New to car trading - motor trade insurance/ V5C

[OliverPeirce01 0]

Hi Guys,

new to the trade and I’m starting in the next few weeks by selling from home. My budget for my first car is around 18-20k. I have ran a couple of successful businesses in the past but to be honest I don’t like them they just make money but cars have been my passion and joy for years. I’ve done a fair amount of research and have spoken to a few people but there is still some gaps in my knowledge that I would appreciate you guys helping me out with

so firstly its been mixed advise advise on whether or not to get motor trade insurance and set up a Ltd business from the get go?

For the V5C when buying and selling how do I fill out the form so i don’t own the car personally as I don’t want to add another owner to the list if that makes sense. 

Cheers 

Oli

[CarSalvage 1]

You cannot avoid adding an owner unless you register the vehicle in trade, this then means you cannot tax it especially if you don't have the V5 as you won't have the code to do this, therefore you if you put this in trade you cannot take it on the road unless you have trade plates, you then would need trade insurance to be able to drive using these and check that they cover this (most do but always check)

 

You used to be able to pay for tax even when the vehicle was registered in trade but they have since stopped this, I spoke to DVLA about this recently and they have said it cannot be done unless you provide the V5 number on either slip or tax reminder to tax the vehicle, once the owner is updated to trade the log book becomes void until the new one is sent out, this is what DVLA told me, unless someone on here knows a cheeky way around this, there is no way to avoid adding owners unfortunately unless you have space and trade plates.

Edited July 2, 2019 by CarSalvage

[OliverPeirce01 0]

Thanks @CarSalvage for the information. That makes perfect sense. It seems like the best option would to be and jump straight into things and get my motor trade insurance and trade plates etc. When I purchase a vehicle under trade does that mean the V5 is just held under the business name and therefore doesn't add to the number of the vehicle owners? I am assuming that getting trade plates is a straight forward process through the DVLA and i won't be refused them?

i appreciate it may seem early to go all guns blazing getting motor trade insurance and trade plates but I want to be as professional as possible from the get-go and it seems to be cheaper and easier doing it that way than insuring and taxing every car i buy to sell.

[ROVEX 0]

17 hours ago, CarSalvage said:

You cannot avoid adding an owner unless you register the vehicle in trade, this then means you cannot tax it especially if you don't have the V5 as you won't have the code to do this, therefore you if you put this in trade you cannot take it on the road unless you have trade plates, you then would need trade insurance to be able to drive using these and check that they cover this (most do but always check)

 

You used to be able to pay for tax even when the vehicle was registered in trade but they have since stopped this, I spoke to DVLA about this recently and they have said it cannot be done unless you provide the V5 number on either slip or tax reminder to tax the vehicle, once the owner is updated to trade the log book becomes void until the new one is sent out, this is what DVLA told me, unless someone on here knows a cheeky way around this, there is no way to avoid adding owners unfortunately unless you have space and trade plates.

I'm doing what Oliver is doing. I've only bought one car so far but I taxed it on my phone the day I collected it. Would that not have been valid then, I don't recall seeing any warnings about it not being valid.

Vehicles have to be taxed to go on the road and a punter test driving would need to be covered so I don't see how you can be right. if that were the case there would be no test drives.

[CarSalvage 1]

3 hours ago, ROVEX said:

I'm doing what Oliver is doing. I've only bought one car so far but I taxed it on my phone the day I collected it. Would that not have been valid then, I don't recall seeing any warnings about it not being valid.

Vehicles have to be taxed to go on the road and a punter test driving would need to be covered so I don't see how you can be right. if that were the case there would be no test drives.

 

You test drive with the trade plates on, that covers you to drive un-taxed as youre paying annually or every six months to cover this, if you tax it on the day as soon as you register it in trade or another name it automatically cancels this, I had this discussion recently with DVLA they have said there is no way to avoid adding an owner, you either dont and put it in trade and do as before mentioned, or you put it in your name and tax it, I buy salvage cars (clearly) they either come with no log book and are sorn or sometimes you get them and you can cheekily tax them with these if the insurance hasn't destroyed them but usually when a car is sold to auction/trade/scrapped its SORN and you go to the post office and apply for a new one and can tax it when filing the V62 form.

 

Personally if I was only doing one car I would see about adding it to my own insurance on a very low cost policy with no extras.

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

interested in how long you think you may have to allow for advertising / marketing this 18-20k car that is it seems the only one you will be having to start, I think the buyer of a 20k car will be fairly switched on and i do believe he will instantly catch on you are not industry experienced and you may find you are learning the ropes on a 20k car you own for 6 months and will have spent £800 advertising and because of book drops you will loose some thousands of pounds in price realignments over that 6 m period

sounds easy our game there are thousands that have tried and failed with far more experience than you, Not wishing that on you its just not easy, look at all the moaners we have on here who are struggling and  only just surviving, Its not something with all my  experience would choose to do on my own as a start up, I truly believe you have at least a 2-3 year vertical learning curve before you even start to know what you are doing

[OliverPeirce01 0]

@blenheim cars Yeh completely understand what you have to say and I’ve read a lot about people thinking they can just jump into the industry and do as well as experienced dealers. I have no sense of illusion on this and I am fully aware it’s a make or brake biz but it’s something I want to get into for the long run. I’m happy to take on all the advise possible. I own a marketing agency as we speak that I have others taking on the majority of the work load but it’s just not the industry I want to be in in years to come. It’s cars as more specifically over time high end vehicles. Its hard to say in terms of how long to allow for marketing but we have worked with private owners marketing there cars as well as small dealerships and we have found that for new business we can push a car within 3 weeks and larger established garages 20 cars a month albeit they already had a bit of a brand built, so it will be very much a trial and error scenario.