Terms and Conditions

secondgears.co.uk and any related services (together, the "Platform") are owned and operated by Second Gears Trading Ltd ("Second Gears", "we", "us", "our"). On our Platform, private sellers advertise vehicles that are damaged, written-off, MOT-failed, non-runners, or otherwise imperfect, and subscribing trade buyers view those vehicles, make offers, and are connected with the seller to complete the purchase directly.

1. About us

Second Gears Trading Ltd is a private limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 16327142. Our registered office is 11 Main Street, Barkby, Leicester, England, LE7 3QG. If you have any questions about these Terms, contact us at [email protected].

2. Agreeing to these Terms

By using the Platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms together with our Privacy Policy and any other documents referred to in them (collectively, the "Terms"). If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform.

When a seller accepts a buyer's offer through the Platform, we charge a fee to each party for our introduction service: a "Success Fee" payable by the seller and an "Introduction Fee" payable by the buyer (clause 8). These fees are made clear to you before you commit. By placing an advertisement, making an offer, or accepting an offer, you agree to pay the fee that applies to you.

By creating an account, you confirm that you are over 18, resident in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, and that the details you provide are true, accurate, complete, and current. If you provide information about a vehicle you do not own, or act on behalf of another person, you confirm that you have the permissions necessary to do so.

3. Changes to these Terms

We may amend these Terms from time to time. The amended Terms will be posted on the Platform and take effect from the date they are posted. Where we make a material change while you have an active advertisement with us, the Terms that applied on the date you listed your vehicle will continue to apply to that advertisement until the vehicle is sold or removed. Where a change is, in our reasonable view, material, we will give you written notice at the email address associated with your account.

4. What Second Gears is, and what it is not

Second Gears operates an online platform that connects private sellers of imperfect vehicles with a network of subscribing trade buyers. When a seller accepts a buyer's offer, we connect the two parties by releasing their contact details so they can complete the sale directly between themselves. We charge a fee for that introduction.

The contract for the sale of any vehicle is between the seller and the buyer, and not with us. At no point do we purchase, take title to, or acquire any risk in any vehicle advertised on the Platform. We do not sell, own, inspect, value, hold, transport, or handle any vehicle; we are not an auctioneer, dealer, broker, or the agent of either party; we do not negotiate or complete sales on anyone's behalf; and we do not hold, handle, or escrow the price paid for any vehicle, which passes directly between buyer and seller. We do not guarantee the accuracy of any advertisement, the availability of any vehicle, the conduct, solvency, or honesty of any user, or any particular outcome.

Advertisement content is created and submitted by sellers. In respect of that content, we act as a host of information provided by third parties.

5. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter into a binding contract. The Platform is available to users in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. You must provide accurate information when registering and keep it up to date, keep your login details confidential, and not share your account. Trade buyer subscriptions are licensed to a single named individual or business. Tell us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access to your account.

6. Trade buyer subscriptions

Access to buyer features requires a paid subscription. Current standard pricing is £149 per year or £30 per month, shown on the Platform at the point of purchase. To subscribe, you must provide payment and a valid payment card, which you authorise us to charge in accordance with clause 8.

Where a buyer is described as "verified", we mean that the buyer holds a paid subscription and has provided the information we require. Verification is not an endorsement of a buyer's solvency, honesty, business practices, or ability to complete any transaction. Sellers remain responsible for their own due diligence on any buyer who contacts them.

The subscription is a fee for access to advertisements and the ability to make offers. It is not a fee for any sale and does not guarantee any particular vehicle, any response from a seller, any offer being accepted, or any outcome. Subscriptions are billed in advance on a recurring basis until cancelled. You may cancel future renewals at any time in your account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

7. Listing a vehicle

Listing is free. Sellers pay nothing to place or maintain an advertisement.

To list a vehicle, you submit it through our listing workflow, create an account, and accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which we record. Advertisements are published automatically. You remain in control of your advertisement and are never obliged to accept any offer. An accurate advertisement protects you: it is the basis on which buyers make offers and the main thing we look at if a deal is disputed.

8. Fees

Our fees are for our introduction service. They are not a charge on the vehicle, and we take no share of the vehicle price.

