Sun: registering a car with the traffic police does not indicate the integrity of its purchaser

Recognition of ownership of a car is a necessary procedure for retaining the car for the buyer if it turns out that the vehicle is the subject of a pledge. Increasingly, people are faced with the problem of acquiring collateral, and meanwhile there are more and more unscrupulous sellers on the market.

What should a buyer who has bought an encumbered car do? You can prove your case only in court. This article contains how to proceed, what documentation will be needed, and recommendations on how to properly file a claim.

The meaning of property preference

The semantic content of the preference for owning this or that property is fixed in Art. 209 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Thus, a person has the right to use, dispose of and own property.

This means that an individual can transfer a car he owns for use to another person, donate it, leave it as an inheritance, use it independently at his own discretion and perform a variety of legal actions with it, including designating it as collateral when applying for a loan.

Recognition of the prerogative of ownership in relation to a certain vehicle involves a trial, during which inaccuracies in the galaxy of transactions for the sale of the car are corrected. The procedure helps restore the violated interests of the real owner and allows him to subsequently enjoy preferences in full.

Registering a vehicle

Despite the fact that most often the moment of transfer of rights from one owner to another is associated with the moment of concluding an agreement and the law agrees with this axiom, a person will receive the maximum range of powers in relation to the purchased car only after registering it. At the same time, the lack of registration does not detract from the rights of the owner; you can manage and own an unregistered car, but using or driving after the expiration of the established period for registration is actually prohibited. Violation of this taboo will entail the imposition of administrative penalties if detected. Moreover, the information is entered into the database on the basis of title documents and duplicates the information specified in them.

You can register your car by contacting the territorial department of the traffic police, which includes the place of registration of the new car owner. The applicant is required to provide a receipt for payment of the state duty, a sales contract, his passport, as well as a state registration certificate issued to the previous car owner. This package of documents is attached to the application, since re-registration of a car is an application-based procedure.

When does it become necessary to go to court?

As a rule, when purchasing a used car or from the hands of the owner, the acquirer is subsequently forced to prove the prerogative of ownership through the court. This happens if a dishonest seller did not warn the buyer about the encumbrance on the vehicle. That is, the presence of prerogatives over the car from third parties and organizations.

As cases from judicial practice show, the most common type of encumbrance is the preferences of a credit institution for a car. In general, the situation is as follows - the ex-owner takes out a car loan or a non-targeted loan, where the car acts as a guarantee for the payment of funds by the borrower.

IMPORTANT !!! Basically, the banking organization retains the original PTS. Therefore, the seller will try to sell a duplicate, arguing on various grounds - from simple forgetfulness to changing the identity card. Sales of duplicates should alert the vigilant buyer.

Such an implementation will not be considered legal and may subsequently be cancelled. The new owner has the right to recover the losses incurred from the previous owner, but this is realistic if the sale took place under a purchase and sale agreement. In the absence of a document, you can be left without money and without a car (a financial institution will collect it for debts).

Other common nuances during the sale that require further recognition of ownership by the buyer within the framework of the judicial procedure:

Incorrectly completed documentation, lack of necessary papers.
A transaction not carried out according to the rules and declared invalid (covering the sale with a gift agreement to avoid taxation).
Division of property upon the breakdown of a marriage.
Included in the inheritance mass that was not accepted within the six months established by law.
The execution of the implementation agreement was replaced by the writing of a general power of attorney, which the owner has now decided to revoke.
Purchasing from scammers when the vehicle is stolen and sold with altered numbers.

When conducting a transaction on your own and without the involvement of a professional lawyer, you must be extremely careful when choosing a seller. All of the above situations will require appeal to a judicial authority. There is no other way to recognize your preferences for a car.

justice pro...

Determining the moment of transfer of ownership of a car may be necessary for many reasons. Thus, the period of ownership of a vehicle is important when calculating tax when selling a car, in disputes with an insurance company, etc. From the article you will learn when ownership of a car arises.

