Commericals with seats?

Losty Dublin

I'd appreciate opinions in the know about this.

I rang a dealer about a second hand SUV that had a handy price asked for a seemingly good read up. The thing is, the ad listed it as having 5 seats yet only €288 road tax, the commercial rate. When I called them up today about it, the salesman said that the previous owner got them to take out the seats for the DOE test and has since replaced them inside it, a trick that my mechanic said is illegal.

Now although I'd personally feel more happy paying the normal and correct road tax on this motor, are there legal issues with this car being taxed as it is? I know I won't be liable for any back tax but would it be a chance that the Revenue would know or care about this? Reclassifying it won't be a big deal while I want the practicality of 5 seats as well as the space for work so leaving it as a 2 seater/commerical isn't really my preferred option; I just want reassurance that I'm not picking up a bag of worry here so some informed advice would be greatly appreciated here.

Anan1

Was passenger VRT ever paid on it? And are the rear seatbelts properly fitted?

Eric Cartman

Unless its a 2003 or earlier landcruiser amazon or land rover defender walk away right now , theres something dodgy about that, and if theres 1 thing dodgy id be willing to bet theres other things

Losty Dublin

Anan1 wrote: »

Was passenger VRT ever paid on it? And are the rear seatbelts properly fitted?

I was told that it was reregistered as a commercial and had the seats removed. Unsure about the safety belts if they were refitted or even removed TBH

colm_mcm

Run away as fast as you can.

manta356

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I was told that it was reregistered as a commercial and had the seats removed. Unsure about the safety belts if they were refitted or even removed TBH

If it was Commercialized properly,the rear seatbelt holes should have been welded over and left so as that the seats couldn't be refitted.;)
If you want to refit the seats and tax it privately,you'd be liable for the extra Vrt.:(

-Corkie-

Unless its pre 03 as Colm said run away.

280special

Forget about it.

If it is all ok and above board then it will be a nightmare everytime a Garda takes an interest, and then what happens when you try to sell it on?

Far too messy, there are plenty of other SUV's out there !

Losty Dublin

Thanks for the advice, guys. It was sounding a bit too good to be true so onto the next dealer for a goo at his offering

Fey!

OP; is there a solid bulkhead behind the seats? If there is, it could be classified as a crewcab; 5 seats with commercial tax.

Has it all glass, or are the back panes covered? If the full VRT (passenger) was once paid, but then the tax designation was changed and the seats removed, it can still have glass instead of solid panels. It would have had the seats and seatbelts removed, but wouldn't need the solid floor most commercials require. If this is the case, you could get it designated private without owing any VRT.

What year/make/model is it?

However, I tend to agree with the others on here. It sounds dodgy. Run away.

@ -Corkie- ; were there exemptions before 2003? Can a pre 2003 vehicle have 5 seats, no bulkhead, and be classed commercial?

Sids Not

You would also need to get it DOE'd....and these days they're a lot more thorough than they were a few years back..;);)

mervifwdc

It all depends on what it is. a Defender crewcab can be commercially taxed AND has 5 (or 6) seats. Just say what make / model / year before running away, it may be fine.

Eric Cartman

Fey! wrote: »

@ -Corkie- ; were there exemptions before 2003? Can a pre 2003 vehicle have 5 seats, no bulkhead, and be classed commercial?

before july 2003 when a weight requirement for crewcabs was introduced , you could take certain vehicles (kia sedona , landcruiser amazon and a few others) and put a bulkhead in behind the 2nd row of seats, then register it as a crewcab. Revenue copped on and stopped people doing this so since then the only crewcab vehicles are ones that left the factory as crewcabs.

mervifwdc wrote: »

It all depends on what it is. a Defender crewcab can be commercially taxed AND has 5 (or 6) seats. Just say what make / model / year before running away, it may be fine.

indeed it does , unless its a pickup truck (defender included) or a crewcab van then chances are its a dodgy conversion.

colm_mcm

The old regulation was that a certain volume of dedicated load space had to be there. Same as a pickup.

Fitting the bulkhead and dropping the floor down (like on the amazon) and removing the spare wheel made the jeep qualify as a crewcab

Now the new regulation is that the cargo space is defined by length not volume of load space.

darragh o meara

Its a dodgy one to get caught with, lots of lads still at it nowadays and if you get caught your f@*cked simple as!!! The guards are now wise to this carry on and will do you for it as are the ever increasing customs check points, They'll take it off you!!

It has other implications, Not insured to have extra seats ( Hence if you have extra seats that are not permitted then you have no insurance cover 2yrs off the road and a few points for your license )
Vrt liability is another big one, VRT of 50 euro is paid on commercial vehicles whereas on passenger jeeps the vet can be anything 500-10,000 depending on the value etc. Effectively its tax evasion and again is punishable by law!! I know of a lad who commercialized a Porcshe Cayenne and had the seats back in it a few days after it was cleared, Poor lad got caught a few weeks later and got into serious trouble with both the guards and customs!!!

As stated earlier there was certain jeeps that could be converted to crew cabs with certain modifications Ie. Land cruiser amazon and Nissan patrols i think. Anything else, if it doest say crew cab on the tax-book it is illegal plain and simple. The DOE test DOES NOT ALLOW JEEPS OR VANS TO HAVE SEATS IN THE BACK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FOR NON CREW CAB VEHICLES. Anybody who tells you different is lying!!!

If I was you I would walk away from this if your planning on keeping the rear seats in situ, If your gonna be using it to work then remove the seats and sell them or dump them so you won't get tempted to refit them.

Also before you plunge make sure you can avail of the commercial tax as the criteria for getting it is now being enforced a lot more and most tax offices if not all of them now ask for a vat number which they check to see if is applicable to you when giving out commercial tax!!!