What should I do if the green new keeper slip is missing?

Do not assume you can sort it later without delay. Ask the seller to deal correctly with the V5C transfer; if there is no V5C, DVLA advises caution and a V62 may be required.

In relation to “What should I do if the green new keeper slip is missing?”, no single green check proves a used car is a good buy; documentary checks and a physical inspection answer different questions.

For “What should I do if the green new keeper slip is missing?”, plan the handover before travelling. Insurance, tax and keeper paperwork are separate steps, and the seller’s tax does not simply follow the car to you.

For “What should I do if the green new keeper slip is missing?”, 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 I do if the green new keeper slip is missing?”: 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.