Seller Success Fee

When a seller accepts an offer, a Success Fee becomes payable, calculated from the sale price. It is charged at the point of acceptance and refunded in full if the vehicle does not sell (clause 9).

Buyer Introduction Fee

When a seller accepts a buyer's offer, an Introduction Fee becomes payable by the buyer, calculated from the sale price and charged at the point of acceptance to the buyer's registered card.

How fees are shown

Fees are shown to you as a fixed amount in pounds before you commit: to the seller while listing and again at acceptance, and to the buyer when making an offer. Each fee has a minimum and a maximum. Current fees are set out on our Pricing page, which forms part of these Terms, and may change from time to time in accordance with clause 3. The fee that applies to a deal is the fee shown to you at the time.

Authorising payment

For a buyer making an offer, you must provide a valid payment card. By making an offer, you authorise us, through our payment processor, to charge the Introduction Fee to that card if your offer is accepted, including where you are not present at the time (an "off-session" payment). We may place a temporary authorisation hold on your card to confirm it is valid and to protect sellers from offers that cannot be honoured; this is not a charge and is released automatically. Where your bank requires additional authentication, we will ask you to confirm the payment, and the introduction will not be made until payment has cleared.

If a charge fails

If we cannot take the Introduction Fee at acceptance, we will ask the buyer to pay within a short window. If payment is not made within that window, the offer is cancelled, no contact is shared, the vehicle may be offered to the next buyer, and repeated non-payment may result in restriction of the buyer's account.

Subscription refunds

Subscription fees are non-refundable except where required by law, including for unused time, sellers who did not respond or sold elsewhere, offers that were declined, vehicles that did not meet expectations on contact or inspection, or dissatisfaction with the advertisements available at a given time. This does not affect the Success Fee and Introduction Fee refunds in clause 9.

Tax

All fees are stated inclusive of VAT where applicable. Second Gears is not currently VAT-registered; if that changes, we will notify users and update our pricing.

9. Offers, acceptance, and the introduction

Offers are made and managed through the Platform.

Before an offer is accepted

Contact details are kept private. Messages between seller and buyer are relayed through the Platform with direct contact details removed. A buyer may use "Ask a question" to ask a question through the Platform; these messages are relayed in the same way.

Accepting an offer

Accepting an offer is a commitment by both parties to proceed in good faith. The accepted offer price is the figure used for the sale and for calculating the fees. When a seller accepts an offer, the Success Fee and Introduction Fee are charged (clause 8). Once payment is secured, we make the introduction by releasing the parties' contact details to each other.

Completing the sale

The seller and buyer then arrange inspection, payment, and collection directly. We are not involved, we do not hold funds, and we do not arrange transport. The vehicle price is paid directly by the buyer to the seller. On completion, the seller transfers the V5C and both parties notify the DVLA. If the parties later agree a different price between themselves, the fees already charged are not recalculated.

10. If a deal falls through, and refunds

If a sale does not complete, email [email protected] within 7 days of the introduction, explaining what happened. We will review the matter, which may include the advertisement, the messages relayed through the Platform, and each party's history, and refund where fair. In particular, the seller is refunded the Success Fee in full if the vehicle does not sell; the buyer is refunded the Introduction Fee where the deal failed through no fault of the buyer, for example where the vehicle was not as described, had already been sold, or the seller stopped responding; and the Introduction Fee is not normally refunded where the buyer simply chose not to proceed after being introduced, because the introduction service was provided.

Re-listing

Where a deal falls through and the seller still wishes to sell, the vehicle may go back on the Platform and be offered to the next buyer. A seller can re-list a vehicle that did not sell without paying an additional fee, but a Success Fee remains payable if the vehicle is sold on a subsequent occasion.

11. Your rights under consumer law

This clause applies where you deal with us as a consumer.

You have a legal right to cancel our introduction service within 14 days of accepting an offer. When you accept an offer, you will be asked to acknowledge and agree that you are making an express request for us to provide the introduction service immediately, and that you will lose your right to cancel once the introduction has been made, that is, once we have released contact details to the other party.

