V5C Trade yellow slip dilemma

Matty748

Hello all,
Firstly I hope everyone is safe and well.
I have a rather bizarre issue I am in desperate need of sorting.
A Family member had a previous relationship with a used car dealer. When things were good between them they bought and sold several cars using funds sourced by my family member. One of the cars was used as a personal vehicle by family member taxed and completely legal for many years in Family member's name. Indeed the car was purchased with money solely supplied by my Family member.
It was decided the car would be sold through the car dealer some time ago (again when their relationship was good).....You can see where I am going with this!
Car dealer has yellow trader slip, Family member has V5C in their name.
Relationship is no more, and car dealer is refusing to either pay for the car, nor give the car back. Also has threatened that the car has many outstanding parking tickets etc. associated with it. A right mess! Clearly if that is true, the car has been used illegally on trade plates anyway??
Family member cannot afford to lose the circa 4-5k the car is worth. it was always agreed the car would be sold and ALL monies be solely for family member. This has actually been recorded (Although not sure how that would hold up re court/Police)
I need to know some lawful facts so I can best advise.

Any help much appreciated.

knightstyle

Send a letter giving ex time to pay or return the car before taking them to court.
Parking tickets, do not worry about them the driver is responsible so just name the driver when a letter arrives and it is up to them to sort it.

Herzlos

Did you sign the car over to the trader? If so tickets aren't your problem as it's not your car.
Did you get some kind of signed agreement regarding them selling on your behalf? If not, then you've lost the car and need to move on.
If you do, does it say anything about him not being able to  sell it?

Matty748

Thanks for the responses. There is nothing signed as they were in a relationship.
One question I have is: Can my family member not just send off the v5c that is in their name and "take the car out of trade" by re registering the car in the same name? Especially if the parking tickets etc. don't carry over.
That way, upon arriving to collect car with v5c in name, the police can be called if the car is not handed back?

marlot

A V5C is not proof of ownership.
DO they have a spare key to the car?  

Matty748

marlot said:

A V5C is not proof of ownership.
DO they have a spare key to the car?  

OK, so what does? Yellow slip or v5c?
There is only one key and that is still with the ex.

AdrianC

There is no official proof of ownership, any more than there is for the vast vast majority of things we own. DVLA record who is legally responsible for the car, no more. Your house is about the only thing you own with a central, legal record of actual ownership.

First question - are you 100% that the v5c is the most recently issued? Check the doc ref on the gov.uk vehicle enquiry site.
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/

Basically, the only way to get anywhere on this is going to be a court claim for the value of the vehicle. Is it <£10k?

Herzlos

Matty748 said:

Thanks for the responses. There is nothing signed as they were in a relationship.
One question I have is: Can my family member not just send off the v5c that is in their name and "take the car out of trade" by re registering the car in the same name? Especially if the parking tickets etc. don't carry over.
That way, upon arriving to collect car with v5c in name, the police can be called if the car is not handed back?

So is the car "in trade", the V5C was filled out handing ownership to the trader?

If that's the case, your V5C is out of date and the car "belongs" to the trader. Any tickets would be going to the trader who'll have a fun time explaining why it's on the road.

Will you get your money back on the car? Probably not, and it's probably not worth more than a small claims court claim - can you prove that he owes you anything on it?