Can't tax car!! Change of ownership issues..

HungryJoey

Hey guys. On the 23rd I bought my 1.4 306 through a private sale. The seller told me he would send off the VLC documents. They were the relevant documents including previous owners for the perticular car.

The car its self wasn't registered to him previously ( afaik ) he took it in as a "private" trade in on something else so he told me. Basically its coming close to 3 weeks and Im driving around with no TAX still. I want to get this car TAX'd. I rang up the VRO or whoever the crowd is in shannon they told me the furthest they can look up is the 30th of january, of which they still hadn't recieved anything or processed anything. Thats 7 days since I bought the car.

I cannot contact the seller who sold me the car ( cannot contact him via. phone ) at all so I rang the shannon crowd back and they said I will need an affidavit and they would send me one out, so the car can be registered in my own name.

Either the seller has taken his time sending off the VLC form, shannon havnt processed it yet or he's fecked off and done a runner.

Maybe I'm just unpatient but can you guys tell me what I should do? It's getting frustrating at this stage.

Thanks.

Hj

gogs2006

did you meet the seller in a car park???

call to his house.......

Pat Mustard

Don't hold your breath waiting for Shannon to get back to you. Try ringing up the motor tax section of your local county council and see if there's another way around it.

Henry Ford III

To take legal ownership you would both have needed to sign the V.L. Cert. When this was complete you should have taken a copy of it.

If that didn't happen you are in a bit of bother.

-Chris-

Shannon is taking a little while to get these things out at the moment, so don't panic.

You should go to the seller and ask them for a letter (on headed paper) that says "ownership was transferred on x date, paperwork sent off, tax applied for" that you can carry in the car with you incase you're stopped.

You can also call the VRO and ask them who the car's registered to - they can't tell you who, but if you give them your name & address they can confirm if it's you or not. If it's you, you can tax the car online - maybe it's only the paperwork coming out slowly, maybe the change of ownership is processed.

-Chris-

Henry Ford III wrote: »

To take legal ownership you would both have needed to sign the V.L. Cert. When this was complete you should have taken a copy of it.

If that didn't happen you are in a bit of bother.

I don't believe this is true - the registered owner and the beneficial owner don't necessarily have to be the same person. As long as you have a contract (an offer, acceptance, consideration and desire to enter into a legal contract) then the car's yours.
If you offered money, they accepted the offer, you paid them, and they intended to sell you a car in good faith, then you have your contract and the car is yours. The paperwork is secondary.

Henry Ford III

You try taxing any car in the circumstances you've outlined above

JHMEG

Go to your local motor tax office with your insurance cert (which will have the new car's details), and tell them that you're waiting for the VLC. 9 times out of 10 they'll understand and let you tax it.

the_syco

AudiChris wrote: »

As long as you have a contract (an offer, acceptance, consideration and desire to enter into a legal contract) then the car's yours.

Once the car was theirs to sell.

testicle

AudiChris wrote: »

I don't believe this is true - the registered owner and the beneficial owner don't necessarily have to be the same person. As long as you have a contract (an offer, acceptance, consideration and desire to enter into a legal contract) then the car's yours.
If you offered money, they accepted the offer, you paid them, and they intended to sell you a car in good faith, then you have your contract and the car is yours. The paperwork is secondary.

So I can steal your car and sell it. The new owner is now the legal owner of your car, and there's nothing you can do about it?

-Chris-

testicle wrote: »

So I can steal your car and sell it. The new owner is now the legal owner of your car, and there's nothing you can do about it?

AudiChris wrote: »

If you offered money, they accepted the offer, you paid them, and they intended to sell you a car in good faith, then you have your contract and the car is yours.

If the car was theirs to sell, then the law will recognise the transfer of ownership.

If the car wasn't theirs to sell, then they didn't have the ability to enter into a contract regarding the ownership of it and the ownership will remain with the rightful owner.

-Chris-

Henry Ford III wrote: »

You try taxing any car in the circumstances you've outlined above

I'm presuming a certain amount, I haven't taxed my own car in a number of years ...

Are you sure you can't tax the car online in these circumstances? I would think that (as long as the car's in your name, so the disk gets sent to the right address) you can tax the car on the interwebs.

Barr

if the VRC is not forthcomming , just ask shannon to send you out a form (cant remember what its called ) , this just needs to be filled then stamped by garda and you can get new documents in your name.

Shannon is particularly bust these days with all the car sales from january

JHMEG

It was on the radio a while back that new car sales are 40% down on last year, but yet the civil servants are still using the same old excuse?

-Chris-

JHMEG wrote: »

It was on the radio a while back that new car sales are 40% down on last year, but yet the civil servants are still using the same old excuse?

http://www.simi.ie/files/stats/StatsPressRel2008.xls

Latest reg. statistics say sales are up 3.9% on last year, which was up 12.46% on 2006 apparently...

JHMEG

AudiChris wrote: »

http://www.simi.ie/files/stats/StatsPressRel2008.xls

Latest reg. statistics say sales are up 3.9% on last year, which was up 12.46% on 2006 apparently...

Did no-one hear about the VRT change in July?:eek:

Irish people are more stupid than I thought.

