What Paperwork You Need to Sell a Van

To sell a van you need the V5C log book, whatever service history and receipts exist, the current MOT certificate, both sets of keys, and a written receipt for the sale. Then you tell DVLA the same day. That is the whole list for an ordinary sale, and having it ready before anybody views the van is worth more to you than any amount of polishing — missing paperwork is the single most common reason a price gets talked down at the kerb.

Merseyside Van Sales is a credit broker, not a lender. Finance is subject to status and affordability checks, and is available to over-18s only. A representative example is available on request. Figures quoted are illustrative and do not constitute an offer of finance.

This guide sits under our selling-your-van guide, part of the Van Guides hub. It applies whether you are selling privately, to a dealer or in part-exchange — the documents are the same, only who checks them changes.

The V5C log book

The V5C is the registration certificate, and it is the document a buyer will ask for before anything else. It shows the registered keeper, the vehicle details and the registration history.

Two things to be clear about. It proves who is responsible for the van, not who owns it — on a hire purchase or PCP agreement, legal ownership sits with the finance company until the agreement is settled. And a buyer will check that the name and address on it match your identification, so if you have moved and not updated it, do that first.

No V5C? Apply for a replacement before you advertise. It takes time to arrive, and trying to sell without one immediately makes a straightforward sale look like something else. Check too that the details on it match the van in front of you — the vehicle identification number in particular.

Service history and receipts

Service history is the paperwork that moves the price most on an ordinary working van, and it is the one people most often cannot find on the morning of a viewing.

Gather the service book if there is one, garage invoices, cambelt paperwork, and receipts for anything substantial — clutch, turbo, injectors, a full set of tyres. A loose folder of invoices is worth as much as a stamped book, and often more, because it says what was actually done rather than that somebody had a stamp.

Do not throw away receipts for work that sounds bad. A record showing a known fault was properly repaired is reassuring. The same fault with no paperwork is a discount.

MOT certificate and history

Have the current MOT certificate to hand, and know what is on the record behind it.

The full history is public: the DVSA MOT history service shows every pass, fail, advisory and recorded mileage on a registration number, free, to anybody who asks. So there is no version of this where a buyer does not see it. Read it before they do, so you are not being told something about your own van by a stranger.

How much MOT is left has a real effect on what you get. A long ticket is worth money; a van in the last few weeks of its test is priced by the buyer as an unknown. If your van will comfortably pass, testing it before you sell often pays for itself. If it will not, be honest about that instead and price accordingly.

The sales receipt: what to actually write

A receipt protects both of you, and it takes two minutes. Write two copies and both of you sign both. It should carry:

• The date, and the time if the van is being driven away that day.
• Both names and addresses, seller and buyer.
• The registration number, make, model and vehicle identification number.
• The mileage as it reads on the day.
• The price and how it was paid.
• The words “sold as seen, tried and approved, without warranty” for a private sale — this does not remove your duty to describe the van honestly, and nothing you write can.
• A line confirming the van is sold free of any outstanding finance.

Take a photograph of the signed receipt and of the odometer before the van leaves. That two-second habit settles almost every dispute that ever arises later.

Telling DVLA, and your tax refund

Do this on the day, not at the weekend. Telling DVLA you have sold or transferred a vehicle can be done online in a few minutes, changes the registered keeper and sends the log book on to the new keeper.

Two consequences follow immediately. Your responsibility for the van ends, which matters for the parking ticket somebody else earns next Tuesday. And your vehicle tax is cancelled: DVLA automatically refunds any full months left, calculated from when it receives the notification — so a week’s delay can cost you a month.

If you sell to a motor trader, you still tell DVLA; you are notifying a transfer to a trade buyer rather than a new keeper. Cancel your insurance only once the sale is genuinely complete and the van has gone, and never before payment has cleared.

The awkward cases

Most sales are simple. These are the ones that need a bit more.

The van is not registered to you. A van in a partner’s or a parent’s name has to be sold by that person, or with clear written authority from them. Buyers are right to be wary here, and a dealer will not proceed without it.

It is a company van. The company is the keeper, so the sale is the company’s and the receipt should be on company paperwork. Whoever signs needs authority to bind the business, and the accounting side matters too — our VAT and tax guide covers what a VAT-registered seller has to account for.

There is still finance on it. The van is not yours to sell until the agreement is settled. That is not a barrier to a part-exchange, where it is settled as part of the transaction, but it does rule out a straightforward private sale. Our Van Finance guide covers the settlement side.

You have lost the second key. Say so up front. It will be deducted from every offer, and finding out at handover costs more than declaring it in the advert.

What a buyer will actually ask to see

Put these in one folder and hand it over at the start of the viewing rather than answering questions from memory.

1. The V5C, with your name and current address on it.
2. The service history, however untidy.
3. The current MOT certificate.
4. Both keys and the locking wheel nut key.
5. Receipts for major recent work.
6. Any manuals, spare fobs and the load area kit that goes with the van.

We have taken back fewer than three vans in every hundred that we have ever sold. We would rather give people that share than a promise — and the same instinct is why we are fussy about paperwork on the way in as well as the way out. It is the least expensive part of a sale to get right and the most expensive to get wrong.

Deciding which route to sell down in the first place? Where to sell a van: four ways and what each one costs you compares them properly.