This means that once the introduction has been made, you will not be entitled to a refund of your fee (except where there is a material defect in our service), as the introduction service will have been fully performed. As a matter of policy, we nonetheless refund the Success Fee where the vehicle does not sell, and the Introduction Fee where a deal fails through no fault of the buyer, as set out in clause 10. Nothing in these Terms affects your statutory rights.

12. Safety and recommended practices

You are responsible for your own safety and due diligence. Before buying, we strongly recommend that you carry out an HPI or similar history check, cross-check the VIN against the V5C and registration, inspect the vehicle in person (or have a trusted agent do so) before paying, and verify the seller's identity, being alert to signs of fraud such as unusual urgency, unwillingness to meet, or requests to pay a third party. When paying and collecting, use a traceable payment method to a UK-resident account in the seller's name, avoid cash by post, cryptocurrency, or paying a third party, do not release a vehicle or transfer funds until the other side is secure, and where possible meet in daylight at a safe location. We relay and retain the messages sent through the Platform before an introduction, but we do not see or retain communications made directly between users after contact details are shared, and cannot provide evidence of those. These are recommendations, not exhaustive advice, and following them does not guarantee a safe transaction.

13. Seller obligations and warranties

When you place an advertisement, you represent, warrant, and undertake that:

• you are the registered keeper or legal owner of the vehicle, or have express written authority from the owner to advertise it;
• the vehicle is not stolen, cloned, or the subject of any police investigation, and is not subject to undisclosed finance or other security;
• all information you provide (including make, model, year, mileage, VIN, registration, condition, damage, and history) is accurate and complete to the best of your knowledge;
• you will disclose any write-off marker (Cat A, B, S, or N, or historic C or D), recorded structural damage, mileage discrepancy, import status, known recalls, and any material mechanical, structural, or electrical defect;
• photographs are of the actual vehicle, taken recently, and not altered to conceal damage; and
• you will respond to reasonable enquiries in good faith, update or remove the advertisement promptly if the vehicle is sold, withdrawn, or the facts change, and accept that you are solely responsible for the advertisement and any resulting transaction.

We do not verify your ownership, the V5C, the write-off status, or any other statement you make. Breach of this clause is a material breach and may result in removal of the advertisement, account termination, reporting to the police, Action Fraud, and the DVLA, and liability for losses.

14. Buyer obligations and warranties

When you subscribe, make an offer, or use buyer features, you represent, warrant, and undertake that you are a genuine trade buyer acting in the course of a business; that any offer you make is genuine and, if accepted, you authorise the Introduction Fee and intend to proceed subject only to the vehicle being as described on inspection; that you will deal with sellers fairly and honestly; that you will use contact details obtained through the Platform only to pursue the specific advertisement they relate to, and not for marketing, data brokerage, or any other purpose; and that you will comply with all applicable laws when buying, transporting, repairing, and reselling any vehicle, including DVLA notification, V5C transfer, VAT, and End-of-Life Vehicles regulations.

15. Conduct, reliability, and restrictions

You must use the Platform honestly and in good faith. You must not make offers you do not intend to honour, misdescribe vehicles, create multiple accounts to evade rules, scrape or systematically extract data, use the Platform to build a competing database, or attempt to avoid our fees by arranging introductions off the Platform. We keep records of conduct, such as offers not honoured and disputes, and may use them to rank advertisements, flag accounts, and restrict or suspend accounts that repeatedly cause problems. Any restriction that significantly affects you is reviewed by a member of our team. We may report conduct to the police, Action Fraud, the DVLA, or HMRC, and pursue recovery of losses.

16. Use of advertisements and contact details

Advertisements and contact details are provided solely for your own use in connection with the specific vehicle advertised. You must not reproduce, republish, or redistribute any advertisement; add seller or buyer contact details to any marketing list, CRM, or third-party service; pass, sell, or disclose them to any third party; or use the Platform or its data to build, train, or supply a competing product or service. Breach of this clause is a material breach and may result in termination and liability for losses.

17. Existing listings

Vehicles already advertised when our fees were introduced continue under the Terms that applied when they were listed. They are not subject to the Success Fee or Introduction Fee and keep the contact arrangements that applied to them, until they sell or expire. The fee and contact model in these Terms applies to vehicles listed or re-listed after that date.

