Found a car rhd regd in France already the blurb says that the owner of the car has passed away and that the car has a years ct left on it the car has been signed over with relevant docs to the seller by owners wife my question is that the seller has said I can take the car for a ct at local ct Station at my own cost (which I don’t mind) to see if it will pass but is it legal for me to take a car for a ct if its not regd in my name?
I’ve taken cars for CT… on behalf of the owner… before now… so, in itself, that is not a problem… provided Insurance is in place to cover all eventualities…
However,… the Seller is supposed to provide Contrôle Technique paperwork dating 6 months or less… thus, saying it still has one year to go… is no good… and IMO… it is clear that the Seller does not (necessarily) know what is correct and what is not… definitely “buyer-beware” in such situations. ( I’m sure the Seller will be pleased to let you pay for the CT…
)
If there is Insurance in place for you to take the vehicle anywhere… then it is up to you… IMO I would tread very carefully… is the vehicle such an amazing bargain… or what… ???
It’s cheap enough it’s rhd and it’s already regd so cost effective
Is the Seller a professional or a private individual?
Private seller
You will need to ensure that you have all the necessary paperwork to transfer this car into your own name… and make sure you take the vehicle to a Dekra or similar standing Test Station… I’m sure you want to be sure what you are taking on 
The Seller should have:
Certificat de situation administrative (which shows the legal status of the car eg Accident writeoff/Loans etc)
Le certificat de Cession - official document transferring ownership…
Frankly, if the CG is in the husband’s name and the Wife has signed the C of Cession… mmm… not straightforward when it comes to changing Ownership on the CG…
I think we need more help on this one… I’ll ask my neighbour, whose husband died a year ago… hang on, I’ll be back…
Neighbour tells me that everything went through the Notaire and now son is the Driver/Owner…
@anon90504988 are you able to come in on this one… you are “the Expert”…
Edit: Surely, if the wife has “ceded” the car to the Seller… the Seller should register the car himself… then he can Sell it on… I think it is only Garages who can Sell a car without changing the CG …
I’m no expert but this looks wrong, it should have been officially exported from the UK and taken off the DVLA database.
This whole thing is giving me the twitches… 
Think I may just give it a wide berth and pay the extra for a French car 
1 Like
Yes I would definitely give this a miss.
Changes of ownership are done electronically now on ANTS. If the ownership has transferred from the dead person to his wife to someone else and now to you, and none of this has been correctly recorded, that could potentially be a very tangled web to try and unravel.
Add to that the fact that a dual nationality car should not exist, plus the minor detail that CTs are in fact transferable - the problem here is that there needs to be 18 months left to run, 1 year is not enough - I wouldn’t altogether trust the competence and/or integrity of the people you would be dealing with, they don’t seem to understand how it works.
If the original keeper has passed away the spouse is allowed to sell it without registering it in their name first, provided that this is less than 3 months after the death or that it has not been used on the road since. If they sign it over to someone else, even a family member, it would need to be registered in that person’s name before it can be moved on - you cannot skip an owner. So in this case the seller needs to be the person named on the carte grise unless the seller is a garage. If not then you will find that ANTS will inform you that they cannot process the sale as they have another new keeper’s details already on the system.
The new keeper will also need to submit a CT carried out within the previous 6 months or 2 months if it failed. This should be provided by the seller. This is from service-public.fr “If you sell a vehicle more than 4 years old that is not exempt from roadworthiness testing, you must provide the future owner with proof that a roadworthiness test has been carried out. It must be less than 6 months old (or less than 2 months old if a counter-visit has been prescribed). Proof of inspection is essential for the buyer to register the vehicle.” Although the seller is obliged, there is no record of who actually paid for the CT but if the car is bought without one the buyer has no legal recourse if the car is subsequently found to be a pile of junk. This puts the buyer in a very weak position - even scrapping it could be problematic if the CG is not in your name.
How do you know that it is still on the UK register too? Does the DVLA check show that there is no export marker? ANTS do notify DVLA of imports although it can take a while to go through the system.
The seller should give the buyer the CG, CT, certificate situation Administrative, code de cession & cession d’un vehicule form.
1 Like
Hi Mark thanks for the info it’s stated in the advert which I posted above it just seems a tad fishy now I’ve digested the info on here