Buying car with tax disc 4 months out of date

pabloazazel

Looking at buying a used car. The tax disc is 4 months out of date. If I am not mistaken so there is nothing to do with me whatsoever therfore it should no be a cornec.

Any important paper I can not forget regarding this?

bazz26

You are only liable for motor tax from the beginning of the month that you become the registered owner.

Bring an envelope with you with the address of the Department of Transport on it so that after you and the seller sign the vehicle registration cert (logbook) that you both drop it into a nearby post box. That way there is no messing around with the seller promising to send it off while actually throwing it in the drawer at home never to be thought of again.

Silane

I wouldn't buy a car with the tax out. If somebody lets something like that slide I'de be concerned about how & when the car was serviced.
If it's been off the road for the time the tax is out, that causes problems of it's own.

bazz26

That's being a bit overly paranoid imo.

The car could have been not used in that time, hence why it is for sale. Maybe the seller has bought a new car? What if the car has been sitting on a dealer's forecourt for that time and the tax expired?

Johnson_76

Silane wrote: »

I wouldn't buy a car with the tax out. If somebody lets something like that slide I'de be concerned about how & when the car was serviced.
If it's been off the road for the time the tax is out, that causes problems of it's own.

Way over the top !

Silane

bazz26 wrote: »

That's being a bit overly paranoid imo. The car could have been not used in that time, hence why it is for sale. Maybe the seller has bought a new car?

So it was sitting on a driveway for 4 months? That's not good for a car. Maybe it's fine, probably is, but with plenty of cars out there to buy, personally I'd stay clear of one that had out of date tax.

Silane

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Doesn't mean the car was sitting in a driveway for 4 months

Well he said maybe it wasn't used. May not necessarily have been sitting a driveway, a garage would be better obviously, but not used for 4 months wherever it was wouldn't be great.

bazz26

Silane wrote: »

So it was sitting on a driveway for 4 months? That's not good for a car. Maybe it's fine, probably is, but with plenty of cars out there to buy, personally I'd stay clear of one that had out of date tax.

So if the car was still sitting on a driveway for 4 months but had tax you'd be none the wiser and fine with it?

Silane

bazz26 wrote: »

So if the car was still sitting on a driveway for 4 months but had tax you'd be none the wiser and fine with it?

Well like you said I'd be none the wiser, haha, so I wouldn't have an opinion on it. When I buy car I can only make the decision based on what info I have.
Out of date tax is just a red flag for me, it does pose questions about whether cash is tight and if so were services skipped?, or if the person puts things on the long finger when it comes to cars.

colm_mcm

So if you went on holidays or were sick for 4 months you'd just get your car scrapped I presume

Silane

Really?, you think if the tax on car is out by 4 months, the likely scenarios are 1. Maybe the owner was on a 4 month holiday 2. The owner has been too sick to go online and tax it.
I think the most likely scenario's are the 1. the owner didn't bother taxing it, which as I already said raises some concerns for me. 2. The car has been off the road for 4 months, again I'd rather steer clear.

If my tax was about to go out and I was selling the car soon I'd stick 3 months on it, so I could drive it until it was sold and people could test drive it. I'm not saying everybody else has to feel the same way, I just wouldn't buy or sell a car without tax.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Silane wrote: »

I wouldn't buy a car with the tax out. If somebody lets something like that slide I'de be concerned about how & when the car was serviced.
If it's been off the road for the time the tax is out, that causes problems of it's own.

Don't be ridiculous! How do you know the seller didn't buy a new car 4 months ago and has only managed to sell this one now? Or knew they were selling it and didn't want to spend more money on it rather save it for the new car.

A car being off the road for 4 months is nothing and won't cause any problem that won't be rectified with a quick drive and chances are the car has been driven regularly albeit without tax. Stop scaremongering for the sake of it!

ScouseMouse

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Don't be ridiculous! How do you know the seller didn't buy a new car 4 months ago and has only managed to sell this one now? Or knew they were selling it and didn't want to spend more money on it rather save it for the new car.

A car being off the road for 4 months is nothing and won't cause any problem that won't be rectified with a quick drive and chances are the car has been driven regularly albeit without tax. Stop scaremongering for the sake of it!

Agree completely

Silane

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Don't be ridiculous! How do you know the seller didn't buy a new car 4 months ago and has only managed to sell this one now? Or knew they were selling it and didn't want to spend more money on it rather save it for the new car.

A car being off the road for 4 months is nothing and won't cause any problem that won't be rectified with a quick drive and chances are the car has been driven regularly albeit without tax. Stop scaremongering for the sake of it!

Yeah those things are all possible, I'm not scare mongering, just saying I wouldn't buy it. There's plenty if cars for sale that I'd feel more comfortable buying.

pa990

the seller knew that he was about to sell it, so didnt bother taxing it.. nothing untoward.

cros13

I have a car for sale with the tax out since January. Didn't renew because the owner is ill and the car hasn't left the garage in 9 months.
The decision to sell the car wasn't made until February.

There are genuine reasons people might be selling an untaxed car...

freshpopcorn

Silane wrote: »

Yeah those things are all possible, I'm not scare mongering, just saying I wouldn't buy it. There's plenty if cars for sale that I'd feel more comfortable buying.

How do you know a taxed car isn't sitting idle for a year?

Silane

freshpopcorn wrote: »

How do you know a taxed car isn't sitting idle for a year?

For a start it's unlikely somebody kept a car taxed that was off the road, it's possible but unlikely .
If the car is untaxed, it's probable that it was either off the road or being driven untaxed.

Look, when you're buying car there's lots of things you don't know, you can check that the oil looks clean, but for all you know they drove 50K between changes then changed it before selling the car.

You can only make decisions based on what's probable. There's lots of reasons I wouldn't buy a car based solely on my opinion of a persons attitude towards cars. I wouldn't buy a car if I saw any trash in it, even just a bottle on the floor. I wouldn't buy one even if the windscreen washer was empty. Not because it's sign of a problem with the car, but because there's plenty of cars out there, fully taxed, and probably better cared for.

So I'd rather buy cars that are fully taxed and I'm of the opinion that the seller is into their car and it was looked after. There's plenty out there with everything in order. I'm not saying an untaxed car has any issues, or suggesting that you shouldn't buy them, I'm just saying I wouldn't, and I suspect there's others who wouldn't.

Silane

cros13 wrote: »

I have a car for sale with the tax out since January. Didn't renew because the owner is ill and the car hasn't left the garage in 9 months.
The decision to sell the car wasn't made until February.

There are genuine reasons people might be selling an untaxed car...

Absolutely, I'm sure there are genuine reasons, I'm not suggestion the people selling the car aren't genuine, but given the choice I'd rather not buy a car I knew was sitting for 9 months. In your case I would be right not to buy the car with the tax out, because it has been sitting for 9 months and my personal preference is that a car is driven regularly before I buy it. So you see my point? I'm not suggesting you're not genuine or there's a problem with the car, but if I was going to buy one of those cars I'd go for one that was taxed, because it's more likely it was on the road, but could well have been sitting for 6 months before the tax was out like your car for all I know. I'm just more likely to get a car that's been driven regularly and maintained well by avoiding cars with no tax.

K.Flyer

Personally no tax wouldn't be an issue whatsoever. Vehicle condition and service history would be far more important. Being driven everyday is no guarantee of condition or how safe it is.
Sometimes I would be little wary of a car with a long fresh tax disc, it as if the seller is using it to distract you from something else.