If you buy, sell, or offer for sale four or more vehicles in a 12 month period, you're considered a second-hand vehicle dealer. You must be licensed and follow the legal requirements for this type of business.
Close associates are considered dealers if (between them) they buy, sell or offer for sale six or more second-hand vehicles in 12 months.
Registration of premises
The address where vehicles are sold needs to be registered with Consumer and Business Services (CBS).
You can register an address when you:
- apply for a second hand vehicle dealers licence
- change the address or add extra locations to an existing licence.
Compensation fund
The Second-hand Vehicles Compensation Fund protects consumers from dealers who don't act legally. All dealers must pay into the fund when they renew their licence.
Negative licensing
A dealer can’t employee salespeople who have been:
- convicted of a serious - indictable - offence of dishonesty
- convicted of a summary offence of dishonesty in the last 10 years
- suspended or disqualified from an occupation, trade or business in Australia.
These requirements apply to any conviction or licence restriction after 29 November 2010, even if the dealer had employed the person before that date.
Check Offences and convictions for more detail.
Backyard selling
A vehicle is 'sold' if the registration is transferred to another person.
If you buy or sell four or more vehicles in 12 months for private use, you'll need to prove that you're not a dealer and don't need to be licensed.
Defects and repairs
By law, dealers must repair defects on the vehicle even if defects appear after the sale.
Accessories originally fitted, produced or approved by the manufacturer are covered under the warranty and Australian Consumer Law.
A dealer can list defects that the buyer agrees won’t be repairable, provided that the vehicle is roadworthy.
A dealer’s duty to repair does include the main propulsion batteries in hybrid and electric vehicles within the warranty period.
A purchaser can no longer waive the dealer’s duty to repair a vehicle.
Altering an odometer
You can only change an odometer on a second-hand vehicle with written approval from the Commissioner Consumer and Business Services.
It's illegal to provide false and misleading statements about odometers. Laws exist to require that odometers be corrected.
Related information
On this site
Forms and fact sheets for second-hand vehicle sales
Information in other languages
Other websites
Second-hand vehicle forms - Consumer and Business Services
Responsibilities when selling cars - Consumer and Business Services (information in other languages, easy read guide)
