Advise - Motor Trader from Home

antrobus

Gurj247 wrote: »

... so we thought we would look into the whole buying and selling of cars from home.
....

s5 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005

Exposing vehicles for sale on a road

(1)A person is guilty of an offence if at any time -

(a)he leaves two or more motor vehicles parked within 500 metres of each other on a road or roads where they are exposed or advertised for sale, or
(b)he causes two or more motor vehicles to be so left.

(2) A person is not to be convicted of an offence under subsection (1) if he proves to the satisfaction of the court that he was not acting for the purposes of a business of selling motor vehicles.
(3)A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

I believe that a level 4 fine is £2500.

Therefore if you're going to start "buying and selling of cars from home" you're going to need a home that features sufficient land to park the cars that you're offering for sale, and if you want to transform your front garden into a car showroom you're going to need planning permission.

Gurj247

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Your neighbours and the local council may not like you selling cars from home. Some properties have a restrictive covenant which prevents using them for business purposes. You may also be contravening the house's planning permission and planners may object.

Also as a trader what sort of guarantee/warranty will you be able to offer.

Becles wrote: »

Definitely this!

My home has a restrictive covenant, but the work I do from home is clerical. The council are fine about this as I'm just sitting in my house on a PC, so I'm not bothering anyone.

If I was doing anything that would affect the neighbours such as being noisy or having people call at the house, the council would object.

As far as I am aware my home does not have a restrictive covenant - but how would I be able to find out for sure?

I only plan on having one/two cars max at any given time, which will be parked on my driveway, added to which I don't expect to be doing any big jobs on the car's myself, apart from a valet etc. There is also plenty of parking available where I live so there should be no real issues with people visiting.

verityboo

Gurj247 wrote: »

I am sure that by law I would not need to provide 6 months warrenty, but that would be an optional extra that i think i would offer, via a 3rd party company.
With regard to the issue of a person coming back, i would assume that this would be covered by my insurance policy (although i could be completely wrong here)

The buyer would have rights under the SOGA although it is a bit of a grey area as the age of the vehicle would need to be taken into account, you would not expect a gearbox to fail on a 3 year old 20K mileage car but is not unexpected on a 15 year old 180K mileage car.

On reasonably new cars, if a fault appeared in the first 6 months it would be for you as the seller to prove it was caused by misuse or normal wear & tear, and you would be required to repair it. If you covered yourself by giving a thrid party warranty they often have claim limits and you would be expected to make up any shortfall. I do not think insurance would cover this

Buyers are getting increasingly more aware of their rights because of web-sites like this one and TV programs so you need to make yourself fully aware of your obligations. Car traders generally have a bad reputation but if treat people right and get a good name for yourself, there is potential for you to build a good business

Gurj247

antrobus wrote: »

s5 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005

Exposing vehicles for sale on a road

(1)A person is guilty of an offence if at any time -

(a)he leaves two or more motor vehicles parked within 500 metres of each other on a road or roads where they are exposed or advertised for sale, or
(b)he causes two or more motor vehicles to be so left.

(2) A person is not to be convicted of an offence under subsection (1) if he proves to the satisfaction of the court that he was not acting for the purposes of a business of selling motor vehicles.
(3)A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

I believe that a level 4 fine is £2500.

Therefore if you're going to start "buying and selling of cars from home" you're going to need a home that features sufficient land to park the cars that you're offering for sale, and if you want to transform your front garden into a car showroom you're going to need planning permission.

Thanks for this antrobus,
I don't plan on advertising the vehicles for sale on the street so to speak, they will be advertised online mainly and only one would have a simple for sale sign in it (think usual A4 sheet of paper with details).

Parking wise I already have the space available for one or two cars and have no intention of turing it into a car showroom.

antrobus

Gurj247 wrote: »

As far as I am aware my home does not have a restrictive covenant - but how would I be able to find out for sure?

You'd very likely still need planning permission. You can, of course, do what a lot of people do, and try and stay under the radar, but the minute the neighbours start complaining you'll be handed a contravention notice.

Gurj247 wrote: »

I only plan on having one/two cars max at any given time, which will be parked on my driveway, added to which I don't expect to be doing any big jobs on the car's myself, apart from a valet etc. There is also plenty of parking available where I live so there should be no real issues with people visiting.

That might well be neither here nor there. Some councils insist that sufficient car parking spaces are provided 'on site' to accomodate any visitors, and that no account should be taken of the availability or otherwise of off street parking.

lincroft1710

Gurj247 wrote: »

As far as I am aware my home does not have a restrictive covenant - but how would I be able to find out for sure?

It would be recorded on your house deeds.

khiller1988

Gurj247 wrote: »

I am sure that by law I would not need to provide 6 months warrenty, but that would be an optional extra that i think i would offer, via a 3rd party company.
With regard to the issue of a person coming back, i would assume that this would be covered by my insurance policy (although i could be completely wrong here)




Thanks for the information Khiller1988,
I think my father and i would be starting with something cheap and cheerful to begin with no car being purchased for more than £4k. Would stick with ex fleet/company cars, things like vectra's, mondeo's, astra's, focus's, which usually although have heavy miles have a lot of paperwork to back them up too.

Ages wise we should be fine, i'm 31 and father is 56. I'm full time employed, while father is pretty much retired.

Could you possibly give an indication of insurance costs for above assuming, no claims, no points, no convictions, both with licences over 12 years and i personally have 6 years ncb.

of course, I'll run an idea through tomorrow, would you be able to give me a rough idea of your area home wise ie are you Kent London Birmingham etc would sill be a rough guide but this makes a huge difference, If not i'll use a CT postcode but this is usually a fairly low rated area

Becles

Gurj247 wrote: »

I only plan on having one/two cars max at any given time, which will be parked on my driveway, added to which I don't expect to be doing any big jobs on the car's myself, apart from a valet etc. There is also plenty of parking available where I live so there should be no real issues with people visiting.

It's to do with the increased traffic as well. Our street is deadly quiet, so if I had several people coming and going every day, I'm sure the neighbours would object. One has even complained because my friend parks outside my house every day between 3.20-3.50 and we walk along and collect our children from school together!

I think it would depend on how often you will be selling a car and how many people you would estimate coming and looking at it before you make a sale.

Gurj247

khiller1988 wrote: »

of course, I'll run an idea through tomorrow, would you be able to give me a rough idea of your area home wise ie are you Kent London Birmingham etc would sill be a rough guide but this makes a huge difference, If not i'll use a CT postcode but this is usually a fairly low rated area

Thanks Khiller1998,

I live in south leeds.

Gurj247

Becles wrote: »

It's to do with the increased traffic as well. Our street is deadly quiet, so if I had several people coming and going every day, I'm sure the neighbours would object. One has even complained because my friend parks outside my house every day between 3.20-3.50 and we walk along and collect our children from school together!

I think it would depend on how often you will be selling a car and how many people you would estimate coming and looking at it before you make a sale.

Yeah i guess, my street is pretty quite and is in the middle of the development. Not sure how many people i would expect to actually view the car before it was to sell, off the top of my head i would think maybe 5 people (complete guess)

With regard to what i highlighted in RED, i'm sorry but that is crazy:eek::eek:. I have a big family, so have people coming over when ever they like, the way i look at it is so long as my family etc don't block thier access then there should be no problem, afterall we all pay ROAD TAX...