My car is sold, but I still pay fines
Here’s the situation: I sold my car on April 20. The new owner registered the car on May 15, but managed to collect fines. Some of them were between April 20 and May 15. The last fine was on the 20th of May.
I saw these fines through the site gosuslugi and immediately disputed them in the traffic police: as you wrote, showed a copy of the contract of sale, asked to cancel all these fines. They were all cancelled except one – that of May 20. On the day when the deadline for appeal expired, I received a letter saying that they would not cancel the fine, because there was not enough evidence. The case was handed over to the bailiffs.
How is it possible that the car is already sold and even reissued, and the fines come to the old owner and still refuse to cancel? Help, please, advice, I do not want to sue.
Unfortunately, in your situation, without appeal in court, most likely, to solve the issue with the fine will not work. The pre-trial order, as far as I understand, is already exhausted.
But the court practice is on your side – the probability of the fine being cancelled is very high.
I’ll tell you how to do it properly.
Why do the fines for a sold car come?
Because the car can be sold under a contract of sale, drawn up in simple written form. According to the law the buyer has 10 days for the registration of the car in the State Traffic Police. But during these 10 days, the new owner can use the car, and if he is stopped by the traffic police, he can just show them the contract of sale.
If the buyer does not register the car within 10 days, he can be fined 1500-2000 rubles.
In your case, the new owner put the car registered in 25 days. All this time the traffic police did not know about the change of ownership. Accordingly, the penalty receipts received by the means of video fixation were sent to the previous owner – you.
Judging by the letter, most of the fines you successfully appealed to the traffic police. The officers checked the dates in the contract of sale and agreed that you were not the owner of the car.
Why was the last fine not cancelled?
Apparently, due to the inattentiveness of employees or their unwillingness to understand the situation. This is a human factor, it often happens. If the new owner registered the car on the 15th of May, and the fine they received 5 days later, they suggested you pay it, you need to contest it.
But you will have to contest it in court. The pre-trial order by an appeal to the management of traffic police you have already used – and received a refusal.
How to appeal the actions of traffic police officers in court
This is normal practice, and there is nothing terrible and particularly complicated here.
You will need to draw up a statement of claim. In it, state that you sold the car on April 20, but the new owner registered it on May 15. You could not control the registration of your car, and according to the law you are not obliged to do this. Write down all the information about any fines the previous owner was issued, and the reasons for which they were cancelled. And detail the most recent fine – with the date of the fine.
Finally, ask the court to cancel the ticket on the grounds that the vehicle belonged to someone else at the time of the offense.
The arguments of the traffic police officers that the evidence is not enough to cancel the fine, the court is likely not to take into account. But if there are any questions you can refer to the decision of the RF Supreme Court Plenum No. 18 of 24.10.2006. In it the Supreme Court explained that the fact of car ownership can be proven by power of attorney, rental or leasing agreement, car purchase agreement – that is your case – as well as cancelled by the traffic police officers resolutions on bringing the car to administrative responsibility. It’s the traffic police officers who will have to explain to the judge why they cancelled the fines from April 20 to May 15, but decided not to cancel the fine of May 20. I think it’s going to be very difficult for them to do that.
What Guarantees
There are no guarantees.
No one can claim that the court will necessarily rule in your favor. And the evidence in this situation is not pre-determined, that is, even the fact of registration of the car by another person does not guarantee anything. Any evidence has to be examined and evaluated by a judge.
Remember this:
- If the employees of the traffic police refused to cancel the decision to bring to administrative responsibility, you can appeal this decision in court.
- To the statement of claim attach the contract of sale of the car and information about the cancellation of fines of the traffic police. They, too, can be considered as evidence.
- There are no guarantees.
If you have a question about personal finances, rights and laws, health or education, write. The most interesting questions will be answered by the magazine’s experts.
Problems with “exes”: what you may encounter after selling a car
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Content
Sometimes “exes” just won’t let go. Even after a while, they can cause trouble. We have collected the top 5 problems that can happen after selling a car.
Problem #1: sold the car, and it comes with fines
“Sold the car – got a fine” is one of the most common problems ex-owners face. It arises from the fact that the new owner did not reissue the car to himself. Violations are mostly fixed by traffic cameras or mobile systems of photo-video fixation, which don’t understand who was driving the car. And if the car is registered to the seller, he is responsible for his faults.
What should you do if you were driving a car and you still receive a fine? You need to check its history and see if the new owner has already registered the car. Let’s take the example of Mazda Axela.
