Disposing of an unroadworthy vehicle can incur a 22,000 fine. We explain how to sell your truck within the law.
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• Thinking of selling a truck? Then make sure that it is 100% roadworthy.
Many people think that selling it "as seen, tried and tested" absolves them from any liability if the vehicle is stopped down the road and found to be defective. But while it might affect your liability under civil law, it would do nothing to alleviate your criminal liability under Section 75 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 which makes it an offence — punishable with a fine up to £2,000 — not only to sell an unroadworthy vehicle but even to offer or "expose" it for sale.
However, a vehicle is not offered for sale simply by being parked up with "For Sale" stickers plastered across it. An "offer" by a seller has to be to a particular buyer, telling him that he can have the vehicle for a specified price. In many dealings the offer comes from the buyer and is accepted by the seller: in those cases, the seller has not "offered" the vehicle for sale.
It is because vehicles on dealers' forecourts were not covered by the word "offering" that the words "expose for sale" were added to the law.
The use of the words "offer to supply" means that the law applies to contractual arrangements which have nothing to do with a sale, such as hire, hire-purchase or lease. This section does not cover the situ ation where vehicles are exposed for hire or where the offer to hire comes from the hirer. But a vehicle is in an unroadworthy condition if at any time its use on a road would be contravening the Construction and Use Regulations or, in some cases, the lighting regulations.
But there are ways in which a vehicle which does not comply with these regulations can still be disposed of legally.
You will not be convicted of the offence if you are able to prove that: the motor vehicle or trailer was supplied for export from Great Britain; 0 that you had reasonable cause to believe the vehicle would not (a) be used on a road in Great Britain or (b) would not be used until it had been put in a roadworthy condition; 0 where a vehicle is unroadworthy due to lighting defects, and you had reasonable cause to believe the vehicle would not be used on a road in Great Britain during the hours of darkness until the defects had been repaired.
The first defence is easy to follow and is in keeping with the Construction and Use exemptions for a vehicle proceeding to a port for export. But vehicles being permitted to be below normal roadworthiness standards on such journeys does seem absurd.
The second defence covers the situation where, even if it is known that a vehicle has defects, the buyer intends to use it on site work or he will rectify the defects before using it on a road. In both cases the use on a road starts from the moment the vehicle leaves the seller's premises so, to use the defence, you must have "reasonable cause" to believe the vehicle will not leave your premises while defective.
To protect yourself as a seller you should obtain assurances from the buyer that the vehicle will be carried away or will be put into a roadworthy condition before use on the road. The best way to have evidence of that assurance is for it to be written at the time of sale and signed by the buyer.
The third defence applies only to unroadworthiness due to the condition of the vehicle's lights, reflectors or their maintenance. Here the seller must have reasonable cause to believe that the vehicle will not be used during the hours of darkness in that condition. Use of the vehicle during daylight hours is no concern of the seller but, here too, it would be advisable to have a note signed by the buyer that he will put any lighting defects right before using the vehicle at night.
Section 75 also makes it an offence to alter a vehicle so that its use on a road would contravene regulations dealing with the / construction, weight or )) equipment of vehicles.
This offence is not connected to the supply of a defective vehicle but can be committed by any operator, mechanic or fitter
who alters a vehicle so that 7 its use in that Icondition would be
illegal.
But the same three defences are available to a person charged with that offence.
Fitting defective or unsuitable parts to a vehicle which would result in a Construction and Use offence is an offence against Section 76 but again, in these cases, defences similar to the above are provided in the regs.