Is this legal?

[Deleted User]

Just wondered if anyone knew if it's legal to run a car selling business from your home (in a residential street)?

We got new neighbours 6 months ago and have noticed that different cars keep appearing outside their house, outside our house, on their driveway, etc (usually 4-5 at a time). Then, someone shows up in the evening and goes through what looks like a check of a vehicle, and a test drive, before that disappears and another one appears a few days later.

Some days it's really difficult to back out of our driveway safely as there's no clear view of the road on either side, and our elderly neighbour on the other side of them had a near miss the other day because he hadn't seen a cyclist coming (his view was blocked by one of the cars) He was very upset (so was the cyclist, obviously).

Wondered if anyone knew if it's legal?

Thanks

stator

You would need planning permission for change of use.

peter_the_piper

Dob him in anonymously to the council, change of use from home to business.?

AdrianC

There are two questions here...

The first is regarding the trading. Your local authority may or may not have any restrictions.

The second is regarding the parking. If the cars are flagged as "in trade" with DVLA (as they should be), then they will be untaxed, so should not be on the road except for business purposes with trade plates. No vehicle should be parked so as to cause an obstruction, ever. But that doesn't mean that your neighbour has carte blanche to pull out if he cannot see that the road is definitely clear...

Strider590

There is also a limit to how many cars a private seller can trader per year, I think the limit is 7 cars.

Also the tax man probably isn't seeing any of that cash either.

This person could also be selling on behalf of a legit used car dealer, selling substandard cars that the dealer wouldn't want to risk selling.

TBH I came across one of these clowns 10+ years ago, near some maisonettes where an ex-gf lived in Stafford, he was using practically all of the residential parking as his personal car showroom.

AdrianC

Strider590 wrote: »

There is also a limit to how many cars a private seller can trader per year, I think the limit is 7 cars.

There's no definite hard limit.

As a rough rule of thumb, if you buy vehicles with the intent of selling them for a profit, it's trading - no matter how few. But if you buy vehicles with the intent of using them for your own purposes, it's not trading - no matter how many. I've certainly got friends who buy and sell plenty, not for profit, but just because they're utterly promiscuous when it comes to their cars.

It's all a bit more complex than that, and it's certainly not unique to used cars. HMRC basically have "badges of trade" which they use to decide if something is private or business. It applies to those selling at car boots, on eBay, whatever.

There doesn't seem to be anything direct from HMRC on the web - strangely - but there's various summaries to explain it.
http://www.accaglobal.com/ubcs/en/technical-activities/technical-resources-search/2011/august/badges-of-trade.html
and many others.

AndyMc.....

Corona wrote: »

Just wondered if anyone knew if it's legal to run a car selling business from your home (in a residential street)?

We got new neighbours 6 months ago and have noticed that different cars keep appearing outside their house, outside our house, on their driveway, etc (usually 4-5 at a time). Then, someone shows up in the evening and goes through what looks like a check of a vehicle, and a test drive, before that disappears and another one appears a few days later.

Some days it's really difficult to back out of our driveway safely as there's no clear view of the road on either side, and our elderly neighbour on the other side of them had a near miss the other day because he hadn't seen a cyclist coming (his view was blocked by one of the cars) He was very upset (so was the cyclist, obviously).

Wondered if anyone knew if it's legal?

Thanks

That's easily solved, reverse on and drive off. You should be doing that anyway.

AdrianC

AndyMc..... wrote: »

That's easily solved, reverse on and drive off. You should be doing that anyway.

^ He's not wrong...

Highway Code, rule 201.

parking_question_chap

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Dob him in anonymously to the council, change of use from home to business.?

Some councils will not deal with anonymous complaints.

George_Michael

AdrianC wrote: »

^ He's not wrong...

Highway Code, rule 201.

Rule 201 doesn't state that you must reverse in and drive out. Only that you should do it if you can.

AdrianC

George_Michael wrote: »

Rule 201 doesn't state that you must reverse in and drive out. Only that you should do it if you can.

Which is what AndyMc said, and I agreed with.

And if the OP can reverse out - bar the parking - then he can certainly reverse in.