test drive - what do you do?

That and their insurance or change yours to any driver.

Well if they're not insured you can sue them but you'll be lucky

The situation is the same if their insurance is third-party, which it might be.

The person driving the car is responsible for everything. It's the driver who is in trouble if the car doesn't have a MOT for example, not the owner.

So you don't need to check anything, unless you are particularly worried about the car, in which case you could insist they have comprehensive insurance I suppose.

dave (dave ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I s'pose it's because of the kind of cars I'm selling, but I've never had even the slightest issue with the people who've come to test-drive.

It's simple, though. Bend it? Bought it.

You need to see their licence and proof they're insured.

Conor (Conor ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Like I said - I s'pose it's the kind of cars - because I've never yet sold an Escort van, so never had the kind of person who'd buy an Escort van buying off me... IYSWIM...

The trouble is that if you're selling a "normal" car, you can't be sure who you're getting buying it. Selling niche cars, it tends to be like mided enthusiats who appreciate the uniqueness but even then, there's no guarantee they're insured and if there's an accident and even though they pay up for the sale price, you could still end up with 6 points on your licence for allowing your car to be driven by an uninsured driver.

Conor (Conor ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

This is me, Conor. I don't _do_ "Normal cars".

Yup, that was my point.

I would never let 'em test drive unaccompanied - and if they were driving badly, I'd cheerfully say "Umm, right, that's enough. Stop now."

I do always ask 'em if they're sure they're covered. It's probably not enough to legally escape that, but...

Just out of interest, when someone gets banned from driving, is their licence physically taken away from them, or is a record of the fact simply made on the DVLA database?

Graz ( snipped-for-privacy@googlemail.com (Graz)) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

AIUI (never, fortunately, having had to find out) a short ban (28 days?) leaves it in your possession but endorsed with the ban, whilst a longer one sees it physically going on holiday - and even when the ban's actually over, you have to wait for it's physical return.

Not necessarily. Some third party policies allow driving of other people's cars.

However they're only insured 3rd party, you still have to sue them for the value of your car.

They'd only be insured third party if they had comprehensive cover on their own car. But if they knacker your car while driving it, you're right - you will have a problem.

So you really need to see the paper part of the licence as well as the photocard licence to be sure that someone hasn't been banned?

I'm fully comp on anything :-)

Don't know but doesn't the typical rogue expecting trouble claim to have lost his licence in the short first clean few days of its life and so get a backup to cover eventualities?

Graz ( snipped-for-privacy@googlemail.com (Graz)) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Yep. The photocard on it's own is not a driving licence.

If it's not too intrusive a question, which insurance company does that and did you have to pay over the odds for that kind of cover?

Graz ( snipped-for-privacy@googlemail.com (Graz)) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying: