Buying a car with an outdated v5?

[sazshx]

Hi guys, looking at buying a used car privately from a small mot/repair garage which has a couple of other cars for sale too.

The car I'm interested in has a v5, but it's in the name of the previous keeper who lives 200 miles away. I asked the seller why this is and they said as they are a business they didn't need to send off the v5, and that they could change it to my ownership online.

Aside from the obvious problem that they might not keep their word, does anyone know of any other problems with this? Do businesses not need to send off a v5 for a car? I'm very confused and Google hasn't helped a lot lol

Cheers

[Saleen836]

I stand to be corrected but AFAIK a business/trader fills out the relevant trader section,if they have not can they prove the vehicle is theirs to sell?

[123DWA]

sazshx said:

Hi guys, looking at buying a used car privately from a small mot/repair garage which has a couple of other cars for sale too.

The car I'm interested in has a v5, but it's in the name of the previous keeper who lives 200 miles away. I asked the seller why this is and they said as they are a business they didn't need to send off the v5, and that they could change it to my ownership online.

Aside from the obvious problem that they might not keep their word, does anyone know of any other problems with this? Do businesses not need to send off a v5 for a car? I'm very confused and Google hasn't helped a lot lol

Cheers

They are correct. When a garage buys a car they put the car "in to trade" rather than changing the owners. This means the car is taken out of the previous owners name without adding another owner on the V5. If you have a V5 nearby then look at the yellow slip as that's what is used to put it into trade.

[sazshx]

Saleen836 said:

I stand to be corrected but AFAIK a business/trader fills out the relevant trader section,if they have not can they prove the vehicle is theirs to sell?

I must admit that's what went through my mind too

[sazshx]

123DWA said:

They are correct. When a garage buys a car they put the car "in to trade" rather than changing the owners. This means the car is taken out of the previous owners name without adding another owner on the V5. If you have a V5 nearby then look at the yellow slip as that's what is used to put it into trade.

Cool, but how does vehicle tax work with that? If its not sorn I imagine someone is liable - surely thats the garage, right? I dont want to buy it and be hit with a tax bill from before I bought the car

[Dan W.]

sazshx said:

123DWA said:

They are correct. When a garage buys a car they put the car "in to trade" rather than changing the owners. This means the car is taken out of the previous owners name without adding another owner on the V5. If you have a V5 nearby then look at the yellow slip as that's what is used to put it into trade.

Cool, but how does vehicle tax work with that? If its not sorn I imagine someone is liable - surely thats the garage, right? I dont want to buy it and be hit with a tax bill from before I bought the car

If you mean road tax, you will need to tax the car before its leaves, Previous road tax would have been given back to the previous owner.

[123DWA]

sazshx said:

Cool, but how does vehicle tax work with that? If its not sorn I imagine someone is liable - surely thats the garage, right? I dont want to buy it and be hit with a tax bill from before I bought the car

Whilst the car is "in trade" it doesnt have to be taxed (because a dealer uses trade plates in place of tax) so it will remain untaxed until the next owner buys it & taxes it

[Auto810graphy]

This is the correct way to sell a car into and out of trade. If you check the DVLA tax information page the car should show in red as untaxed. The untaxed date will often be mid month and is the day the car was transferred to trade.

When you buy the car you can tax and complete the change of keeper online.

The only thing you need to do is check the date on the V5 matches the last V5 issue date on the DVLA webpage above. Also a quick HPI check is worthwhile.

[Trevor555]

sazshx said:

Hi guys, looking at buying a used car privately from a small mot/repair garage which has a couple of other cars for sale too.

Cheers

You'll not be buying it privately if it's from a business that sells cars.

Have they said you'll be buying it privately?

Just to cover yourself print off the advert for the car if there is one, and print off any other adverts they have for the other cars you mention.

And make a traceable payment, ie debit/visa card, or bank transfer.

If they do sell cars for a living, and they insist on "private" sale, then my alarm bells would be ringing.

[sazshx]

Auto810graphy said:

This is the correct way to sell a car into and out of trade. If you check the DVLA tax information page the car should show in red as untaxed. The untaxed date will often be mid month and is the day the car was transferred to trade.

When you buy the car you can tax and complete the change of keeper online.

The only thing you need to do is check the date on the V5 matches the last V5 issue date on the DVLA webpage above. Also a quick HPI check is worthwhile.

This is very interesting, because the car shows as still taxed until June, which matches the keeper change date on the V5 and dvla page

[sazshx]

Trevor555 said:

You'll not be buying it privately if it's from a business that sells cars.

Have they said you'll be buying it privately?

Just to cover yourself print off the advert for the car if there is one, and print off any other adverts they have for the other cars you mention.

And make a traceable payment, ie debit/visa card, or bank transfer.

If they do sell cars for a living, and they insist on "private" sale, then my alarm bells would be ringing.

Yeah it seems that way - it's a repair garage which seems to be selling cars on the side. I'm just very confused tbh - like how can it have been taken "in trade" if its a private sale? I would have thought someone would have to be the registered keeper for that

[anonymous-user]

Don’t buy it. The whole setup is dodgy as hell.

[fflump]

Just be clear that the V5 had nothing to do with proof ownership. It is merely the name of the registered keeper