2nd hand car car seller with pictures of my house and car in background??

tooconfused_2

Hi,

Unfortunatley I live opposite a 2nd hand car dealer on a private estate he does have a lock up where he "allegedly" trades from but regularly takes pictures of his cars for sale on our estate of nine houses in the background of his pictures are mine and my neighbours houses clearly showing alarm boxes on walls ,whether the drives are empty,at certain times of day but more importantly OUR cars are visible in the drives with the registration numbers of OUR vehicles clearly visible and open to car cloning etc.

He has a trade section in the Autotrader where these pictures are posted.My wife has been in touch with the autotrader and basically been fobbed off saying well he takes his own photos so it is out of our control.....I would have thought that anything they publish on their site is THEIR responsibility.

Any advice dont even suggest trying to talk to him that avenue has long been exhausted....Oh and while im at it he is also mis-using trade plates ie talking the kids to school,going to the shops driving the same car one day with plates the next without then the next day with etc think you get the picture any advice greatley appreciated...

blue_haddock

Well you can report him to your local DVLA office for misuse of the trade plates. If they decide to investigate and he looses his plates it could make things very tricky for him.

If he trades from home it may also be worthwhile speaking to the inland revenue and alerting them to the fact he is trading. Stands a good chance he isn't paying all that he should be.

I wouldn't worry about your car being cloned - it's out on the roads all the time so anyone else could see it and clone it anyway.

MrSmartprice

Does he have untaxed cars in the road? Does he ever give his buyers the impression that he is not actually a car dealer? Are any of the cars he has for sale unroadworthy? Do they have MOT's? Is he claiming benefit? Does he have planning permission to run a car business from his property?

There is more than one way to skin a cat. Any of the above could make life uncomfortable for him. You can report him to the relevant authorities for each suspected offence, often anonymously. If he is being a nuisance, give him a hard time.

rdwarr

I can see why you're worried, but take a step back.
If I walked down your road I would see your house and your car (if you were in) as could anybody. If you drive your car around then anybody can see it and clone it if desired.
Perhaps you're really looking for a way to get at the trader which is completely understandable. But I don't think you actually have anything to fear.

david29dpo

you can bet there will be a covenant on the deeds to stop this. you could get every one together and get an injunction against him.

tim_n

biiig poster from outside your window with 'this car sucks'

Zoetoes

Autotrader are useless, I bought a car through their site, it had 3 differently sized wheels, illegal spare etc

Reported it to Autotrader and they just said they don't actually advertise the cars, the seller does etc etc

waster_2

If he is using his house for any form of trading he is, as stated above, probably breaching one of the restrictive covenenats that are normally inserted in the “deeds” when the property was originally built and sold. Every subsequent purcheaser being tied to the same covenants.

However, trying to enforce that will cost you time and money. A better bet is the local planning authority. To trade in any form from a private residence is in breach of the planning legislation. Additionally he is probably only paying council tax and not business rates on the property. Contact your local planners and tell them of your concerns. They will possibly not be bothered as it creates work for them to enforce the law. If that happens get your local councillor(s) involved.

As said above your number palte is visible to anyone every time you drive the car and your house would be cased by any decent burglar before a break in in any case. So do not worry about the pictures.

The DVLA wil beinterested in misuse of trade Plates as his insurance will probably only cover him if on proper motor trade business. Also that is the only time the Trade Plates should be used.

stumpjumper

As a temporary solution you could cover your number plates while the vehicle is on your property. Cars don't have to display a plate while on private land so the plod won't bother you (road legal race cars do this at race tracks).

tooconfused_2

Thanks for the reply he does have a unit on an industrial estate where he keeps the cars and alledgedly sells them when he first moved in he was selling from his drive but as the houses and neighbours were all new you just sort of put up with it the estate is "open plan" but the last straw was when we came home to find 4 guys looking round a car giving it a good poke and prod as you do but the car they were poking and proding was OUR car the same model as the one the guy had been advertising!!!

Lets say a few choice words were exchanged....he then proceeded to use our drive ,(when we were at work) to manoeuvre cars on and park on my drive while he moved another car etc. again words were exchanged...

As I say he now has this factory unit but regularly has 4 or 5 cars on his drive at any one time and is constantly back and forth during the day with different cars sometime dispalying trade plates.

He lists the factory units telephone number on his web site and also a home number.

Question... even though he has business premises he is at home 50% of the time during the day how does this stand with regards to running a bussiness from home although he is not actually selling from outside his house anymore he is constantly back and forth with cars and as I say sometimes with trade plates .To make it worse it is a cul-de sac and we are at the end directly opposite this @ hole.
Surely if he gets reported he will just say he has business premises and trades from there?
Who should the misuse of trade plates be reported to??

david29dpo

take photos. lots of photos. get other to do the same. hope your not thinking of moving.......