Selling your car privately is likely to get you the best price, as long as you’re prepared to invest some time and effort in organising your sale. Here you can find out what’s involved – from advertising and paperwork to safety precautions at buyer viewings and when taking payment.
- What to do when selling your car
- Selling your car online
- Ensuring safe payment
- Essential paperwork
- Don’t be tricked by fraudulent buyers
- Safety when people come to view your car
- Your next step
What to do when selling your car
Remember
Don’t base your advertised asking price on guesswork. Instead, try using car valuation tools on sites such as Auto Trader, Parkers, What Car? and CAP.
Advertising your car is your first, essential step to a successful sale.
There are many ways you can advertise, some free, others involving a cost.
Your choice of advertising will probably be determined by how urgently you need to sell your car.
Some of the most popular ways of advertising cars are:
- ‘For sale’ signs in local shop windows
- Car auction sites, such as eBay and eBid
- A ‘for sale’ sign in one of your car’s windows
- In your local newspaper’s classified ads section
- Car-selling websites such as AutoTrader and Gumtree
Whichever option(s) you choose, your advertisement must by law describe the car accurately and include the following details:
- Colour
- Mileage
- Condition
- Your contact details
- List of equipment/taxes
- Full service history (or not)
- The exact make and model
- The year of manufacture and registration identifier (eg ‘09’ or ‘59’ plate for 2009)
Selling your car online
Remember
Images and pictures are very important when selling anything online.
Take a number of pictures from different angles and make sure they are of a good quality.
Advertising and selling your car online has several advantages and disadvantages:
- Gives you access to a much wider audience.
- Some online sites offer secure payment methods so you don’t have to worry about being scammed.
- Allows you to give a lot more detail about the vehicle including pictures.
- If selling on an auction site (like eBay) then you might not get as good a price as you hoped.
- People will still want to see the vehicle before they buy or bid, so you will need to make time for these appointments.
Potential buyers will also be able to send in questions about the vehicle.
While it can be annoying to respond to all of them, it also gives you the chance to interact with interested buyers.
Too many questions can be avoided by including as much detail as possible in the description.
Ensuring safe payment
Once you’ve finished negotiating the price and agreed the sale with the buyer, you need to agree how they’ll pay the money to you.
Below are the main options available to you, with some tips to help ensure safe payment.
Cash in full
Make sure you count the money.
If possible, it’s a good idea to meet the buyer at your bank to take payment, so you can pay in the money immediately and the cashier will check the notes are genuine.
Immediate bank transfer using the CHAPS system
Keep possession of your car until the funds have transferred.
Bear in mind with this payment method you have to reveal your bank account details to the buyer.
Cheque or banker’s draft
Make sure you have proof of the buyer’s name and address – possibly a copy of a utility bill – so you can follow them up if you don’t receive payment.
If you have any doubts about them, don’t hand over the car keys until you know your bank has cleared the full payment into your account.
Most banks will show the cheque money arriving in your account by the next working day, but this is not the same as the cheque being cleared.
A common fraud is to present a cheque and get the bank to confirm the cheque has been paid in.
The seller then releases the goods, but a few days later the cheque bounces because it is fraudulent. By then the seller has lost their goods.
If your buyer wants to buy the car but can’t pay immediately, take a non-refundable deposit. £100 is the normal amount.
This will help cover your costs if they pull out and you have to re-advertise.
Essential paperwork
As soon as you’ve been paid for the car, you need to complete the following essential paperwork:
- Write a receipt and make two copies – one for you and one for your buyer. It should include the date, price, registration number, make and model, plus you and your buyer’s names and addresses.
- Complete and sends the V5C to the DVLA. This is done by completing the new keeper details (section 6) and signing section 8Complete and hand over the new keeper part of V5C to your buyer.
- Give the new owner the car’s handbook, the keys (including any duplicate sets), the service logbook plus any receipts you have, and the MOT certificate if the car is over three years old. If you’re selling with a full service history, buyers also like to receive old MOT certificates and other maintenance receipts.
- And finally, keep a separate note of the buyer’s name and address.
Don’t be tricked by fraudulent buyers
Did you know?
Around 7 million used cars change hands each year in the UK, many of them through private sales.
Selling your car privately can expose you to thieves posing as potential buyers.
Here are some recent scams to be on the look-out for:
- Someone posing as a car exporter, who asks you to transfer ‘shipping fees’ to overseas ‘buyers’.
- Phishing emails from so-called car buying and selling websites requesting login and payment details for your card.
- Text messages expressing an interest in your car only for you to be charged at a premium rate if you respond by phone or text.
- People wanting to buy your car using PayPal or similar e-payment systems – the account might have been set-up using false credit card details.
- A buyer who pays by cheque and takes the car before the cheque clears, but the cheque bounces a few days later because it is a forgery or fake
- A buyer offering to buy your car unseen who pays the full amount through PayPal. You’re then notified you’ve been overpaid and you’re asked to return the difference through a different online payment method. As you do this, the fraudster arranges for their original PayPal transaction to be reversed and you lose the money you’ve ‘returned’.
Safety when people come to view your car
As the people coming to view your car will usually be complete strangers, it makes sense to take some basic precautions:
- When arranging a viewing, consider having a friend or family member present.
- Ask the buyer for proof of identity and check that they have a valid driver’s licence.
- Always remove the keys from the ignition before leaving a potential buyer alone in your car.
- Go with potential buyers on test drives and don’t hand over the keys until you’re in the passenger seat.
- Be wary if a buyer brings some ‘tag-a-long’ friends – they might plan to break into your house while you’re out on the test drive.
- Don’t hand over the car keys or documents until your bank has confirmed it has cleared the full value of the vehicle into your account.
- Ask the potential buyer to check with their insurance company they’re covered to drive your car. Even if they have a “driving other cars” policy it will probably only provide third party cover. Contact your insurance company – you might need to get temporary car insurance for the test drive.
You can find out more about how to protect yourself from fraudulent car buyers at the following websites:
Your next step
This article is provided by the Money Advice Service.
