both for planning and business rates (which would be significantly more than council tax).

[Toaster Pilot]

andy-xr said:

How's the new tax rules working for this guy then? I guess he's registered somewhere to be able to cover the road tax somehow

He could have trade insurance and trade plates which makes it a non-issue (apart from parking untaxed vehicles on a public road)

He could also just be an utter chancer.....

[sparkyhx]

not from Bradford is he? - I might have visited him when looking for a cheap car for my son. He had about 10-15 cars all parked on a side street, fortunately every single one of them was an absolute shed. They must have been unsold Auction rejects, they were so bad.

[datum77]

One of the "wheezes" that people do when flogging cars from home is NOT to run it as a proper business. ANYONE who sells cars for a living, (be they Fred Bloggs out of Grandads shed, or a multi-franchise big boy), HAS to pay VAT on the profit of a car. That is, if they pay £2000 for a car at auction and sell it for £3000, they are required by law to pay the VAT element of the £1000 profit, (that's around £150ish). That is completely regardless of ANY monies spent on putting right anything that's wrong. He is, probably pocketing this money. The point I am making is that the VATMAN will be very interested in what this guy is doing. That's over and above the council or any other agency with an interest in someone flogging cars at the roadside. HE IS running a business, but trying to keep it quite in a suburban environment is almost impossible.
Grass him up !!!!

[balls-out]

You might check if the cars all have valid road tax (online since the disk has gone).
They certainly can't be on the road without it.

[Mr_Yogi]

datum77 said:

One of the "wheezes" that people do when flogging cars from home is NOT to run it as a proper business. ANYONE who sells cars for a living, (be they Fred Bloggs out of Grandads shed, or a multi-franchise big boy), HAS to pay VAT on the profit of a car. That is, if they pay £2000 for a car at auction and sell it for £3000, they are required by law to pay the VAT element of the £1000 profit, (that's around £150ish). That is completely regardless of ANY monies spent on putting right anything that's wrong. He is, probably pocketing this money. The point I am making is that the VATMAN will be very interested in what this guy is doing. That's over and above the council or any other agency with an interest in someone flogging cars at the roadside. HE IS running a business, but trying to keep it quite in a suburban environment is almost impossible.
Grass him up !!!!

Don't you only have to pay VAT if you are VAT Registered or is it different for cars?

[rev-erend]

Blimey some advice here ..

If the guy is making money from this, he might be pretty upset to be shopped by a neighbour.

So, if you do decide to do something then keep quite about it else he might be paying you a visit.

Some people can be quite unpleasant.

[Riktoid]

He sounds like a dodgy, selfish cock who doesn't give a toss for his neighbours.

Just like your local friendly 'on the side' car mechanic with collection of 'jobs in progress' blocking the street.

[Buff Mchugelarge]

Mr_Yogi said:

datum77 said:

One of the "wheezes" that people do when flogging cars from home is NOT to run it as a proper business. ANYONE who sells cars for a living, (be they Fred Bloggs out of Grandads shed, or a multi-franchise big boy), HAS to pay VAT on the profit of a car. That is, if they pay £2000 for a car at auction and sell it for £3000, they are required by law to pay the VAT element of the £1000 profit, (that's around £150ish). That is completely regardless of ANY monies spent on putting right anything that's wrong. He is, probably pocketing this money. The point I am making is that the VATMAN will be very interested in what this guy is doing. That's over and above the council or any other agency with an interest in someone flogging cars at the roadside. HE IS running a business, but trying to keep it quite in a suburban environment is almost impossible.
Grass him up !!!!

Don't you only have to pay VAT if you are VAT Registered or is it different for cars?

VAT threshold is £81K. He's doing well if he is?!

[bristolracer]

I know someone who put their own car on a main road to sell it, sign in the window and all that.
The local car trader who used the road as his own car lot rang him up and had a go at him for selling his car on "my Turf"

He told the car dealer to eff off and if he was that unhappy about it he should report it to the council.