Car seller V5 issue

ohwhathaveidone

Hi peeps

So I have looked at a car for sale on fb recently. Went to his house and checked the car out

his values it around 2200, knocked him down to 1850 due to lack of service history and likely needing a new cam belt kit, water pump  etc. milage 77k.

Turns out he 'says' he took this car in part exchange recently in vue of selling on so he didnt re register it, so the log book is still in previous owners name in order to keep the number of cars prev owners down. Think he said 3 or 4 prev owners. The v5 was present that evening during test

drive but i never really looked it over.

Anyhow  I never bought it there an then as I needed to transfer th money from saving acc into my currant acc.which i do at home on my laptop. Always been reluctant to download the bank app on ph..So now I have the currant acc .app on my phone I took his bank details an deposited 1 quid in his acc which he recieved ok.

I've explained to seller I'm warry of scams and asked him to sign a declaration he is the sole

legal owner of veh  for the said sum to me and there's no outstanding hp/lean

on the car and is his to sell. He's agreed to do this but he was a bit miffed saying the guy only 

lives round the corner and he can take me round there.

I'm just a bit worried if it is a scam an I'm legally forced to return the car to v5 named owner.

Am i being too paranoid ? Just thought that the signed declaration will give me some protection

in case i have to take him to claims court or whatever

sheramber

Is he a dealer?

if he is a private seller how long has he had the car?  Is it taxed?

Grumpy_chap

ohwhathaveidone said:

Hi peeps

So I have looked at a car for sale on fb recently. Went to his house and checked the car out

his values it around 2200, knocked him down to 1850 due to lack of service history and likely needing a new cam belt kit, water pump  etc. milage 77k.

Turns out he 'says' he took this car in part exchange recently in vue of selling on so he didnt re register it, so the log book is still in previous owners name in order to keep the number of cars prev owners down. Think he said 3 or 4 prev owners. The v5 was present that evening during test

drive but i never really looked it over.

Anyhow  I never bought it there an then as I needed to transfer th money from saving acc into my currant acc.which i do at home on my laptop. Always been reluctant to download the bank app on ph..So now I have the currant acc .app on my phone I took his bank details an deposited 1 quid in his acc which he recieved ok.

I've explained to seller I'm warry of scams and asked him to sign a declaration he is the sole

legal owner of veh  for the said sum to me and there's no outstanding hp/lean

on the car and is his to sell. He's agreed to do this but he was a bit miffed saying the guy only 

lives round the corner and he can take me round there.

I'm just a bit worried if it is a scam an I'm legally forced to return the car to v5 named owner.

Am i being too paranoid ? Just thought that the signed declaration will give me some protection

in case i have to take him to claims court or whatever

I think I'd accept the £1 is gone and run away now.

Posing as a private seller but if he took the car in part exchange with a view to selling it, that makes him a Dealer.

A statement from the seller that the car is OK is of little value.  Have you undertaken your own due diligence?  HPI check?

This may be a small Dealer and all above board (except the guy is not posing as a Dealer, seemingly).

This may be a private buyer who bought the car privately, found issues and now wants the car moved on quickly.

What is so special about this £2k car with no service history and likely needing cam belt and water pump that means you can't find another £2k car that will be just as good or better but without the concerns about the genuine-ness of the sale?

Goudy

They sound like a part time wheeler dealer, making a few quid without bothering the tax man,

The usual practice for a trader is to use section 4 of the V5C and transfer the original keep details to the themselves as a trader (not a new keeper) when they take a car in.

This holds the vehicle in limbo so to speak.
It's no longer the responsibility of the original keeper and it isn't registered to a new keeper, so doesn't have another keeper added to the list.

To do this the trader needs to be an actual motor trader (registered for VAT at the least)

As they haven't/can't do this, it means you are basically buying the car privately from someone that isn't the registered keeper.

A signed declaration from the seller is useless, it would have a little more use if it was from the original keeper giving the seller the rights to sell it on their behalf, but it's still no guarantee the car is kosher. 

It's not really ideal but it happens, plenty of part time wheeler dealers operate like this and plenty of people buy from them, some even happily.
They get a car in and try to shift it quickly as it's still registered to the original keeper.
Chances are the original keeper doesn't even know it's still in their name, the wheeler dealer probably told them they'd sort the paperwork.

You could take a chance but personally I wouldn't bother.
I'd want to deal with either a proper trader or the registered keeper and not some iffy ground between the two.

fatbelly

I might risk it if i'd driven it and couldn't find any major problems - but I'd want a fresh mot

WellKnownSid

fatbelly said:

I might risk it if i'd driven it and couldn't find any major problems - but I'd want a fresh mot

And people happy to hand money over to pretend traders who are guaranteed not to be paying tax is what perpetuates this market…

ohwhathaveidone

Thanks for the replies guys

No he's not  a car dealer my mate knows of him and where he works. The motor was/is also advertised on gumtree

that's where I first saw it. Car had new mot early nov,

Like I said he took car in part exchange and seems he's just trying to flip it. Car seems immaculate inside and out just not a very popular model I guess but i like it, ticks all boxes for me been on lookout for this sorta car for a while now, not seen much privately owned car fairly locally to me. I live on the coast so different radius wise if you get what i mean.. I was pretty shocked how much stealers  dealers are asking for similar model milageI etc don't really care that much about image, substance over style

Going to see it later today with money at hand, give it another thorough going over check underneath etc. Sure the

 car has had some service in past seller mentioned oil looks clean will look for myself to be sure. I've had cars in the past only ever had one garage service always done them myself my last veh I had it 14 yrs without cambelt change never cained it hardly ever went over 3.5k revs just regular oil/filter changes. yea prob got lucky tbf. For thrills I had motorcycles.

Just thought getting him to declare that  in receipt puts me in a stronger position if it goes tities up.

Not sure i should fret too much but how should/would you word it as my grammer isn't that good or maybe I shouldn't even bother.

sheramber

What makes you think him saying it is okay is worth anything?

What do you expect to happen if it turns out not to be okay?  Sue him? Does he own anything to make it worthwhile suing him?

You have already made up your mind you are buying it so asking on here was a bit pointless.

GrumpyDil

ohwhathaveidone said:

Thanks for the replies guys

No he's not  a car dealer... 

Like I said he took car in part exchange and seems he's just trying to flip it.

To be clear - he is a dealer but trying to duck any of the legal niceties that go in hand with being a dealer

Car_54

GrumpyDil said:

ohwhathaveidone said:

Thanks for the replies guys

No he's not  a car dealer... 

Like I said he took car in part exchange and seems he's just trying to flip it.

To be clear - he is a dealer but trying to duck any of the legal niceties that go in hand with being a dealer

Exactly. He is clearly dishonest, so why would you believe anything he says?

boobyd

How can he have taken it as "part exchange" if he's not a dealer?
HPI/ History check for around £20.
Did you see that cars V5, check the VIN against the car 
Look at Mot history etc
Was the previous owner address local as he said?