car off ebay

codger

OP:

The best advice given on here was the advice to go see a lawyer.

You can do that by making an appointment with your local Community Law Centre.

And it won't cost you anything, either.

Do not expect eBay to do anything at all for you / your father in regard to this transaction. eBay is merely an online auction venue, and as a 'venue' it has no more of a role in the aftermath of a completed transaction than does a farmer's field in the aftermath of a car boot sale.

The issue of what you can and cannot do with someone else's property is a thorny one and much of the advice given on this thread is really too simplistic.

For instance: the Law would not find it reasonable for you to do what you will with property which, though still in your possession, has actually been purchased by another party and from whom you are already in receipt of the purchaser's money.

Equally though, the Law would not find it reasonable for you to be materially disadvantaged to an open-ended extent as a consequence of the purchaser's failure to move from the status of purchaser to the status of possessor.

That's why, before you contact either the DVLA (which will almost certainly muddy waters that are already muddy enough) or the buyer (assuming any such contact can even be achieved) you need to talk things through with your Community Law Centre (not Citizens Advice Bureau.)

As to the question of disposal of purchase funds, there is no legal obligation upon any seller to hold safe those funds until a purchaser has become a possessor. Such a stipulation would be as bizarre as it is unenforceable.

Try to remember that in contract matters of this nature, "reasonableness" is of fundamental importance -- and "reasonableness", in terms of how such may or may not result in the advantaging, or disadvantaging, of the parties to a contract is definitely not something that can best be evaluated on an Internet thread.

Good luck.

Codger