‘Mr.Shark’ coming to view my vehicle for sale. Advice?

[0500hours]

My husband died in April leaving some business debts. I have to sell his work truck.

’Mr Shark’ is driving from an hour away to view at half 3 today - does anyone have advice that’s done this before?

It’s parked outside my house. Like 99% of others who enquired he wants it for Ukraine he said.

Its taxed/MOT’d/insured/alarmed etc but how does he test drive it? Does he bring his driving licence and paperwork from his own insurer to prove he’s insured? He’s just come over from Ukraine he said and wants to drive it back there for the war. What if he damages it on driving?

Should I drive it instead with him as passenger?

I’m still waiting for the DVLA new owner papers to come back so it can’t be sold today anyway, he’s just viewing it.

He wants to leave a small deposit to secure it, but then how can I be sure he’d pay the balance?

Any advice welcome. There’s nobody I can call today to help me when he views.

Thankyou so much
posted on chat for traffic

think they mean Companies House not HMRC

You should have told him it was sold.

Are you able to link or say exactly how you see HMRC information?

In some cases an OP does have a moral obligation to close off their post in a way that doesn't leave people in doubt about their safety. Parking issues, MIL problems, mundane subjects like that don't apply, but this type of thread is sinister, click-baityand requires their action. The fact they haven't come back speaks volumes.

You're right re the moral obligation, however I didn't want posters jumping on me saying 'people don't owe you an update' as happens all too often here

I agree with this. It would be nice to let supportive and concerned posters know you’re ok.

I hope the OP hasn’t been abducted by Mr Shark

Wtf he tracked it down and got your address. You need to change info on fb if someone can do this!

I hope it all went ok. X

Agree - sell it to a dealer, avoid the hassle.

Any update from OP?

Hope your right actually

If you're using the web or mobile site the easiest way to find out is by the see all option on any of the OPs posts, don't know if that is available on the app

If you have a person’s name you can do a companies house search and get business accounts/filings of any business they are associated with. You won’t get home addresses though unless they registered their businesses there (Most savvy people use a PO Box or their accountant’s address to prevent anyone looking up their home address, but many self employed people are unaware that their personal information is so freely available so don’t.)

in this case, this seems very very intrusive but ironically the buyer may have also wanted to check that OP was bona fide and not a scammer.

My very first thought….My second one was OP has jumped the shark with this story….because that’s what this, a story.

I know that, my question is to the couple of posters who are saying you can find HMRC information online which I find very concerning, as far as I'm aware everyone's tax affairs are private

Yes, HMRS records are private - I was just pointing out that, nonetheless, there is a lot of easily available financial and personal info on line.

Really? I follow all events pertaining to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and I've never read that before. Could you provide a link please?

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-war-rely-pickup-truck-russia/

Apologies, the link I just posted is not about theft. I have no idea whether theft is any part of the Ukranian acquisition process - I suspect not, because the last thing they need is to be seen stealing from the allies that they want support from. But it is very clear that trucks are going to ukraine from across europe

Whilst it would be good to know how it all went, there's some seriously paranoid and dramatic responses on here. Why would it be a fabrication? Sounds very much like the sort of transaction my husband (private car dealer) handles most days including odd British names that bear no resemblance to their legal name when it comes to ownership transfer. And yes, going to Ukraine is highly probably too - huge numbers of British owned cars are sent over to eastern Europe as even after import costs and LHD conversion, they are considerably cheaper and often higher spec than they can get at home.

Honestly this all sounds very normal for the motor trade and yes they might be scammers which is why you follow the (sensible & calm) advice given on here around not letting them drive, locking up your house, not handing over the car until you have full cleared payment etc.

@PiggyPigalle that info came from West Mids Police when my neighbours truck got stolen.

You think it’s “perfectly normal” to work out the seller’s address by stalking the vehicle on Google Earth?? A legitimate person would just ask…

I stopped in St Petersburg on a cruise once and took a coach trip around the city. I found all of our old 1970s Ford Escorts and Cortinas parked by residenial apartments! It's not just now our old vehicles have been shipped to that part of Europe.

They are indeed a lot going out, never read of theft though.
Farmers have sent a lot, Redditors raise money to buy some, plus all sorts of efforts. Even the London mayor caved eventually, allowing those seized to be shipped to Ukraine.
Needless to say a constant replenishment is needed due to the conditions out there.
AS for selling my vehicle, what someone wants to use it for wouldn't affect my asking price.

As some who spends a lot of time looking at second hand cars online (incl facebook) I can promise you that lots of people don't even give you a clue whether the car is in Scotland or Cornwall, and it makes a lot of sense to snoop on their PUBLIC profile to get more info. If their info leads to a small company, and that company has a PUBLICALLY available residential address, then making sure you understand what the journey entails (eg can you get there by train so you can drive the car back if you buy it, or do you need a mate to drive with you) BEFORE you waste the sellers time makes a lot of sense.

I totally get why any sensible person - not least a woman - would and should be very wary and I totally get all the warnings. But equally there are no big red flags IMHO.