Dealers Selling for a Friend!

[Darkbluecars 10]

Just interested in everyone’s views on something which seems to be becoming much more common.

Dealer advertising a car on their website but either in the blurb or during a call reveals they are selling it privately. Usually the story goes an old client returned the vehicle to them and they are just selling it on for them or it’s a friends vehicle.

The reason I’ve come across this is I have a friend is constantly looking at cars and sending me ads asking what I think. The ads from plastic traders have always tried “the selling for a friend” but I’ve noticed more and more larger outfits trying it on. I know it’s to avoid the CPA but plenty must be getting away with it.

[BHM 994]

Just now, Darkbluecars said:

plenty must be getting away with it.

Getting away with what?

[Darkbluecars 10]

1 minute ago, BHM said:

Getting away with what?

Sorry maybe not enough detail, acting as trader in the course of their business but insisting that they then have no responsibility under the Consumer Protection Act

[Halfpenny 114]

32 minutes ago, Darkbluecars said:

 

Dealer advertising a car on their website but either in the blurb or during a call reveals they are selling it privately.

Wouldn't last two seconds in a court.

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

I agree, The concocted story of how you became the seller is immaterial, You sell a car the full weight of the  consumer laws out there are full and squarely on your shoulders, So while your mate is sunning them selves in the Caribbean with the money from the sale you are having to deal with the issues ( if or when they happen) on the car they asked you as a mate to sell for them

[BHM 994]

If YOU are selling via the course of your business then yes I agree.

However if the advertisement makes it clear the goods are advertised on behalf of xxxxx and it is from xxxxx the buyer is purchasing the goods and (most importantly) there is no reference to your business on the receipt/invoice then there is no responsibility on you.

I’m not referring to pisstakers with half of their stock being sold on behalf of friends/relatives, I’m referring to a genuine friend/relative sale of which there is no legal recourse to your business - or at least that’s my belief.

Edited August 1, 2021 by BHM

[It's me 615]

theres  a reason you would buy a car under these terms

1..you are stupid

2 ..its a rare model and being sold on consignment from say a deceased estate

3...you are a greedy twat and deserve everything you get

 

as michael miles would say take your pick

[Lakeside 94]

5 hours ago, BHM said:

If YOU are selling via the course of your business then yes I agree.

However if the advertisement makes it clear the goods are advertised on behalf of xxxxx and it is from xxxxx the buyer is purchasing the goods and (most importantly) there is no reference to your business on the receipt/invoice then there is no responsibility on you.

I’m not referring to pisstakers with half of their stock being sold on behalf of friends/relatives, I’m referring to a genuine friend/relative sale of which there is no legal recourse to your business - or at least that’s my belief.

Kind of how auctions get away with it I guess? Selling on behalf of the vendor, just a middle man between the two. 

[Darkbluecars 10]

Morning, Thank you for the replies it's good to hear your opions. 

My take on this has been various options from SOR to commission but my preference has always been to be buy the car outright. However they're always sold under my name with all the usuall responsibilities.

I've always tried to put my car obsessed friend off these 'selling for a friend' ads. I'm generally successful, on the one occaasion I wasnt he had a very interesting chat with DVLA as the seller had never told them he'd bought the car/p.ex'd it and was driving it around on the previous owners V5 and Tax!!. Ive no idea why they hadn't wondered where their tax refund was.

Anyway, the reason this has come up again is a family member is interested in a Commercial type vehicle which they are finding it hard to source. So this seller has advertised a vehicle on their business facebook page but when they've called about the vehicle the seller says it being sold on behalf of a customer to whom they'd originally sold the vehicle to. They offered to arrange finance but insisted the sale would considered to be a private sale. The family member says under those terms, thanks but no thanks.

Then shortly after that call, the seller contacts them to say they would offer a three month warranty for £500 plus VAT but that would be it, still a private sale. They continued to say that if they were retailing it, it would be about £3000 more so the customer was getting £2500 off, by in effect buying it privately. 

This isn't a back street outfit, it's a limited company with retail premises. A few enquiries has revealed that this is common practice by this company. So as i said in the OP it appears even larger companies are using this practice to avoid their obligations under the CPA and I can only assume generally quite successfully

[MattR 177]

Im not surprised its 'successful' if the savings are indeed as suggested. Theres always someone greedy enough to buy a cheap car, and not worry about the consequences until something actually goes wrong.

I'd have thought its only about dodging responsibilities. Most people reluctantly accept a 'fuck off' if that was implied to them at the start of the transaction, and for the few that don't, well, will it actually get as far as court?

 

[David Horgan 564]

I had this the other way round last Thursday

Guy rings me , Q Do you buy cars , What have you got ? 

Tesla 3 19 plate 8,000 miles . 

Few questions were he stuttered  on the answers revealed he was selling it for a friend .

Ok so i need ID from you ID from the owner , Proof of ownership eg V5 in his name and a utility bill  , preferably him here in person too .

hes an airline pilot flying all over the world he cant come , cant send a UK driver licence and lives in another country 

Not for me i say bye , 

5pm same day he rings back to thank me for waking him up , He had the car , No V5 , one key , was asked to sell it for he mates mate mate who's the luckiest airline pilot ever and he had realised it was a con , Tesla was nicked , he off loaded it when he went through the questions i asked and freaked . 

He off loaded it to the nearest police station , 

The alarm bells went when i told him £15,000 for a 19 plate tesla was less than half it value . He admitted to me that anything over 10 k was his . 

Lucky guy and in the end was honest . 

The old adage if its to good to be true its usually to good to be true .

[Paul C 75]

Why on earth would a reputable dealer shoot themselves in the foot by trying this "private sale" bollocks and reducing the value from retail to private in one big lump? Surely the thing to do is to buy at trade price, sell at retail price and obvs the difference in the two pays for the costs in doing so, perhaps even making a profit??? Add value and add onto the price rather than trying to squeeze it into something not even legal! I'd be prepping "friends" cars, offering them at full retail and thanking the friend for the business. Oh and he'd already have been settled with the appropriate trade-in value so he has no concern for the car any more, its a lump of metal that he used to own now.