Here’s how to avoid a disaster when privately selling your car
I sold my Vauxhall Corsa on a bank holiday weekend of my nightmares that resulted in speeding tickets and parking tickets landing on my doorstep. Here’s how it all went down.
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Where it all began: my nightmare experience selling a car
During the Easter bank holiday weekend, we had just spent a near fortune having our car repaired and opted to get a new one and get rid of our trusty Vauxhall Corsa. So, after a quick trip to the car wash and a short photoshoot, I listed it on Facebook Marketplace.
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, things didn’t quite go to plan. Here are my best tips on selling a car based on my experience.
Advertise for more than you’d be prepared to take
People will always try to haggle you down, especially when you’re selling a car, so this is to be expected. Don’t let people take the mick — I usually just flat out ignore anyone offering me less than the webuyanycar price as this tends to be the lower end of what your car is worth, so use that as a guide.
My best advice here is to raise the price a little above what you’re prepared to take — just enough to let people haggle you down. In my experience, a buyer will always give you a reason they want a lower price — from “My budget isn’t that high” to “X, Y and Z needs repairing” all the way to “I need to cover fuel for the drive home”.
Have some “muscle” with you
Unfortunately, as a woman with a car, I don’t get taken very seriously. When I took my first car to the garage because the ABS light was on, the mechanic spoke directly to my partner, who just happened to be there and didn’t even have a driving licence. So I knew that anyone who turned up probably felt like they could walk all over me.
Man or not — get a friend over, ask your parents, make sure your partner is home, just have someone there to back you up a little.
Knowing that my partner wouldn’t be home I enlisted my neighbour’s Dad to ensure I wasn’t scammed or worse. He took the buyer on the test drive for me, dealt with the negotiation and even explained that I was absolutely not taking cash — which brings me to my next tip.
Be wary of cash
Cash is great, but it can be difficult to determine its legitimacy, and nobody reasonably needs a few grand in twenties. If you’re comfortable checking that it’s not fraudulent then it’s fine to take cash. Otherwise, ask for a bank transfer, or go to the Post Office or a bank with the buyer and have the cash paid directly into your account.
This way, the Post Office or bank can check that it’s real and you should see it in your account immediately, with a receipt.
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Hang onto your logbook and know the process
Ahead of selling the car, take a quick photo of the logbook so you have the V5C number and when you’re showing the car, keep hold of it, along with a pair of scissors and a pen.
What to do with the logbook when you sell your car
- Fill out the green “selling or transferring my vehicle to a new keeper” section — even if you wind up letting the DVLA know online, you’ll then have all the details you need.
- Cut out the green “new keeper slip” — this is the interim certificate for the new owner and gives them the V5C number to tax the vehicle. Don’t cut out the slip prior to the sale.
- Either post the V5C to the DVLA or fill out this form online. This is for you to do, not the new owner.
- Check you have a confirmation email from the DVLA — if you don’t, call the DVLA.
The new owner just needs to take the green “new keeper slip” and use the V5C number to tax the vehicle. They don’t get the logbook.
The process is slightly different when selling to a motor trader — more on that on the gov.uk website. It’s best to make sure someone else stays with you for this bit, as this is where things went wrong for me.
Where I went wrong
I did my absolute best to follow the process above, but the buyer took the logbook off me earlier on along with the other documents, to look through the history, and then when it came to dealing with the paperwork he wouldn’t hand it back.
He got a little aggressive, told me he was buying it for his cleaning business and therefore needed the entire thing.
After a few minutes of trying to handle the situation, I decided it wasn’t worth jeopardising my safety, and I didn’t like how angry he seemed to be getting. He filled in what looked like the “tell DVLA you sold your car” form on the gov.uk website on my behalf, asking for my email address as part of the form.
Suspicious about the whole experience, after he’d left I called the DVLA to check that the car wasn’t in my name anymore, and low and behold, he didn’t submit the necessary form and he hadn’t taxed the vehicle in his name.
The DVLA talked me through my options — essentially because I didn’t know the logbook number (that’s why you take a photo!), I couldn’t submit the form anymore and needed to send a letter to the DVLA with everything I knew.
I printed out all the contact I had with the buyer, whose Facebook account had since been deleted. In addition, I photocopied my Post Office receipt and gave details of the address, date and time of the transaction, so CCTV could be obtained if necessary. I wrote a letter with all the details I was asked for, and posted it first class and signed-for to the DVLA.
Within 48 hours I had an email to confirm that the car was no longer registered to me, backdated to the date I sold the car, then a slip came in the post the next day.
Once the fines landed on my doorstep, I sent them back with a photocopy and a brief note explaining the situation.
Luckily, because I acted so quickly, I didn’t have any significant issues as a result. The longer you leave it, the more drawn out this process can become.
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Remember to remove the car from auto-pay accounts
One final thing — you might have your car set up on parking apps or for tolls to auto-pay. Be sure to remove these and change them to your new car, otherwise you might find yourself paying for the buyer’s Dartford Tunnel crossings, Congestion Zone charges or parking. Some of the ones to remember include:
- Tolls: M6, Dartford Crossing and any bridges. There’s a full list here.
- London Congestion Zone
- Clean Air Zones: you can see a full list here
- Parking apps: JustPark and RingGo both have autopay options
- Airport drop-off: London Gatwick and Heathrow both have autopay available
In addition, make sure you cancel your car insurance for the car, as well as any breakdown cover.
We are on the other footing at the moment and going through small claims for a ‘great’ first time buy from marketplace at the moment.
I’m glad you mentioned about the log book and trader etc as our seller claimed to be a trader and did the log book process all correct and straight away and now denying being a trader etc anything to work their way out, even though they are still selling on average two cars a week on there. Wonders what tax he is paying as well!!!
Or take a banker’s draft or a building society withdrawal cheque drawn in your name.
Decide how much you want and just refuse any offer below it. Don’t fall into the trap of halving the difference between their offer and your asking price. Go down 5%, not 50%.
“My partner and I”