We Buy Any Car won't purchase car due to show ownership

[marcusjames]

I attended an appointment to sell my car this morning and was surprised to learn they could not complete the deal due to me only owning the car for 6 months. Apparently their policy relates to money laundering and needs to be owned for a minimum of 12 months. They need a purchase invoice as evidence but I bought it privately.

Does anyone know if there is a way around this e.g. giving an indemnity etc. The chap was trying to be helpful but wasn't able to answer these questions. It was very much "computer says no!".

Thanks

[normalbloke]

I think you should pursue them, and have them change their name.

[ARHarh]

Just sell it to someone else. Loads of places buy cars round here can't be much different where you live.

[CraigyMc]

marcusjames said:

I attended an appointment to sell my car this morning and was surprised to learn they could not complete the deal due to me only owning the car for 6 months. Apparently their policy relates to money laundering and needs to be owned for a minimum of 12 months. They need a purchase invoice as evidence but I bought it privately.

Does anyone know if there is a way around this e.g. giving an indemnity etc. The chap was trying to be helpful but wasn't able to answer these questions. It was very much "computer says no!".

Thanks

There won't be.

Anti- money laundering isn't something WBAC invented, it's common across financial services. If they don't have a policy they'd be shut down pretty quickly for being complicit in cleansing dirty money.

Relevant guidance is here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regul...

[KungFuPanda]

I was looking into that recently. I think it's tiered dependent on the value of the car. The more valuable the car, the longer you need to have owned it.

[Limpet]

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

[Rushjob]

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

[LimaDelta]

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

[FrankAbagnale]

Same here, sold to WBAC after circa 6 months. Sale was about 3 weeks ago.

[Limpet]

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

Impressive that they'd be able to see that from 20 miles away when I made the appointment though, isn't it?

Don't you think if this were a show stopper, it would be

a) Anywhere in the Ts and Cs on the website (it isn't)
b) Covered off in the appointment setup process to avoid wasting your (and their) time.

Not quite as clever as you think, are you?

[CraigyMc]

Limpet said:

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

Impressive that they'd be able to see that from 20 miles away when I made the appointment though, isn't it?

Don't you think if this were a show stopper, it would be

a) Anywhere in the Ts and Cs on the website (it isn't)
b) Covered off in the appointment setup process to avoid wasting your (and their) time.

Not quite as clever as you think, are you?

Without wishing to sound like the twunt that I am, if you gave them the reg number (which I think you'd have done to get the valuation appointment), they can tell when the last logbook was issued for it -- from that alone.
Anyone can, using https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ and it's likely automated into their systems to check that.

[STe_rsv4]

LimaDelta said:

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

You mean that document that specifically states "This document is not proof of ownership"?
That document? or a different one?

[Rushjob]

STe_rsv4 said:

LimaDelta said:

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

You mean that document that specifically states "This document is not proof of ownership"?
That document? or a different one?

If it's of no use as proof of ownership - then why did they ask you ( twice according to your comment! ) if you had it and it was in your name?

[Rushjob]

CraigyMc said:

Limpet said:

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

Impressive that they'd be able to see that from 20 miles away when I made the appointment though, isn't it?

Don't you think if this were a show stopper, it would be

a) Anywhere in the Ts and Cs on the website (it isn't)
b) Covered off in the appointment setup process to avoid wasting your (and their) time.

Not quite as clever as you think, are you?

Without wishing to sound like the twunt that I am, if you gave them the reg number (which I think you'd have done to get the valuation appointment), they can tell when the last logbook was issued for it -- from that alone.
Anyone can, using https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ and it's likely automated into their systems to check that.

This.......

[CraigyMc]

By the way, WBAC's AML legalese isn't in their main T's and C's, it's linked to them via their privacy policy here https://www.webuyanycar.com/privacy-policy/

[cuprabob]

Look on the bright side, you won't have to do a stupid dance

[Limpet]

Rushjob said:

CraigyMc said:

Limpet said:

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

Impressive that they'd be able to see that from 20 miles away when I made the appointment though, isn't it?

