How do I obtain the details of the previous owner?

Speak to Trading Standards.

Not sure as I have not looked it up but new Fraud Act passed last year that made it a criminal offence to gain benefit from something that it is not.

dvd

Found out the last owner was a company and was a fleet car, which was not mentioned when the car was purchased. Is there a legal requirement to notify the new buyer that the vehicle was an ex-fleet vehicle?

No. There is a requirement in law to inform a buyer if a car is an ex-rental or similar, but not if it's been a fleet car.

In general, fleet cars are well maintained and not hammered by drivers. There is paperwork to fill in every single day for journeys, detailing any problems, etc. The servicing is usually carried out on the nail - as there would be a huge legal liability for the fleet operator if something happened due to lack of maintenance. And finally, it isn't going to have been hammered at huge speeds because it means someone potentially losing their job (or, at the minimum, facing disciplinary action) if they do drive it like a lunatic.

There will always be exceptions. But it is your (or your daughter's) responsibility to find out stuff BEFORE signing on the dotted line and handing over money. Not after the event.

Thanks RobJP. I agree she should have been more careful before signing on the dotted line. She undoubtedly paid too much for the car especially it has now come to light the vehicle was an ex-fleet car. There is currently a new petition going around which is trying to put a stop car sales dealerships withholding information if the previous vehicle owner was an ex-rental or ex-fleet vehicle - usedcarscandal.co.uk

The law already covers ex-hire cars.

As to 'ex-fleet' cars, it's impossible to tell what is or isn't 'fleet'.

For example, my current employer we have 2 cars for use. Both are 4 years old, have about 70k on the clock, are immaculately cared for ... but these cars are available for anyone out of the hundred or so people in the organisation to use. Are they 'fleet' ?

Contrast that with my old employer. A similar system, similar vehicles, but only 5 people in the company. Is that a 'fleet' ?

The precise definition of what is (and, just as importantly, is not) 'ex-fleet' is virtually impossible to make. Is it 2 cars ? Ten ? A hundred ?

Is it 2 potential drivers ? Ten ? A hundred ?

Now, add that to the fact that, in both of those cases, the cars were/are leased. So owned by a leasing company. So the registration states 'XYZ leasing' ... just as it would if a private individual had leased the car !

So this 'petition' seeks to get the second hand car sales company to determine whether or not a previously leased car was private or 'fleet', and to give that information on to the future buyer - exactly how I've no idea at all, as any information the lease company hold would be subject to data protection and pivacy laws, and they aren't going to give it out.

What's wrong with an ex-fleet car?

I can't see any reason why that matters. A car is in a certain condition and has a certain history - who owned it isn't really relevant.

Fleet cars from the larger companies are usually far, far better maintained than scrimping private owners who skip services, don't bother fixing minor faults and fit Linglongs instead of Pirellis even on expensive cars.

Fleet cars from the larger companies are usually far, far better maintained than scrimping private owners who skip services, don't bother fixing minor faults and fit Linglongs instead of Pirellis even on expensive cars.

No, no and possibly no. It depends hugely on the driver of the fleet vehicle.

I also have to disagree with RobJP's comment about filling out paperwork after each journey.

I drove company cars, part of a fleet, between 1989 and 2006 (about 5 different employers) and not once did I have to fill out paperwork of this nature. We had to submit business and private mileage every month, sure, but the maintenance of the vehicle was down to the driver with no reminders or requests from the employer.

That may have been true even a decade ago, but case law and the law itself have changed the situation a lot.

These days, if a pool car is caught speeding, and the company or 'body corporate' cannot (or will not) identify who was driving at the time, then the directors of the company (or the company itself) can (and probably will) be prosecuted for failing to keep records (under Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act), and the directors (if it is felt that such lack of record-keeping was 'connived') can also be prosecuted for the original offence as well.

Just because something was common practice over a decade ago, doesn't mean a damn thing now.

It used to be 'common practice' to not belt kids up in the back of cars, remember ...

Whenever we used a company car at the last 2 companies I worked for (1996 to 2016) we had to fill in the vehicle log book which was kept in the car. That applied to "pool" cars and "designated" cars. Log books we checked frequently but were used mostly when the inevitable tickets arrived.

Failure to comply was a breach of our employmeny T & C's and could result in dismissal.