Previous owners

I think you can apply to DVLA for that information. your current V5C (aka logbook) will certainly have the immediate previous owner on the front.

Tony

Any idea how? I thought so too but their Website gives no clue. I suppose I could email them or ask my local DVLA outpost.

'Twas a dealer, he didn't know whether the cambelt had done, and he's not exactly Mr Communicative - may have no record of who the previous owner was and doubt he would tell me if he did.

Pop in to you rlocal DVLA office. They can probably help.

A dealer should not transfer the registration to his/her own name - there is a section on the V5 for notifying that you've transferred a car to a dealer. When you get the new V5C in your own name it will show the previous owner as the person who sold it to the dealer, not the dealer itself.

Tony

Ok, I should clarify: it was a dealer who transferred ownership to himself so he could use it as a runabout.

Nick Dobb ( snipped-for-privacy@deadspam.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Apart from this subtle clue :-

If you are the current keeper you can get information about any earlier keepers on application. You should write to: Vehicle Record Enquiries, Vehicle Customer Services, DVLA, Swansea SA99 1AJ quoting the registration number of the vehicle and giving the reasons for your request. A fee of £5 is payable.

If that's the case it's always worth budgeting for a cambelt change anyway, and knocking it off the price when buying.

Hindsight being a wonderful thing, it would have been worth looking for the previous keeper's name (previous to the dealer) on the logbook that you filled in when buying it.

Looks like you can get the details (see Adrian's post) but must give reasons - I can't see why chasing up some of the service history is a reason why they'd refuse giving you the details though, so probably worth a shot.

Heh.... if I did that with my new (to me car), the dealer would be paying me to take it away!

They've always accepted "it's my car" as a reason. Send the fiver, you get photocopies of all the registration documents.

Since there's no service history with the vehicle, I wouldn't rely on the word of a previous owner. He may not know what a cambelt is and say it was properly serviced. Not many would admit to neglecting this.

AstraVanMan ( snipped-for-privacy@whataloadofforeskinbollocks.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

You need "reasons" to get the details of somebody else's car. "It's my car" is a sufficient reason to get the previous keepers of your own car.

Indeed. If buying a car above 40,000 miles, you should replace the cambelt immediately after purchase unless there is proper evidence that it has already been done. The purchase price should reflect the situation.

Christian.

A car above 40,000 miles? Try "any car over 4 years old" full stop. There could be a 10-year-old super low miler that's never had the cambelt done, with the belt just about to snap due to going brittle with age. But yes, unlesss there's proper evidence that it's been done then you should always budget for it to be done ASAP, and along with the cambelt, anything that could fail and cause the cambelt to snap/get chewed up, like the water pump (if it's cambelt driven) and all the tensioners.

Indeed. However, all my cars have done well over 20,000 miles a year before I've bought them, so the idea that a 4 year old car wouldn't have done

Christian.

Ta. Obviously that had eluded me.

I should think that would have reduced the price to £2.50.

Only ever saw the tear-off slip,so didn't get a chance.

LOL!

He didn't have the full logbook?