Who Is Responsible for Transferring Ownership of a Car?
We explain how to change ownership of a vehicle
When it comes to buying a new car, moving the old vehicle on comes with some rather important admin, the most crucial of which is the transfer of ownership. By notifying the DVLA, you’re making the sale of your vehicle official - but how do you do it?
In this article, we explain why you need to transfer ownership, who is responsible for transferring ownership of a car, and how you transfer ownership based on your circumstances.
Why do you need to transfer ownership of a car?
Vehicles need to be officially registered by law to the owner and/or keeper of it, to ensure that any communication about the vehicle goes to the right place. If the owner and/or keeper is changing, the transfer of ownership must be made official through the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency).
Failure to do this could result in things like speeding tickets and parking fines coming back on the previous owner, with no guarantee that they’ll be dropped in light of an ownership mixup.
Who is responsible for transferring ownership of a car?
The transfer of ownership always comes down to the previous owner, as they are the one in possession of the V5C, otherwise known as the vehicle logbook, which is a certificate of registration.
You’ll need this certificate to transfer ownership, so it’s the previous owner and not the new one that needs to use the V5C to inform the DVLA that ownership of a vehicle has changed.
Do I need to transfer ownership if I’m giving my car to a friend or family member?
Whilst your generosity is at your discretion, the ownership of the car isn’t. If you are no longer the registered keeper, even if you still ‘own’ the vehicle, you must transfer ownership using the V5C.
How are the owner and keeper of the vehicle different?
Usually, the owner and keeper of the vehicle will be the same person, but they can be different. For example, a company may own the vehicle, but the registered keeper is an employee.
How can you transfer ownership of a car?
How you transfer ownership of a car that you’re selling or giving away will depend on how you’re doing it. Here are three ways that you can transfer ownership of your car:
1 - At a dealership or scrap yard
Transferring ownership means that the new keeper’s details will be put on the new V5C, but if you’re selling to a dealership like ours, or you’re selling to a scrap yard, there isn’t a new keeper yet to transfer to. The car dealerships that a vehicle has been sold through will never appear on a V5C, as only private owners are registered.
Therefore, to notify the DVLA of this change so that you are no longer down as the owner, you should send off section 9 to the DVLA, and give the rest of the V5C to the dealer or scrap yard.
2 - Online
To make life easy, you can transfer ownership of your vehicle with just a few clicks online. Head online to the dedicated GOV.UK web page, making sure to follow the instructions based on the circumstances surrounding your vehicle transfer.
Before you begin this process, and so that the online transfer is successful, make sure that you have the 11-digit reference from the V5C, as well as the new owner’s details.
To cover all bases if you suspect that the previous owner may not be up to date with their vehicle admin, you can also notify the DVLA when you have bought a vehicle via this page too.
3 - By post
On the V5C itself, Section 6 is left blank for the details of the new keeper to be written in by the previous one. This section separates from the rest of the certificate, before being sent to the DVLA. A new certificate will then be issued by post to the new keeper.
If you’re able to include your email address as well as the email address of the new keeper, you should both get e-confirmation of the transfer.
But first…you need to find a new car!
Before we get to the legalities of transferring ownership, there’s the exciting prospect of finding a new car in the first place. If you’re in the East Anglia area, we’re the motor group to head for, with branches around Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk specialising in the sale of new vehicles from Kia, Nissan, Mazda and MG, as well as used cars from a range of manufacturers.
Shop our new and used vehicles today.