We search the license plate through the service avtocod.ru, and in the summary data see all the problems at the time of testing.
In the “Periods of Ownership” block, see if there was any re-registration after the transaction. If you get fines, it’s likely the new owner hasn’t registered the car for themselves yet.
You will also see fines in the report, if any, and who earned them. The corresponding block will display the date on which the violation was caught on camera.
Pavel Rudinskiy, lawyer, head of legal department of the law firm “ECZ”, Chelyabinsk:
– The person responsible for the violations recorded by the cameras is the person in whose name the vehicle is registered. I had a client who received fines totaling over 60,000 rubles for speeding, and these fines were generated in just one day. It turned out that the car had been transported to Crimea after being sold and the speed limits had been ignored. The fines were eventually contested in court, but it took some “sweat”. Therefore, ideally, you should control the reregistration on the day of the deal. After ten days from the date of the contract, the seller can deregister the car himself, by contacting the RF State Traffic Police and presenting the sale contract, or do it via public services portal.
Problem #2: I’ve sold my car, but the tax is coming
“Paying tax for a sold car” is another frequent problem of ex-owners. If the Federal Tax Service has not received information about the transaction, property tax notices will come to the previous owner.
Sometimes sellers do not even notice it. For example, if after the deal they buy another car. They get a receipt from the tax office for a bigger amount than expected, and the motorists think that this is how it should be.
If the car is sold, but the taxes come, you should go to the official portal of the Federal Tax Service and check on which vehicles they have been assessed. If you see two cars, you will have to find out and report the error.
Problem #3: Bank cards are blocked or debited
If the buyer got into any debts (didn’t pay the credit, owes alimony, was in a car accident and the court ordered to pay compensation to the injured party, etc.), bailiffs can forcibly collect the money and even prohibit you to go abroad.
Bailiffs are not particularly interested in who owns the car at the moment. They find the car in databases (which are not always updated promptly) and by mistake, punish the former owner, not the present one.
Problem #4: A summons to court came.
This is an even stranger situation that can happen to ex-owners. Sometimes they are subpoenaed because of accidents they didn’t commit. For example, if the owner sold the car, did not have time or did not want to register it for themselves, the car was in an accident, from which the driver fled.
Since formally the car is registered to the old owner, he will be responsible for the accident. You would have to go to the session and prove that there was a different person at the wheel. And it is not always easy.
Problem #5: The buyer wants the car back
After selling a car, buyers often show up and begin to express dissatisfaction with the goods – saying that they have found new problems, which were not reported before the purchase.
In this case you can relax. This is not a reason to cancel the deal. To declare it illegal, you need to prove the fact of fraud. And in the case of selling a car from hand, it is almost impossible.
What to do to avoid problems after the sale of the car
It is possible to avoid unpleasant surprises. The first thing to do is to check whether the buyer has put the car on the registration in the traffic police. If the report shows that the buyer does not register the car for himself, you need to independently terminate registration. To do this you need to personally come to the unit and write a statement. To confirm the transaction will need a contract of sale and a civil passport.
In theory, the car should be de-registered on the same day. And this means that you can sleep well in the future. Even if bailiffs, tax inspectors or investigators make a mistake, you will be able to confirm that it is no longer your car, and another person should be asked.
If fines continue to arrive in your name after the registration is discontinued, they need to be disputed. To do this, you will need to make a complaint and send it in person or by registered mail to the traffic police or the court (depending on who issued the resolution). You need to do this within ten days of receiving the notice.
If the car is sold and the taxes keep coming, you need to contact the traffic police or the Federal Tax Service with the sale and purchase agreement. On the basis of this the state bodies will make an application to eliminate the error.
If the payments come because the buyer did not re-register the car, you can contact him and ask him to re-register the car. If he refuses, threaten to write a search warrant for the car. This will serve as a good incentive for the current owner of your car.
And it is important to remember that when you are parting with your “ex”, you can’t lose the contract of sale. It is the only document that will help to clear your name and prove that you did not break the traffic rules, did not accumulate debts, and paid taxes on time. Also, when selling your car, it is advisable to insist that the buyer inscribe himself into the vehicle registration form. This will be an extra guarantee of your peace of mind.
Author: Anastasia Gorokhova
*** The article is authored by the author. The opinion of the editorial board may not coincide with the author’s opinion.
Do you have any problems after the sale of the car? How did you solve them? Share your story in comments.
