What Paperwork Do You Get When Buying a Used Car?

You should leave a used car sale with the V5C or the green new keeper slip, the current MOT certificate, whatever service history exists, receipts for major work, both keys, the locking wheel nut key, the handbook and a dated receipt signed by both parties. Below is what each item proves, and the part most guides skip: what none of it proves.

Quick answer

• V5C registration certificate, or the green V5C/2 new keeper slip if the seller has already notified DVLA.
• Current MOT certificate, plus the full MOT history you have read for yourself.
• Service book with stamps, or evidence of a digital service record, plus the invoices behind them.
• Receipts for any big job: cambelt, clutch, gearbox, turbo, suspension.
• Two keys where they exist, the handbook, and the locking wheel nut key.
• A dated receipt naming both parties, the car, the price and the words describing it.

The V5C, and what it does not say

The V5C is the document people call the logbook. It names the registered keeper, the person responsible for the car and for taxing it. That is not the same as the legal owner. A car on finance or a lease has a keeper on the V5C and an owner somewhere else entirely, and the certificate will not tell you the difference.

Check on the doorstep, before you discuss money:

• The seller's name and address match the V5C, and match where you are standing.
• The VIN on the certificate matches the VIN on the car, usually at the base of the windscreen and again under the bonnet or in a door shut.
• Make, model, colour and engine size match the car in front of you.
• Date of first registration and the number of former keepers match the advert.
• The document itself looks right. Current certificates are red, carry a DVL watermark and have crisp print.

DVLA has published serial number ranges covering blank V5C forms that were stolen. If the number on the certificate falls inside one of those ranges, walk away. You can also confirm the details printed on it against DVLA records with a V5C logbook check, which is the quickest way to catch a document that does not belong to the car it arrived with.

The green slip matters more than people think

The V5C/2 new keeper slip is your proof of the date you took the car on, and the seller's proof that they are no longer responsible for it. Most sellers now notify DVLA online using the document reference number, which is immediate, and you keep the green slip while your own V5C is posted out. If the seller has no V5C at all, they can apply for a replacement before the sale. Buying with neither document is buying a problem.

MOT certificate and MOT history

The certificate is a snapshot of one day. The history is the useful record. Every test going back years is stored, with the mileage at each visit, the failure items and the advisories. Read it free on GOV.UK, or see it alongside the rest of the record in an MOT check.

Look for advisories that repeat year after year and were never acted on, a corrosion advisory that later became a failure, a long gap with no tests at all, and any mileage line that jumps oddly or moves backwards.

Service history, ranked by what it actually proves

Ask specifically about the cambelt if the engine has one. It is an expensive job on an age or mileage interval, and an engine wrecker if it is ignored. A car with no proof of a belt change should be priced as though it needs one.

Be clear about the limit here. Service history is not held in any national database. It is not on the V5C, it is not in the MOT record, and it is not on a vehicle history check, ours included. Paper and invoices are the only evidence that exists.

Receipts for major work

Ask for anything covering the clutch, gearbox, turbo, injectors, timing chain, suspension or air conditioning. They prove the money was actually spent, and they show a pattern. A folder of receipts from one local garage over six years tells you the car was looked after by someone who used it. A single large invoice dated three weeks ago sometimes tells you the car was patched up to sell.

Keys and the small expensive things

• Second key: a replacement smart key plus programming runs to hundreds of pounds on many models. Raise it before you agree a price, not after.
• Locking wheel nut key: tiny, easily lost, and without it a roadside tyre change is impossible. Check it is present and that it actually fits.
• Radio or infotainment code: still needed on some older cars after the battery is disconnected.
• Handbook and service pack: worth having, and a car with the original wallet intact has usually been cared for.

The receipt you write yourself

In a private sale this is the only contract that exists. Write two copies, sign both, keep one each. It should contain:

• Full names and addresses of buyer and seller.
• The date and the price actually paid, and how it was paid.
• Registration, make, model, VIN and the mileage showing on the odometer.
• The words describing the car, exactly as the seller is willing to stand behind them.

That final line is the one that counts. In a private sale the car must be as described, so the receipt is where the description gets fixed in writing. If a seller will not put "no outstanding finance, not an insurance write-off, mileage believed genuine" on the receipt, that answer is information in itself. Keep the advert screenshots as well.

What none of this paperwork proves

A thick folder is reassuring and proves less than it appears to. No document in the pile shows you:

• Outstanding finance. The V5C never names a finance company, and a car can be recovered after you have paid for it. That needs a finance check.
• Insurance write-off history. A repaired Cat S or Cat N car has an ordinary V5C and can hold a valid MOT.
• Stolen markers. A stolen car often arrives with a stolen or forged logbook to match.
• True mileage. A service book records what somebody wrote down. The readings taken at every MOT are the better evidence, which is what a mileage check compares.
• The car's identity. Cloned cars come with plausible paperwork by design.

That gap is the whole reason a used car check exists. For £15 it pulls the records the seller cannot hand you, and it takes about a minute with the registration you already have from the advert.