THE IVY TRAIL

1 – Find the van

For information on what to look for in a van look at my previous article titled ‘Buying A Van In Australia – Things to look out for when starting Vanlife’

2 – Purchase the van- paperwork

Once you’ve found a van you will need to fill out a MR9 vehicle transfer form. This consists of two sections: a blue form for the seller and a red form for the buyer. 

The MR9 can be printed from the Department of Transport website and filled out physically, if you do not have access to a printer, you can collect it from the department of transport or you have the option of submitting it  online. 

However, when recording your licence number, the online document format has only a set number of digits which comply with an Australian drivers’ licence so it can be difficult to create an account on the Department Of Transport (DOT) website. For this reason, I personally filled in the form with my UK Drivers’ License digits outside of the box. As long as the writing is legible this should be fine and accepted by the DOT office.

When purchasing the van, a lot of sellers prefer cash instead of bank transfer as the transfer can take a few days to be processed so it is best to clarify this with the seller beforehand

Note there is a fee that the buyer will need to pay to the DOT in order to finalise the transfer of the Vehicle into their name. This paperwork is usually mailed to the buyer after the purchase has been made.

3 – Take red slip into the Department Of Transport (DOT)

Once the form has been filled out it needs to be given to the DOT office. you can either take it to the Department Of Transport yourself,  post it or you can submit it online (again, only If you have an Australian licence). 

When we bought our van, I decided to take it in myself to avoid any postal delays.  This also meant that I could pay my transfer fee and stamp duty upfront instead of waiting for them to mail me the invoice, which could take up to a month to arrive.

Bonus tip:

Your stamp duty is based on the value of the vehicle, so if you can haggle the price down and potentially reduce the billable amount for the vehicle then it will decrease the amount of money you will have to pay on stamp duty.