The process of selling a car brings with it a lot of difficulties. One of the important factors is the re-registration of the car to the new owner. An unscrupulous buyer may not do this within a certain period of time and then you will have to pay transport tax for the already sold car. In addition, you will bear full responsibility for it, so, for example, if you get into an accident and flee the scene of the accident, the new owner, without having registration, will be able to avoid responsibility and shift it to you. In order to avoid such situations and protect yourself from other troubles, you should find out whether the car is deregistered with the traffic police.
Is it possible to check whether a car is deregistered?
The new owner is given 10 days to complete the necessary documents, after which all formalities must be completed. Checking the deregistration of a vehicle from the traffic police can be carried out in several ways:
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- At the traffic police department.
No later than 10 days after the sale, in order to verify the deregistration of the car, you need to write an application addressed to the head of the department to provide information about the status of the car you sold, attaching copies of all documents to the paper. The application is reviewed within 30 days, the procedure is completely free. If, after this period, the application to verify the deregistration of the sold vehicle has not been considered, you can file a lawsuit.
A situation may arise when the car is no longer registered, but the old owner continues to receive receipts asking him to pay transport tax. In this case, you need to contact the tax office, requesting information about the calculation of payments, thereby preventing the possible occurrence of similar situations in the future.
- Through Internet services.
The Internet has become an integral part of our lives, and now young people and active Internet users are starting to get behind the wheel. Using Internet services, you can also check whether the car has been deregistered. The advantages of this method are convenience and simplicity. Using online services greatly simplifies the task: the driver does not need to go to the traffic police department and waste his time filling out paperwork. Verification of deregistration can be carried out through various sites, such as:
- Official website of the traffic police
- State Services Portal
- Service "Autocode"
How to prevent claims?
Removing charges that an important part was taken from a stolen vehicle or outright stolen is easy if you show proof of official purchase. For example:
- Contract of sale.
- Check.
- Receipt.
Note that you are not obliged to do this, but it will not be superfluous (especially since you never know what changes in laws will arise over time).
If you are planning to buy an internal combustion engine secondhand, it is better to play it safe and check it in the presence of the seller (whether it is listed as stolen). This can be done in a specialized expert organization or the traffic police. Only after a satisfactory result will it be prudent to pay the seller. Otherwise, you risk not only losing the money spent on the purchase, but also paying a substantial fine. If, when registering a car with a different engine, it turns out that the number on it is worn out or damaged, you may face a refusal to register.
The next step after replacing the unit is to contact the inspectorate to register changes in the design. Do not forget to notify your insurance company; the documents must reflect the presence of a motor with a different number.
Check through the traffic police website
In order to check the fact that a vehicle has been deregistered, you can go to the official website of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate - https://gibdd.rf. To check you need to do the following:
- In the top panel, find the “Services” tab and click on it.
- In the menu that slides out at the top, select “Vehicle check”.
- Enter the engine VIN number in the field provided. You can find it in the vehicle passport or registration certificate. If you are unable to find this number, enter the chassis or body information instead.
- Confirm your request with the verification code shown in the picture.
- In a minute, the test results will appear on the screen.
The site allows you to view data about the vehicle type, make and model, its year of manufacture, body and chassis numbers, engine size, power and even its color. Using the service, you can find out other registration actions related to the car: checking for participation in an accident, whether the car is wanted and whether there are restrictions.
Having mastered a simple algorithm of actions, you will save yourself time and save yourself from the need to go to the traffic police.
Also pay attention to the item “Periods of vehicle ownership”. This subsection displays all the periods during which the car was registered. Using this, you can see how many people owned a car over a certain period, and whether it currently has an owner. If you see the entry “... to date” in the last line, this means that someone is officially the owner of the car right now. In this case, the buyer should be careful and once again remind the seller of the need to deregister the vehicle being sold.
Replacement features
Common reasons for replacing the “heart” of a car: the desire to increase power or the inability to repair the unit that was originally installed. The legislation regulating accounting issues has undergone changes. For example, since 2013, motorists have the right to register a car without registration. And two years earlier, the strict requirement to include the engine number in registration documents was abolished. But after 6 years it was officially recognized as a numbered unit. A number of innovations came into force in 2021 after the release of Order No. 399.
Situations in which it is necessary to register a car with a different engine are usually of two types:
- Your vehicle has a new unit installed, the technical characteristics of which differ from the previous one - the factory one.
- The motor was installed using a model that has the same parameters as the “native” one.
The second situation is simpler. It assumes that changes must be made to the vehicle passport. The only problem that may arise when communicating with traffic police inspectors is that they will present you with a claim that the internal combustion engine was illegally borrowed from another car. In other words: you took advantage of stolen goods. To prevent such accusations, you should take care of your reputation and the absence of hassle in advance. Then a sudden check at the post will not be scary.
Checking for deregistration of a car through the State Services portal
If you use a power of attorney and are not able to control all the actions of the new owner, it will be convenient to turn to the State Services portal - a service designed to track and control the receipt and status of various documents, certificates and other papers related to the field of public services. To start checking, go to the official website of the portal: https://www.gosuslugi.ru. At the moment, the portal has disabled the possibility of verification; the function of directly carrying out the operation of re-registering a vehicle is available on the website. How to do it?
- The first and mandatory step is registration and creation of a personal account. To do this, in the “login to State Services” section located on the right side of the page, click on the “register” button. In the open page, fill in the required information: last name, first name, mobile phone and email.
