What should be on a receipt for a private used-car sale?

Record the buyer and seller, date, vehicle registration, VIN where practical, price, mileage, payment method and any important description or disclosed faults.

In relation to “What should be on a receipt for a private used-car sale?”, no single green check proves a used car is a good buy; documentary checks and a physical inspection answer different questions.

For “What should be on a receipt for a private used-car sale?”, a strong receipt records the car and the deal, not just the price. Include registration, date, parties, mileage, payment method and any important statement about condition or included items.

For “What should be on a receipt for a private used-car sale?”, this answer is written for a Northern Ireland user, but some vehicle-registration, consumer-credit and insurance functions operate on a UK-wide basis. The attached sources — GOV.UK - Buy a vehicle: step by step, GOV.UK - Vehicle registration: new and used vehicles, and nidirect - Contact Consumerline — are therefore deliberately mixed where the responsible authority is UK-wide. That is more accurate than forcing every point into an NI-only source.

Practical next step for “What should be on a receipt for a private used-car sale?”: do not pay until this point has been independently checked. Save the advert, seller messages and any official or commercial check so you can show exactly what information you relied on.