HungryJoey

Do you's think I should wait another few days before progressing further into the matter. After all they couldnt tell me if there has been an update since the 30th of January ( 7 days after I purchased ) so possibly it has been processed between the 30th and now.

Do you's think its ok to be driving around in the car now? as I have been doing so since I got it.

Hj

-Chris-

HungryJoey wrote: »

Do you's think I should wait another few days before progressing further into the matter. After all they couldnt tell me if there has been an update since the 30th of January ( 7 days after I purchased ) so possibly it has been processed between the 30th and now.

Do you's think its ok to be driving around in the car now? as I have been doing so since I got it.

Hj

Afaik, it's not technically legal to drive on public roads without displaying a valid tax disk, but the Gardai live in the real world and choose not to enforce the law too strictly, using their own discretion when listening to a driver's sob story.

I would say, based on that, that you're fine driving around without the tax as long as it doesn't go on too long and as long as you can show you're actively taxing (or trying to tax) the car.

Yes, chase it again. Call them every 2 or 3 days. Call your seller every 2 or 3 days and ask them if they've heard anything (they won't have, but maybe you'll irritate them into action and they'll actually try and help you).
Chase the disk/paperwork, chase hard, and chase in writing if you can! It's the chasing that's going to make the difference between whether you get fined/impounded or not.

unkel

HungryJoey wrote: »

Do you's think I should wait another few days before progressing further into the matter

Yes. Like AudiChris said, it takes a while for shannon to process. I just received mine nearly 3 weeks after I bought the car...

Pat Mustard

AudiChris wrote: »

Afaik, it's not technically legal to drive on public roads without displaying a valid tax disk, but the Gardai live in the real world and choose not to enforce the law too strictly, using their own discretion when listening to a driver's sob story.

I would say, based on that, that you're fine driving around without the tax as long as it doesn't go on too long and as long as you can show you're actively taxing (or trying to tax) the car.

Yes, chase it again. Call them every 2 or 3 days. Call your seller every 2 or 3 days and ask them if they've heard anything (they won't have, but maybe you'll irritate them into action and they'll actually try and help you).
Chase the disk/paperwork, chase hard, and chase in writing if you can! It's the chasing that's going to make the difference between whether you get fined/impounded or not.

If you are having difficulty contacting the seller, you can carry out a vehicle registration search in the local motor tax office as well. It costs six euros for the registered owner details. As you are getting that info, you could ask for the full history of registered owners, just out of curiosity. If Motor Tax are hesitant in giving you the details (they shouldn't be - if you are the apparent owner of the car), then your solicitor will definitely be allowed to get those details for you, by writing in. Sometimes the previous registered owner's phone number will show up on the search results, and then you can start calling him, looking for your VLC. He may also have your seller's details, assuming the seller never registered the car in his name, like you write. It is in the previous registered owner's interest to sort this as well, since your parking fines could start landing on his doormat otherwise. Maybe he will cooperate with you and give you the seller's details.

Omcd

From experience, Shannon might not know they have documents for a while after they have recieve them as I gather due to volume it takes them a while to get to opening post recieved - and then another while to process the stuff - in my experience at his time of year it could take a whole month....

Afaik, as mentioned by Barr, there is some sort affidavit statement thingee you can fill in to regularise things if proper procedures havn't been complied with in the transfer of ownership, or docs have gone AWOL

If this cars history is as grey as it sounds, I'd be slightly worried that some other things (like mileage) might not be as they seem.

MercMad

I would give it a bit more time. As the lads said Shannon are very slow and mostly the left arm doesn't know what the right arm is doing !

On the older cars when you filled out an RF2, or whichever, you could tear off the bottom and display it as evidence that a change of ownership had taken place. I always felt that it was an overisght not to include something like this on new documents.

Dont panic just yet. If it doesn't show up then do as suggested by the lads above !

HungryJoey

Omcd wrote: »

From experience, Shannon might not know they have documents for a while after they have recieve them as I gather due to volume it takes them a while to get to opening post recieved - and then another while to process the stuff - in my experience at his time of year it could take a whole month....

Afaik, as mentioned by Barr, there is some sort affidavit statement thingee you can fill in to regularise things if proper procedures havn't been complied with in the transfer of ownership, or docs have gone AWOL

If this cars history is as grey as it sounds, I'd be slightly worried that some other things (like mileage) might not be as they seem.

An affidavit is what they said I would need if the Transfer ownership hasn't been successful and I cannot contact the owner.

The millage is nothing I would be worried about anyway, It had quite high millage anyway so I dont think the millage is questionable.

May I itterate that the seller did have the valid documents for the car that was being sold to me including original owners. I wish I had of taken a copy now for several reasons but I guess I'll just wait for the VRO to hurry their A$$ up!

Hj

Omcd

If you have/can get service record printouts for its service history, or maybe NCT report - if any of those yokes came with the car - you might be able to get some clues to previous owners.

But I'd say the docs you'r worried about will turn up given time - I was in exactly the same situation this time last year and just when I had completely given up hope of ever seeing them they suddenly arrived in the door in good order, even though I was still being told even a day or two before that that Shannon had never recieved them:rolleyes:.

HungryJoey

A little update: I guess the lesson I learned today was "Be Patient". They arrived this morning