Stolen? Car history checks
Buying a stolen vehicle isn’t much fun. And it’s not
just a myth that if you buy a stolen vehicle then it’ll get taken back –
in nearly all cases, it’s true. Even if it isn’t recovered immediately,
you probably won’t own it for as long as you might think: nowadays
it’ll be flagged up by any of the various police and insurer databases
as soon as you go to use it.
In the UK, the onus to check a vehicle isn’t stolen falls generally
on the purchaser (i.e. you!). Remember that even if the stolen vehicle
was unknowingly purchased in good faith, the police will still grab the
vehicle, and money-lenders can even demand that you pay them interest in
the event that it had been on a finance plan – this is entirely legal. If your insurance company pays out a claim for your stolen vehicle, you must tell DVLA it’s been sold to the insurance company.
You can also complete the ‘notification of sale or transfer’ V5C/3
section of your V5C registration certificate and send it to DVLA.You
should include a letter saying when the payment was accepted and details
of the insurance company.You’ll need to give the remaining part of the
V5C to the insurance company.If your insurance company asks for the
whole of the V5C registration certificate then you’ll need to send a
letter to the DVLA including: the details of your insurance company, the
date of the claim, your registration number, the make, model and colour
of your vehicle and your signature. Post your letter to: |