Sell Abroad?

[Andy Spencer]

Hi all, after a bit of advice. As many of you know my car is for sale at present and I have been exchanging emails with a guy from France for the last couple of weeks.

He seems very genuine, and after numerous questions about the car he seems ready to do the deal. Basically he has offered a £1000 deposit via paypal, then he will take a flight to East Mids and bring cash which we can pay into the bank before he takes the car.

 

Can anyone see any catches here? Always have to be ultra cautious about ensuring funds are cleared but I can't see any issues here. Seems that registering new kits in France is a pain but if a copy of the SVA report is present (which I have) then less of a problem re-registering in France.

 

Any advice appreciated. Also what do you put on the V5? The export section is only if I export it myself....do you just fill in the new keeper address box with the French address?

 

Cheers, Andy

[Grim]

take the cash to the bank and have them verify it and pay it into your account. Other than that? fine.

[Andy Spencer]

Thanks, very good advice.

Spoken to the potential buyer again and he's happy to go along with whatever is necessary. He bought an MX5 from the UK in 2010 and (in his words exactly) the process seems to be:

"As far as I remember, you haven't to pay any tax for export ; the seller just has to cut the V5C/4 part (in purple) ("notification of permament export") and send it to the DVLA : dislike a sale between 2 UK citizens, a foreign buyer keeps the whole V5C (except the V5C/4) : the first time I bought a car in UK, in 2010, I didn't know that and then couldn't registrate the car in France (hoppefully the seller subsequently sent me the V5C). But the DVLA will explain you that better than I do."

Have emailed DVLA, impossible to get to talk to a human on their phone helpline.

Checked a couple of other forums and the above seems the genuine process, a lot of people seem to have done it.

 

He seems a decent guy, so looks like my car might be on its way to a sunnier life in France soon

 

Have to get thinking seriously about next project now!

[philshelton]

Thanks, very good advice.

Spoken to the potential buyer again and he's happy to go along with whatever is necessary. He bought an MX5 from the UK in 2010 and (in his words exactly) the process seems to be:

"As far as I remember, you haven't to pay any tax for export ; the seller just has to cut the V5C/4 part (in purple) ("notification of permament export") and send it to the DVLA : dislike a sale between 2 UK citizens, a foreign buyer keeps the whole V5C (except the V5C/4) : the first time I bought a car in UK, in 2010, I didn't know that and then couldn't registrate the car in France (hoppefully the seller subsequently sent me the V5C). But the DVLA will explain you that better than I do."

Have emailed DVLA, impossible to get to talk to a human on their phone helpline.

Checked a couple of other forums and the above seems the genuine process, a lot of people seem to have done it.

 

He seems a decent guy, so looks like my car might be on its way to a sunnier life in France soon

 

Have to get thinking seriously about next project now!

Dont forget to suggest he joins the club

[Andy Spencer]

Dont forget to suggest he joins the club

Already done! In fact I'll be buying it for him if he takes the car.

I'll also be staying a paid up member, though not sure my next proposed 'weekend car' buy meets acceptable club criteria........

[philshelton]

Already done! In fact I'll be buying it for him if he takes the car.

I'll also be staying a paid up member, though not sure my next proposed 'weekend car' buy meets acceptable club criteria........

Already done! In fact I'll be buying it for him if he takes the car.

I'll also be staying a paid up member, though not sure my next proposed 'weekend car' buy meets acceptable club criteria........

criteria any thing goes as long as it has a engine

[Andy Spencer]

3 litre straight six, so sounds like I'll be OK..........

[Guest shaggy]

Andy, be very very wary. If its the same guy he wanted to buy mine......give me a couple of minutes and I'll check details and put a further post on here

 

Si

[Guest shaggy]

The guy that wanted to buy mine was called Jene Henri Tarnenne. Sent me loads of emails, said he had had one in the past and wanted an S7. Sounds like he has done plenty of research and knows the cars well. He even phoned me up. He said he was from Nice and was happy to fly to heathrow and catch a train. He wanted to deposit £500 in my bank, with cash on collection. Now this is a guy buying a car unseen. He then started haggling offering me a grand less than it was advertised for. At this point a smelled a rat, did a bit of research and as suspected, he probably is not in Nice, but more likely in the Caymen islands. What happens is they deposit a grand or whatever, this then shows up as cleared in your bank account, but not cleared to cash. A reversal is then done, along with another transaction to clear the rest of your account.

 

If you do go ahead with the sale, open a new account and deposit £1 in the account, least that way all you will loose if it is a scam, is £1

 

On the other hand, it may be genuine.......................

 

Si

[Andy Spencer]

Cheers Si

Its certainly not that guy. I'm getting happier that its genuine. The plan now is no deposit, pick him up from the airport, check the car over, if happy take cash to the bank for verification and pay in, do the paperwork and he takes the car.

I've looked and my buyer has a facebook page, can also trace him to the area of France where he says he lives on google.

Always a slight worry but seems genuine in this case. Unless anyone can see any catches with that plan, its set to go ahead around the 14th.

[Andy Spencer]

For interest, and if anyone else ends up in a similar position, this is what the DVLA have said in terms of the V5. Seems simple enough.

Dear Mr Spencer

 

Thank you for your email received on 1/8/12.

 

It may be helpful if I explain that, if you are selling your vehicle to a purchaser outside the UK the following advice applies to notifying export.

 

You, the current registered keeper of the vehicle, shown on the registration certificate V5C, should notify disposal by writing to:

 

DVLA

Swansea

SA99 1BA

 

including the:

 

• vehicle registration number

 

• make/model

 

• date of sale

 

• who the vehicle is sold to

 

Please note we are issuing automatic acknowledgement letters to confirm that keepers are no longer responsible for the vehicle. If you do not receive the confirmation letter within 4 weeks please contact us.

 

The complete V5C should be handed to the new keeper who should fill in section 6 of the V5C. Both yourself as current keeper and the new keeper must sign the declaration section 8. The whole V5C should then be handed to the new keeper and this can be used to re-register the vehicle in the host country.

[Guest dinger]

Andy,

 

Is the guys name Thomas Mills?

 

For some reason there are alot of french people enquiring about cars at the moment only to mess you around, saying they want the car, will collect the car in person, then start fluffing around and never commit to anything, And this "Thomas Mills" guy seesm to pop up averywhere and on all different forums, saying he has read about you car on a specific forum,

Gives you confidence that a sale is made,

I was lucky, had my car advertised on every website, this guy said he would buy, but I would of never removed the adverts untill he picked the car up and the cash was in the bank,,, needless to say I sold the privately in this country,

[Andy Spencer]

No its not Thomas Mills. My buyer has booked his flight today and forwarded me the confirmation. Price is agreed, as is exactly how we'll play things when he gets over here. We've also exchanged addresses and phone numbers.

At the end of the day it looks genuine, the car won't go till the money is verified and banked, the adverts will stay live until he drives it down the road so the worst will be it remains for sale.

A friend of mine in the village sold his Caterham to a Belgian chap a couple of months ago, no dramas, so it can be done.

Fingers crossed.

Thanks all for the advice.

[Andy Spencer]

Oh well the sale fell through, he can't insure it in France, they don't recognise RH's, only Caterhams or Westfields (apparently), either that or he's spinning me a yarn, but he's lost the money on his air fare and ferry back from Newhaven and seems pretty gutted. Apparently the few other RH owners he's spoken to in France are all running and insuring off Sierra logbooks, sounds iffy.

Don't think it was a scam but also proves much caution needed when selling outside of UK, and certainly don't withdraw from sale until cash in the bank.

 

The best bit is I can now take it to work for the next 2 days now the weather has perked up!!!