- To start re-registering a car, go to the “Services” section located in the top menu, then select the “Authorities” subsection. In the menu that opens, select “Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.” Scroll down the new page and find the “Vehicle Registration” tab.
- Next, in the pages that open one after another, select the category “Preparing documents for purchasing, leasing and changing data about the owner”, and then the item “Changing data about the owner of the vehicle”.
- An application form will then open where you will need to enter the required data. Follow the instructions, if you fill it out correctly, a confirmation will open and, after some time, you will receive an answer. You can also print out this form and bring it to the traffic police department, where the re-registration procedure will continue.
The State Services portal is a useful tool not only for car owners. Many other tasks and questions can now be solved via the Internet without leaving home. In addition, this will significantly save your time and money: the portal constantly hosts various promotions, using which you can, for example, pay an order of magnitude less for car registration.
Checking via Autocode
Another option for checking the deregistration of a car after sale is to use the Autocode portal - https://avtocod.ru/. Having appeared quite recently, this convenient service has gained well-deserved popularity among car enthusiasts. The procedure here is practically no different from checking through the traffic police website:
- To begin, on the main page, in the only field, enter the VIN number of the car or its registration number. For Japanese cars that do not have a VIN, you can enter the chassis or body number. All data can be found on the vehicle registration certificate.
- In a few seconds, a page will load that will display in detail all the data about the car, including not only data on the title, but also data on possible accidents, the cost of repair work, mileage, deposit, cost of compulsory motor insurance, fines and much more.
Unlike other sites, Autocode is paid. For a full report you need to pay 583 rubles. You can often carry out a check cheaper - the service constantly offers various discounts and promotions. However, it cannot be said that the price is compensated by the huge amount of information about the machine, including all kinds of tips and recommendations for operation.
Who can seize transport and in what cases?
The seizure of property can be established by a bailiff if the amount of debt is more than three thousand rubles.
Restrictions on disposition may also be imposed by the court in order to preserve property until a final decision is made in the case:
- in civil cases (for example, during bankruptcy proceedings in order to prevent the sale or destruction of property, or when considering a dispute over a loan agreement in which the seized vehicle was collateral);
- criminal (at the request of the investigator for the purpose of executing a sentence in a civil suit, collecting a fine or confiscating property).
What to do if the car has not been re-registered?
The new owner is given 10 days to re-register the car. If this has not been done within the required period, you need to visit the traffic police department and write an application to terminate the registration in your name. The new owner will be put on the wanted list, the inspection will look for the car by license plates in order to complete the procedure and bring the unscrupulous buyer to justice.
It is prohibited to drive a deregistered vehicle. The new owner should remember that after the purchase, he should immediately take care of all the formalities: take out a compulsory motor liability insurance policy, correct all possible technical faults, carry out maintenance and, finally, register the car in his name. If you are caught breaking the law, the traffic police will immediately remove the registration number from your vehicle and confiscate the registration certificate. The procedure is carried out in accordance with paragraph 51 of Order No. 1001:
“Upon termination (cancellation) of registration, a specific registration action (several registration actions) and all subsequent registration actions are invalidated.”
In addition to the fine for late registration, the registration number of your car and STS will be disposed of. Thus, you will not be able to travel by car, and the license plates will be lost forever. To restore registration, you must submit a corresponding application to any traffic police authority, regardless of the place of registration, or online through the State Services portal. Upon expiration of the application period, you will be given the opportunity to obtain new plates and a new vehicle registration certificate.
How to find out if the buyer re-registered the car after the sale?
Car registration check
There is a need to find out whether the buyer and new owner of the car has re-registered it with the traffic police after the sale, since selling a car in 2021 is associated with certain risks. Two of these risks:
- the seller may receive fines if the buyer does not re-register the car in his name,
- The seller will be charged transport tax until the car is registered with the traffic police to another person.
These risks can and should be minimized and eliminated altogether. Therefore, it is important to know whether the new owner of the car has registered it in his name or not. And, if he did not do this, you will have to take certain simple steps to stop registering such a car.
Possible nuances
In order to avoid various problems when buying and selling a car, both the seller and the buyer need to be careful. Transactions often take place over a long period of time and are complicated by all sorts of prohibitions and restrictions on the part of the judiciary, the investigative department, customs authorities, social security authorities and the search department of the traffic police. These government departments may slow down the process, thus delaying the sale period and, accordingly, deregistration of the vehicle. To implement them, you will need to eliminate all problems. Seller and buyer should check vehicle registration restrictions.
It is also important to understand the entire verification mechanism. This will allow you to obtain the most detailed information about the car, evaluate its merits and find possible problems hidden by the seller. After all, when a car changes several owners in a year, this clearly says something. Understand the legal and technical issues before purchasing, do not make hasty decisions, think about everything and only then act.
Refusal – legal or not
Car enthusiasts sometimes face a problem when inspectors do not register the car after replacing the engine. How legal this is depends on the specific situation. And if in some cases you need to boldly defend your rights, then in others you need to humbly submit to the demands. Changes in legislation occur almost every year. As of the beginning of 2021, there is a rule according to which documents should not be required for an internal combustion engine that corresponds to the model and is the same in power as the “native” one. But the number that is on the engine will be entered into the database upon inspection. Along with this, according to Order No. 399, inspectors quite legally categorically refuse to re-register a car with an internal combustion engine on which the identification number is damaged or it turns out that it was stolen. Such troubles are typical for cases when the new owner is faced with an unscrupulous seller. The relaxations, valid for seven years, served as fertile ground for those who wanted to quickly get rid of problematic cars with an unclean history.
