Think my new neighbour is selling cars from his drive. Can he do this?

WIAWSNB

Kit1 said:

WIAWSNB said:

You say he goes off to work - do you know what he does?

It might be he has a contact/friend/relative who owns a garage that sells second-hand cars 'legitimately'. But for harder-to-shift vehicles, or just a faster turnover, if they can sell them 'privately' - without the warranty and comeback - they can knock a bit off the price. So the 'garage' is the initial selling contact. 

Forgot to say if the garage can't sell them it seems strange they can see them every day.

It's not that they can't sell them, but they often end up with older, higher-mileage cars taken in part exchange, and they'll often want shot of them - with no warranty...
That's pure conjecture, of course. If it's the case, tho', then the garage should be as deep in it as this guy.

Tulips2lips

I had a friend with a legit used car garage and when he had too many cars he would take a couple home to sell privately until the police paid him a visit.  They didn't stop him as he wasn't doing anything illegal but to get the police to call, the neighbours said the cars were stolen.  That was years ago so things may be different now.  I can see it would be a real pain to live next to that.  

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

Is he parking any of the vehicles on the road?

Leaving two or more vehicles on the road for the purposes of selling them is an offence under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act apparently.

Worth a note they have to be parked less than 500 metres apart for this to apply. 

Ask the council is the best bet OP, you could do this without giving any of your personal details to get an idea of what is what before deciding whether to officially complain or not.  

Kit1

Thank you all for your comments. We have informed the council and they want details - no problem my CCTV has them all arriving and leaving.
Another car has arrived again today - we have had one day without people standing on my drive but looks like it is all about the start again - Sunday must be a good selling day.
Anyway, enough of that.
I wanted to tell you all that l have finally found out where he is selling the one on the drive today. Has only taken me nearly two weeks when he sold the first one. I must have gotten there before they have taken it off 😁.
Just a shame l have missed the other 10.
It has a number but says it is protected. Does anyone know if this means the call are handled by someone else and he gets messages?  Haven't sold a car like this so not really sure how it works.
Again thank you all for your advice.

QrizB

Kit1 said:

It has a number but says it is protected. Does anyone know if this means the call are handled by someone else and he gets messages?  Haven't sold a car like this so not really sure how it works..

If it's anything like Autotrader, the number displayed is a redirection service. Calls to the number will automatically be put through to the seller's actual number, without the buyer getting to know what it is.

There will usually be a different number for every vehicle. And this service is usually only used by private sellers (or dealers pretending to be private sellers).

Kit1

QrizB said:

Kit1 said:

It has a number but says it is protected. Does anyone know if this means the call are handled by someone else and he gets messages?  Haven't sold a car like this so not really sure how it works..

If it's anything like Autotrader, the number displayed is a redirection service. Calls to the number will automatically be put through to the seller's actual number, without the buyer getting to know what it is.

There will usually be a different number for every vehicle. And this service is usually only used by private sellers (or dealers pretending to be private sellers).

Thank you for letting me know. I found another of their vehicles and it had a different number so l thought it must go somewhere that then messaged them but didn't really know how it worked.

victor2

Maybe time for a bit of detective work. Find another ad for one of the vehicles that doesn't sell in 15 minutes and get a friend to arrange to see it? The friend should ask to see the V5C (log book) and note the current keeper's name - photo it if possible. Then make an excuse not to buy and leave. Pursue that and see if you can contact the previous keeper to get a bit more history about the vehicle. It might reveal the neighbour's source of the cars.

It could be the neighbour is a trader behaving as a private seller, but if I went to a private address to see a car and was confronted by a driveway jam-packed with vehicles, I'd have my doubts about the private sale bit.

maxmycardagain

Not unusual for traders to trade from home, everything else is conjecture

bjorn_toby_wilde

Reading the thread I can’t help but feel that all this detective work is getting a little out of hand.

The OP has informed the council and they have asked them for details. The OP can supply them with details of all the different cars coming and going and their registrations.  Surely that will be enough for the council to investigate further?

Get a friend to pose as a buyer? Contact the previous keeper? If you were the previous keeper how would you respond to an unknown person asking you for details of the sale?

At the moment the OP has right on their side. As soon as they start to ask friends to pose as buyers and use subterfuge then the lines start to blur. I would feel very uncomfortable doing that.

Kit1

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

Reading the thread I can’t help but feel that all this detective work is getting a little out of hand.

The OP has informed the council and they have asked them for details. The OP can supply them with details of all the different cars coming and going and their registrations.  Surely that will be enough for the council to investigate further?

Get a friend to pose as a buyer? Contact the previous keeper? If you were the previous keeper how would you respond to an unknown person asking you for details of the sale?

At the moment the OP has right on their side. As soon as they start to ask friends to pose as buyers and use subterfuge then the lines start to blur. I would feel very uncomfortable doing that.

Thank you. I tend to agree. I want nothing to do with it so am trying to keep a low profile and just go about my usual day. Anyway, every time one of us comes out or goes into our house and it's mainly him who is out doing something to one of the latest cars he jumps up, rushes inside until we are gone then comes back out. But, then again it isn't just when he is sorting the cars. On Thursday we were going out for the evening and he was outside doing something with the doorstep and didn't notice us until l said something to my OH, (nothing about the neighbour - think it was about the time or something trivial). In fact l hadn't seen him as l was locking the door but  spoke as l turned around, so just caught sight of him as he looked round, saw us, jumped up and almost ran inside and didn't come back out until we had crossed the road.