Crackdown on Unlicensed Car Sellers

Trading Standards Officers at CNES are advising residents to be especially wary when purchasing vehicles privately.

The law does not offer consumers as much protection when buying privately as when they buy from a licenced trader, and whilst there are honest members of the public selling their own cars, there may be also be dealers who in order to evade their legal responsibilities are misleading purchasers into thinking that they are buying cars from private sellers.

A Trading Standards spokesperson, said: “Locally we have been monitoring private car sales over a period of time, and our intelligence shows that a small number of individuals may be advertising and selling several vehicles suggesting that these sellers are buying cars to sell on and, in the eyes of the law, are in business as car dealers. Cars sold by disguised traders may be defective, unsafe or clocked , and the unsuspecting consumer has little hope of any redress when things go wrong.”

The new Consumer Rights Act gives purchasers who buy from businesses certain remedies including refunds, repairs and in certain circumstances the right to reject faulty goods. Car dealers selling second hand vehicles require to be licenced under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

Traders masquerading as private sellers may also be committing offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The spokesperson continued: “We  will continue to monitor local private car sales in order to protect residents from unfair trading practices.  Any evidence of sellers suspected to be misleading consumers in this manner will be dealt with formally and may be reported to the Procurator Fiscal. Trading Standards will also be sharing information regarding unlicensed sellers with other partner agencies including HMRC”

If you think you may have bought a vehicle from someone you suspect is a dealer you should contact Trading Standards on 01851 822694.

Applications to apply for a motor dealers licence can be downloaded from the Comhairle’s website on http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/licensing/eusd/eusd_secondhand.asp

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