Don't you think if this were a show stopper, it would be

a) Anywhere in the Ts and Cs on the website (it isn't)
b) Covered off in the appointment setup process to avoid wasting your (and their) time.

Not quite as clever as you think, are you?

Without wishing to sound like the twunt that I am, if you gave them the reg number (which I think you'd have done to get the valuation appointment), they can tell when the last logbook was issued for it -- from that alone.
Anyone can, using https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ and it's likely automated into their systems to check that.

This.......

I have just stuck the reg number of my daughter's Aygo (V5 issued 6th October 2022) into the WBAC website, and it's happily given me a valuation and offered me a choice of appointment dates.

Been through all the Ts and Cs and the "assumptions" for the valuation and absolutely nothing in there about a minimum ownership period. I think the individual at the branch that the OP is dealing with is misinformed. Lots of people sell cars inside of 6 months for perfectly genuine reasons, and it makes no sense that the company would exclude themselves from this business as a matter of policy.

[QJumper]

Limpet said:

Impressive that they'd be able to see that from 20 miles away when I made the appointment though, isn't it?

Don't you think if this were a show stopper, it would be

a) Anywhere in the Ts and Cs on the website (it isn't)
b) Covered off in the appointment setup process to avoid wasting your (and their) time.

You'd like to think so but, according to the OP, he wasn't told it was a show stopper until he attended the appointment.

[CraigyMc]

Limpet said:

Rushjob said:

CraigyMc said:

Limpet said:

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

Impressive that they'd be able to see that from 20 miles away when I made the appointment though, isn't it?

Don't you think if this were a show stopper, it would be

a) Anywhere in the Ts and Cs on the website (it isn't)
b) Covered off in the appointment setup process to avoid wasting your (and their) time.

Not quite as clever as you think, are you?

Without wishing to sound like the twunt that I am, if you gave them the reg number (which I think you'd have done to get the valuation appointment), they can tell when the last logbook was issued for it -- from that alone.
Anyone can, using https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ and it's likely automated into their systems to check that.

This.......

I have just stuck the reg number of my daughter's Aygo (V5 issued 6th October 2022) into the WBAC website, and it's happily given me a valuation and offered me a choice of appointment dates.

Been through all the Ts and Cs and the "assumptions" for the valuation and absolutely nothing in there about a minimum ownership period. I think the individual at the branch that the OP is dealing with is misinformed. Lots of people sell cars inside of 6 months for perfectly genuine reasons, and it makes no sense that the company would exclude themselves from this business as a matter of policy.

AML processes will generally kick in for individual transactions above a certain clip level, often that clip is £10K or €10K. It's noted in the regs link I posted earlier.

If the Aygo was valued below that it'd not face the same process as (for hypothetical example) a 6 month old porsche valued at £40K.

For my sins, I have to do regular training on this stuff.

[KungFuPanda]

CraigyMc said:

Limpet said:

Rushjob said:

Limpet said:

Interesting as I've sold two cars to WBAC over the past couple of years (£23k and £15k) and neither of them asked how long I'd owned it, just that I had the V5 in my name.

They did want to see photo ID in my name, and proof of address (utility bill etc).

Plenty of these services about though. Perhaps try another.

If only there were some document that went with the car and WBAC could read it to see how long you've owned it and therefore not need to ask the 6 month question??

Impressive that they'd be able to see that from 20 miles away when I made the appointment though, isn't it?

Don't you think if this were a show stopper, it would be

a) Anywhere in the Ts and Cs on the website (it isn't)
b) Covered off in the appointment setup process to avoid wasting your (and their) time.

Not quite as clever as you think, are you?

Without wishing to sound like the twunt that I am, if you gave them the reg number (which I think you'd have done to get the valuation appointment), they can tell when the last logbook was issued for it -- from that alone.
Anyone can, using https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ and it's likely automated into their systems to check that.

That isn’t a foolproof way of checking though. I could have owned my car for ten years. In preparation for selling it, I take my private reg off the vehicle which causes a new V5 to be issued last week showing the original registration number. In your illustration, this would wrongly raise the presumption that I’ve only just become registered keeper of the car last week.