Buying Car that has been exported, but never imported anywhere.

DesG

Bit of an unusual one this!

I am looking at buying a car registered new in the UK in 2006. It was registered to a uk dealer (demonstrator) and then sold to the person I am buying from when it was about 4 months old.

Now here is where it gets interesting, the dealer gave the whole V5 to the buyer as they said they were exporting the car. The buyer then approx 6 months later sent off the section 11 of the V5 saying the car was being permanently exported.

They did take the car out of the UK but never imported it elsewhere, it is still driving on its UK plates with no road tax.

So I am looking to buy the car, the seller has the V5 with the original dealer as the registered keeper, and the DVLA database has the car marked as exported in summer 07.

I rang the DVLA helpline to see if there would be any problems, and they said just complete section 6 and sign section 8 of the V5 and send it back in.

Does that sound right to anyone else?

Cheers, Des.

Photo_Stylus

Be careful, you may get stung for tax that has not been paid.

VAT & DUTY not road tax. Could be thousands of pounds.

You dont pay duty on items that are being exported. Last thing you want is customs knocking on your door.

Eyesparky

Personally I would walk away. There are plenty of other cars without any potential issues.

flutterbyuk25

Do as DVLA advised but also attach a letter from you explaining the circumstances, and if possible a letter from the person who sent of the export notification too. Send by recorded delivery too.

This should sort it all out for you, but it may take longer than the standard 4 weeks to get a new logbook. The local DVLA office may want to inspect the car too, which will incur transport cost as it will need to be trailered (sp?). It will also mean you will need to keep car off road as it cannot be taxed until the export marker is removed.

So not ideal. Really the person who caused the problem should sort it out before they sell the car!

HTH

x

Wig

Ask seller to register it in UK and you may be interested but not before then. You won't be able to drive it in UK until you have a new V5 and road tax etc and that could take 6 weeks anyway. So you wouldn't gain anything by buying it now over asking seller to sort the paperwork before you buy it.

JasonLVC

The original buyer would not have been charged VAT becuase he was 'exporting' the car out of the EU (ie, an export has to be outside of the EU to be an export, if it is within the EU it is known as a 'dispatch' and it is not the same!).

So original buyer got the car for a really good price basically, as it was VAT free. If he is selling to you now, whatever the 'book price' in Glass' guide is, he's still making money as he never paid full (incl VAT) price in the first place, so the seller is using VAT avoidance to make an extra buck.

If the DVLA have it as exported since 2007 but it has actually been in the UK, then firstly it makes the seller very dishonest - he's basically lied and drove a car tax free for a year - so what other lies has he told you.????

Secondly, when you come to regsiter the vehicle properly with the DVLA -so that you can insure it, mot and tax it, etc. they may well seek the VAT at the current book value of the car as it has now being 'imported' back into the UK to which it is now subject to VAT - as it escaped it first time around.

The deal could end up costing you a lot more. As Wig has noted, ask the seller to register it first and if he gets awy with it, then make the deal - but all sounds a little high risk to me.

DesG

Thanks everyone for the advice!

Just to clear up, it was exported to the EU. So there are no VAT/Duty implications.

It has been driven outside the UK since it was exported.(It may have been briefly in the UK a few times though)

The seller can't register it in the UK as they don't live here. So I am still undecided if it is worth the hassle and risk, but I appreciate the advice.

Cheers, Des.

Anihilator

So who exactly are you buying offf?

It stinks of scam and if not it probably still is a big big risk. There is a lot of dodgy practice here and the VAT and DVLA etc are bound to suspect fraud.

DesG

I'm buying it off the guy whos' wife has been driving the car for the last three years.

Its not a scam, I'm pretty good at spotting them

Yes, it is a bit dodgy, and a bit risky, hence why I am still undecided. Again, there is no VAT or duty involved so the biggest issue would be the road tax not being paid for three years. But thats not really my problem.

I just need to decide if the price is worth the hassle that would be involved.

Cheers, Des.