There's a line between selling your own cars and running a business selling cars. Cross it without a licence and you're trading unlawfully — and most people who cross it don't realise there was a line.
Australian states and territories set thresholds for this. Below yours you're a private seller; above it you're a motor dealer, with licensing, record-keeping and consumer-guarantee obligations attached.
The threshold is usually lower than people assume, and it's typically counted over a rolling twelve-month period rather than a financial or calendar year. Both of those vary — check yours with your own regulator before you list the next one.
Why the line exists
A private sale carries far fewer protections for the buyer than a dealer sale. There's no statutory cooling-off, no dealer warranty, and the consumer guarantees that apply to a business sale generally don't apply between individuals.
That's a reasonable bargain when it's genuinely a private sale — the buyer accepts less protection in exchange for a lower price. It stops being reasonable when someone is effectively running a yard while presenting as a private individual, which is why the licensing threshold exists and why regulators care about it.
The informal name for doing it deliberately is curbstoning, and it's a real problem — our buyer's guide to scams covers it from the other side of the transaction.
Who to ask
The threshold, and how it's counted, is set by each state's fair trading or consumer affairs regulator rather than its transport department. Start there:
- New South Wales — NSW Fair Trading. Its guidance on selling a used car is the starting point, and it flags that selling above a certain number of vehicles in a twelve-month period may mean you're carrying on a business as a motor dealer.
- South Australia — Consumer and Business Services publishes the licensing position for selling cars.
- Victoria — Consumer Affairs Victoria.
- Western Australia — Consumer Protection.
- Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT each have their own fair trading or consumer affairs regulator; start there.
We've deliberately not quoted a number for any state. This is a licensing rule with real consequences, the figures differ, and the counting method matters as much as the number. It's the kind of fact you want from the regulator with your specific circumstances in front of you — not from an article that might be a year stale.
What actually triggers it
The count is the obvious part. The less obvious part is that regulators generally look at the substance of what you're doing, not just the tally. Things that tend to point toward "carrying on a business":
- Buying with the intention of reselling. A car you bought to use and later sold is a different animal from one you bought because it was cheap.
- Volume and pattern. Regular sales, over time, look like trade.
- Repairing to resell. Buying damaged cars, fixing them and moving them on is close to the core of what a dealer does.
- Advertising like a business. Multiple concurrent listings, a trading name, a consistent format.
Conversely, none of these usually count against you: selling a car you inherited, selling two cars because your household circumstances changed, or selling an unregistered project you never got around to.
Who this genuinely catches
Not people trying to game anything. In practice:
Enthusiasts. If you buy and sell interesting cars as a hobby, you can pass a threshold in a year without ever thinking of yourself as a trader. This is the most common case by a distance.
People helping family. Selling a few cars across a family in one year — a deceased estate, a parent moving into care, kids upgrading — can add up faster than you'd expect.
Small businesses replacing vehicles. Turning over several work utes in a year is a business activity, and the vehicles were business assets, which changes both the licensing and the tax questions.
If you're near the line
Count honestly, over a rolling twelve months. Not the financial year — a rolling twelve-month window is the usual test.
Ask before you list, not after. Regulators are generally helpful about a question asked in advance and less so about one asked after the fact.
Keep records. When you bought each car, what you paid, why you sold it. If the question is ever raised, contemporaneous records answering "was this trade?" are worth a great deal.
Consider whether a licence actually suits you. If you're genuinely trading, licensing brings obligations but also legitimacy — you can advertise as a dealer, offer finance, and stop worrying about it.
What this means if you're selling on MotorLoop
Nothing in our terms sets a limit, because it isn't ours to set — the threshold is your state regulator's. But we'd rather say it plainly than let a heavy user drift into a problem: if you're selling regularly, check your state's threshold.
Listing a car on MotorLoop is free either way.