Buying a car with an outstanding recall

What a recall is, and how one reaches a car

A safety recall happens when a manufacturer identifies a serious safety problem with a vehicle, a part or an accessory, and asks the owners of the affected vehicles to bring them in. DVSA's service covers cars, motorcycles, buses, lorries and caravans, and also parts and accessories such as child car seats and tyres.

Recalls are identified by vehicle identification number ranges rather than by registration, because the manufacturer knows which cars came off which line with which batch of parts. That detail explains most of what follows: a recall attaches to the vehicle for life, not to whoever owned it at the time.

The manufacturer contacts owners using the address on the vehicle record. On a car that has changed hands three times, been registered to a leasing company, or had a keeper who moved without updating the log book, the letter goes to somebody who no longer has the car. That is the ordinary reason a recall sits outstanding for years, and it is far more common than an owner deciding to ignore a safety notice.

How to check the car in front of you, free

The DVSA recall check tells you whether the manufacturer has recalled the vehicle because of a serious safety problem, and it shows safety recalls that have not been checked or fixed. For a car you can search using the registration number. For other vehicles you need the manufacturer, model and year of manufacture, and for a part or accessory the manufacturer and model.

It costs nothing, needs no sign-in, and takes about the same time as reading the advert. GOV.UK lists it among the things to do before buying a vehicle, alongside checking the details against DVLA's record and checking the log book is not for a stolen vehicle.

A recall is a manufacturer safety notice rather than a roadworthiness result, and the two are held in different records. A car with an outstanding recall is not illegal to drive, and no test certificate says anything about whether the recall work has been done.

One limit to note. The free check is only as complete as what the manufacturer has notified, and a very recent recall or a manufacturer-specific service action can sit outside it. If you are buying a car of a model you know has had a well publicised problem, put the identification number to a franchised dealer and ask them to run it on their own system.

• Search on the registration number for a car. Free, no account.
• The result flags recalls that have not been checked or fixed.
• An outstanding recall does not make the car illegal to drive.
• For certainty on a specific model, give the identification number to a franchised dealer.

Who pays, and what that means for the price you offer

GOV.UK is unambiguous: you will not usually have to pay for any repairs or parts, and the manufacturer will write to you to tell you what to do. Recall work is not a warranty claim, so it does not depend on the car being within a warranty period, on the servicing having been done at a franchised dealer, or on you being the person who owned it when the recall was issued.

There is no expiry date on a recall in the way there is on a warranty. A recall from six years ago that has never been done is still outstanding work the manufacturer owes the vehicle.

This is why an outstanding recall is a weaker negotiating point than it first appears. You are not buying a car with an unpaid bill attached, you are buying a car with an appointment attached. What you can reasonably ask for is the time it will cost you and the risk that the car cannot be driven in the meantime, and both of those depend entirely on what the recall is for.

The exception is a recall where the manufacturer has advised that the vehicle should not be driven, or should be driven only in a restricted way, until the work is done. That happens rarely and it is stated plainly in the notice. If that is the recall you are looking at, the car is not a normal used car until it has been fixed and should not be priced as one.

How to get it done after you buy

The work is carried out by a franchised dealer for that make, not by any garage, because the parts and the procedure come from the manufacturer.

Ring the dealer with the vehicle identification number rather than the registration. The identification number is how the recall was defined, so it is the number that gets you a definite answer rather than a maybe. Ask them to confirm which recalls are open against that number, how long the work takes and whether the parts are in stock, because a common recall on a popular model can mean a wait.

Update the keeper details as soon as you have registered the car in your name, so that any future notice reaches you. This is the step almost everybody skips, and it is the reason so many cars carry outstanding recalls in the first place. When you buy, the seller fills in the green new keeper slip and gives it to you, and DVLA usually sends the new log book within four weeks, or within five to seven working days if the seller registered the sale to you online.

Keep the paperwork from the recall work. It is the evidence that the job was done, and it matters when you come to sell the car.

• Book with a franchised dealer for that make, using the vehicle identification number.
• Ask which recalls are open, the labour time and whether parts are in stock.
• Make sure the log book is in your name and at your address so future notices arrive.
• Keep the invoice, even though the work cost you nothing.

When an outstanding recall is a reason to walk away

The recall itself is rarely the problem. What it sometimes reveals is.

If the seller is a trader, an outstanding safety recall on a car they are advertising means either they did not check or they checked and did not act. Both are worth knowing before you buy anything else from them.

If the seller is private and has owned the car for years, ask whether they received the letter. An honest no is likely and easy to verify against the address history on the log book. A yes followed by an explanation of why they did not bother is a different answer.

And if the recall relates to something that could already have caused damage, such as a fault that lets a component fail or a fire risk, then the question is no longer about the recall but about whether the fault has already had consequences. That is a question for an inspection, not for a records check.