Ownership of a car can be acquired by another person on the basis of a purchase and sale agreement, exchange, gift or other alienation transaction.

According to the general rule (clause 1 of Article 223 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), the moment the acquirer of a thing under a contract acquires ownership rights is the moment of its transfer, unless otherwise provided by law or contract.

In cases where the alienation of property is subject to state registration, the acquirer's right of ownership arises from the moment of such registration, unless otherwise established by law (Clause 2 of Article 223 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

From what moment does ownership of a car arise : from the moment of transfer or from the moment of registration?

The right of ownership and other real rights to immovable things, restrictions on these rights, their occurrence, transition and termination are subject to state registration (clause 1 of Article 131 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Real estate includes land plots, subsoil plots and everything that is firmly connected to the land, that is, objects whose movement without disproportionate damage to their purpose is impossible, including buildings, structures, objects of unfinished construction (real estate also includes aircraft subject to state registration and sea vessels, inland navigation vessels). Vehicles are not classified as real estate, therefore they are classified as movable property. According to paragraph 2 of Art. 131 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, registration of rights to movable things is not required, except in cases specified in the law. At the same time, registration of vehicles determines the admission of vehicles to participate in road traffic, is of an accounting nature and does not serve as the basis for the emergence of ownership rights to them.

Thus, ownership of a car arises from the moment the vehicle is transferred.

When does ownership of a car begin if it is inherited?

According to paragraph 4 of Art. 1152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, an accepted inheritance is recognized as belonging to the heir from the date of opening of the inheritance, regardless of the time of its actual acceptance, as well as regardless of the moment of state registration of the heir’s right to inherited property, when such a right is subject to state registration.

Thus, ownership of a car arises from the moment:

its transfer, in particular, on the basis of a purchase and sale agreement, gift;
opening an inheritance if the car became a property by inheritance.

From what moment do you become the full owner of the car?

The moment of emergence of ownership of a car: judicial practice

The question of when ownership of a car is transferred may arise before you when you need to find out whether you will have an obligation to pay tax when selling a car, or, for example, in disputes with insurance companies.

Thus, a citizen purchased a car under a sales contract, but did not register it in his name (the previous owner did not deregister the car). In connection with an accident, this citizen, as a victim, turned to the insurer to receive compensation. But the insurance company refused to pay. The court of first and appellate instances rejected the claim against the insurance company, as they considered that the victim did not have evidence of ownership of the damaged car. However, the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation determined from what moment the right of ownership of a car arises: “When alienating a vehicle, the general rule applies regarding the moment of ownership of the acquirer - the moment of transfer of the vehicle.” The appeal ruling was canceled and the case was sent for a new trial (Determination of the Investigative Committee for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated September 6, 2021 No. 41-КГ16-25).

Period of ownership of a car for the purpose of calculating transport tax

As for transport tax, the object of taxation is vehicles registered in the prescribed manner in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. In this case, the amount of tax payable by individual taxpayers is calculated by the tax authorities on the basis of information submitted to the tax authorities by the bodies (organizations, officials) carrying out state registration of vehicles on the territory of the Russian Federation (Clause 1 of Article 362 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation ).

Therefore, the obligation to pay transport tax is made dependent on the registration of the vehicle (Letter of the Ministry of Finance dated December 24, 2014 N 03-05-06-04/66762).

We have determined when ownership of a car arises. If you purchased the car under a sales or gift agreement, the moment of transfer of ownership of the car will be the moment of transfer of the vehicle in accordance with the agreement.

Posted by:

Ralenko Anton Andreevich

Moscow 2020

Pre-trial conflict resolution

No judicial institution will consider a complaint without being convinced that the conflict cannot be resolved through a compromise. To do this, before drawing up and filing a claim, try to resolve the situation peacefully by first sending a pre-trial claim to the former owner, drawn up in simple free written form.

IMPORTANT !!! The letter must be sent with a return receipt, which will subsequently be attached to the case file. At this time, it is better to prepare a well-drafted statement of claim, since situations regarding compensation for waste rarely end in a settlement agreement.

