How To Tell The DVLA You've Sold Your Car

How To Tell The DVLA You’ve Sold Your Car

When you’re selling your car, many people aren’t sure what the next steps to take are. Even after it’s been passed on to a new owner, whether that’s through a private sale or not, you will need to inform the DVLA that you are no longer the car’s owner.

If you have sold your car privately and don’t let the DVLA know, you run the risk of being legally responsible for any driving offences or misdemeanours that the new owner might run into.

The great news for you is that GoodBye Car are here to tell you exactly what you need to do to avoid any precarious issues like that.

Different Ways To Inform The DVLA of a Change of Ownership

Before we get started, it’s important to say that the method will vary depending on if you have the V5C logbook for the car that’s just been sold. Here’s a tip: it’s a lot easier if you do have it, so make sure to store yours in a safe place so that you have access to it when you need it.

So, if you do have the V5C logbook, you can use one of the two following methods.

Online

Using the DVLA website is the most simple and straightforward way of telling them that you’ve sold your vehicle.

When selling the car itself, be sure to provide the new owner with the ‘new keeper’ slip, which is essentially a green form. You’ll also need the 11-digit reference number from the aforementioned V5C logbook. Then it’s just an easy case of following the steps given on the DVLA site.

After you’ve completed the form, that’ll be everything all sorted.

Via Post

If you’re not too computer literate or just prefer to do things the old-fashioned way, you can write to the DVLA to inform them of a car sale.

There are some sections to fill in as part of the V5C logbook, and then it’ll be a case of posting the entire logbook itself to the following address: 

DVLA

Swansea

SA99 1BA

What If I’ve Lost My V5C Logbook?

If you don’t know where your V5C logbook is, you can still inform the DVLA that you’ve sold your car, you’ll just need to send a bit more information than usual, that would generally be covered by the logbook (if you had it!)

The information you’ll need to send is:

-         Your name and address

-         The registration number of the car

-         The manufacturer and model of the car

-         The date of the sale

-         The name and address of the car’s new owner

Make sure you do send all of the information listed above, as if some of it is missing you run the risk of the sale notification being rejected by the DVLA. If this happens, the unfortunate news is that you’ll have to go through the entire process again. It could also affect the amount of tax you’ll get as a refund.

What Happens If I Don’t Tell The DVLA I’ve Sold My Car?

As mentioned earlier, you could be held accountable for any penalties or fines that get racked up by the new owner of the car, as you’ll still be legally responsible for the vehicle.

There won’t be any official penalty otherwise though, but it’s certainly best to let the DVLA know of the sale as soon as possible after the car is no longer in your possession. It’ll only take a few minutes!

Can I Get A Discount On My Road Tax?

After you’ve told the DVLA that you’ve sold your car, you don’t need to take any additional steps to claim a refund on your road tax. They will automatically issue you with any refunds that you may be due after the change in ownership has been officially processed.

It shouldn’t take any longer than 8 weeks to receive a road tax refund after you notify the DVLA of a sale, so if it does you can contact them to see what the situation is.

There are of course other aspects to consider when you’re looking into how to sell a car. Such as which documents you will need and who is best to sell your vehicle to.

Make sure to get a free car valuation from GoodBye Car before you look at selling elsewhere, as we’ll take all of the fuss out of the process and give you a great deal, no matter your vehicle.

Don’t forget to contact us if you have any queries about the GoodBye Car service and we will answer your question.