18. Featured and promoted listings

We may feature, highlight, or promote advertisements on the Platform, in emails, on social media, or in paid campaigns. We may also offer an optional paid promotion that gives an advertisement greater prominence; this is separate from the fees in clause 8. Featuring is not an endorsement of the advertisement, seller, or vehicle, and the seller remains solely responsible for the content.

19. Content and intellectual property

The Platform and its content, software, design, and trade marks are owned by or licensed to us, and all rights are reserved. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Platform for its intended purpose.

You retain ownership of content you upload, such as advertisement photographs, video, and descriptions, but grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, perpetual licence to host, display, reproduce, distribute, adapt, and promote that content on the Platform and in our marketing, including paid and organic campaigns on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Google. This licence survives removal of the advertisement or closure of your account. You warrant that content you upload is yours and infringes no third party's rights. You may ask us to stop using a specific piece of content in future marketing by emailing [email protected]; we will comply within a reasonable time but are not obliged to recall material already published.

20. Our role as a host of advertisement content

Advertisements are created and submitted by sellers and published automatically. We do not generate, verify, or endorse advertisement content, and we do not pre-screen every advertisement. We may remove or edit any advertisement at any time, with or without notice, where we reasonably believe it breaches these Terms, is unlawful, is misleading, or risks harm, and we will remove advertisements where we are satisfied that a vehicle is stolen or listed in breach of these Terms, or on the instruction of a competent authority. To report an advertisement, email [email protected].

21. Complaints and dispute resolution

We are not a party to any transaction between users and cannot act as judge or arbitrator. You should first try to resolve any dispute directly and in good faith with the other party, and may report another user's conduct to us. If you have a complaint about our service or our fees, contact us at [email protected]; we aim to acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and provide a substantive response within 28 days. Where fraud, theft, or criminal conduct is suspected, either party may, and we may, report it to the police, Action Fraud, or the DVLA. Nothing in this clause limits your right to bring proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction.

22. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any liability that cannot be excluded by law.

Subject to that, the agreement for the sale and purchase of any vehicle is between the seller and the buyer, and we accept no liability for any failure by either party, including any failure of a buyer to complete or a seller to sell. We provide the Platform "as is" and "as available" and make no warranty that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for any particular purpose, nor as to the accuracy, completeness, or legality of any advertisement, or the quality or value of advertisements available. We are not liable for the acts, omissions, conduct, solvency, or honesty of any user, nor for the condition, legality, safety, roadworthiness, title, finance status, or value of any vehicle. We are not liable for loss of profit, business, anticipated savings, or data, or for any indirect or consequential loss. Our total aggregate liability to you in any 12-month period, for all claims arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Platform, is limited to the greater of £100 and the total fees you paid us in that period.

23. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify Second Gears against any claim, loss, damage, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with your breach of these Terms, your misrepresentation in an advertisement or in dealings with another user, your breach of any law, or your breach of any third party's rights. This clause does not require you to compensate us for losses caused by our own negligence or breach of these Terms.

24. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your account, remove any advertisement, or restrict your access at any time, with or without notice, where we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms, present a risk to other users, or where required by law. You may close your account at any time by contacting us. Termination does not affect rights or obligations already accrued, including fees owed, the content licence in clause 19, and claims arising from breach.

25. General

We are not liable for any failure or delay caused by events outside our reasonable control. If we do not immediately enforce a provision, or delay in doing so, that does not prevent us enforcing it later. If any provision is or becomes invalid or unenforceable, it shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary or, failing that, deemed deleted, without affecting the rest of these Terms. You may not assign your rights or obligations without our consent; we may assign ours to a successor in business. These Terms, our Privacy Policy, and any product-specific terms are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Platform. A person who is not a party to these Terms has no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

26. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms, and any dispute arising from them (including non-contractual disputes), are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have non-exclusive jurisdiction, save that nothing prevents us bringing proceedings to enforce our rights in any jurisdiction, and users resident in the Republic of Ireland retain the benefit of any non-waivable consumer protections under Irish law.

27. Contact