Roadworthiness in a private sale

Dec 08, 2006 3 Replies

The law says that in a private sale the vehicle has to be roadworthy unless it is explicitly stated that the vehicle is not being sold as a going concern (or something like that - scrap, spares/repairs, MoT failure, non-runner, etc.)


  1. Can a private seller legitimately exempt themselves out of that (by stating that the vehicle is being sold with roadworthiness being neither expressed nor implied)?
  2. If the seller states "Sold as seen", what bearing if any does that have in this particular context?


What's happened Vim? Is your carb leaking somewhere near your cigarette lighter?

There are a lot of comon law cases in contract law that relate to the sale of cars. The ones which spring to mind are realted to the ability of the car to move, like the one (I think it is Hollier Motors I can check and get more detail if you want) agreed for sale and the purchaser turned up and the car had no engine in. The contrat was already made so there was a possible breach on the buyer's side if he refused to hand over the cash when he discovered there was no enegine within.

The way things have gone, if you are selling, I'd make a statement saying the car is not road worthy if you are aware of the fact.

It used to be the case that contracts containing clauses such as "These are all the terms, any breach and you're done for, and we shan't enter into law, courts sod off " have unfortunately gone :(

Then you've got merchantable quality or fitness for purpose whatever the novel term is now, in Sale and Supply of Goods Act.

If you sold the car it's likely it's be bought (if it runs) as roadworthy, unless stated otherwise, you've got the Unfair Contract Terms Act of 1977 to contend with also.

What else? God knows, and he'll get ya...why? Bythos he can...

that wasn't Hollier and Rambler, I fogot the name of the case, but it was funny!!

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