'Dodgy' seller or not to worry?

[Dog Biscuit]

Just looked at a low mile Ford Tourneo courier for my Dad.

Seller openly admits he does a bit of buying and selling from home. Nice house, older chap.

He bought from an auction site that does probate stuff.

Car is lovely, straight, all checks out inc FFSH

He doesn't have the V5C though. He claims when he bought from the auction he 'registered it to trade' and if I wanted it he would tax it for me by applying for a new V5C in my name (£25) and tax it at the same time. He reckons I'll receive an V5 in my name through the post in a few weeks.

Any traders or people with experience able to confirm that this is feasible?

Also, how do I check that the car is 'in the trade'?

Thanks in anticipation

[Nickp82]

It’s feasible that it’s registered to trade but not by the dealer if there’s no V5 (unless he had it and lost it)

If you do a .gov vehicle enquiry and the date on which the road tax expired is not a last day of the month, this is often a signal that the vehicle has been passed to trade.

[KungFuPanda]

If you put a car into trade, the current V5 remains valid as you use that to transfer ownership to the new keeper.

[Dog Biscuit]

Thanks for this info.

I think the guy has bought it and due to probate the V5 wasn't supplied.

He's just kept it with the view to apply for new V5 when a buyer comes along like me.

Thing is I've put it through mycarcheck and it does show 0 former keepers with the current keeper dispose in March this year.

So how would that work?

[Auto810graphy]

If it was a genuine probate sale it is likely the government “tell us once” service was used. This will transfer the car to trade without a V5 document reference number which makes what you are being told plausible. I assume the van is VAT free coming from a private estate.

[Dog Biscuit]

Auto810graphy said:

If it was a genuine probate sale it is likely the government “tell us once” service was used. This will transfer the car to trade without a V5 document reference number which makes what you are being told plausible. I assume the van is VAT free coming from a private estate.

Ah right gotcha, thanks for that.

Yes, its VAT free.