The essence of the document is the requirement to transfer property prerogatives in full, indicating that in case of refusal, an appeal will be made to the court to protect the violated interests. Since the reluctance to compromise must be documented, it is recommended to submit the claim in person or using.

The standard waiting period for a response and reflection time is 30 days from the date the person receives the letter or conversation.

Contract of sale

First, let's look at the most common documents confirming ownership of a car. For example, this could be a car purchase and sale agreement.

The agreement is signed in the presence of a notary between the buyer and seller. After the former owner of the car receives the money and issues a receipt (it is better to attach it to the purchase and sale agreement), the vehicle becomes fully owned by the new citizen. And now you can register the car.

Going to court

It is worth going to the institution if there are really serious reasons. If this concerns a car, then it will be necessary to document that the transaction was completed and there were no violations on the part of the applicant, but he was not able to take full ownership. Depending on the jurisdiction, the claim should be filed in the district court at the seller’s place of residence.

90% of the positive outcome is due to a correctly drawn up application. Requirements for this type of documentation are contained in Article 131 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. It is allowed to submit a claim in writing during a personal visit or on the official domain of the institution with the obligatory affixing of an enhanced electronic signature.

The document contains the following information:

information about the court to which the applicant is applying – name, location, contacts;
Full name of the plaintiff or name when submitted by the organization, residential address, contact information;
personal data of the seller;
what is the illegal act committed;
the circumstances of the incident on which the situation is based;
total cost of the claim, calculation of the funds spent;
information about attempts made to resolve the issue peacefully;
list of documentary support.

It is advisable to identify references in the legislation that prove the fairness of the requirements and the fact of violations on the part of the defendant. The application is certified by a personal signature and the date of application.

Required Documentation

According to Article 132 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, the following must be provided with the application:

Duplicates of the claim by the number of participants in the process.
Identity card of the applicant.
Pre-trial claim and refusal to it or notification of sending a registered letter containing a document.
Evidence base on the illegality of the defendant’s actions.
Notarized power of attorney, if the case is being conducted by a representative.
Receipt for payment of state duty.

Also, in addition to the claim for restoration of the prerogative of owning a car, the following should be submitted to the court hearing:

title documentation – purchase and sale agreement, general power of attorney, etc.;
technical papers – PTS and others;
a receipt confirming that the seller has received funds for the car.

Registration of inheritance for a car

In order to become the legal recipient of an inheritance, it is necessary that three important grounds arise around the situation . Let's take a closer look at them.

The most important reason for receiving a car as an inheritance is the death of the testator.
The fact is that the car is not limited in its turnover. This means that the car must be able to participate in transactions, and cannot be limited in them.
Entry into inheritance not by will, but by law - a person, in accordance with the law, is a first-line relative, and therefore has a claim to the property of the deceased.

If we are talking about a will, then first of all contact a notary . If a will has not been drawn up, and you want to enter into inheritance rights, then you should contact the Rosreestr authority in order to transfer real estate to yourself, and if we are talking about movable property, then you should contact a notary. The traffic police department registers transactions with cars . Apply there with a package of documents.

After you have entered into inheritance rights and become the full owner, you have 10 days to receive a certificate.

To do this, you must contact the traffic police. You must have the above package of documents with you.

Also, do not forget that you need to pay a state fee. In order to deregister a car according to its previous owner, you must simultaneously register it indicating the new owner and attach inheritance documents.

If we are talking about a car that will have two owners, then it is necessary to attach two packages of documents, one from each owner.

In order to enter into inheritance rights you will need 6 months . After you claim your rights to inheritance, you will be given 10 days to re-register the procedure.

You need to pay a state fee. This is necessary in order to become a full owner of a car. The receipt for payment of the state duty is currently attached to the general package of documents.

A state fee of 350 rubles is paid for making changes to the vehicle passport. You pay 500 rubles as a state fee for issuing a registration certificate. You need to pay 2000 rubles for issuing numbers if you want to change them.

Court refusal, what to do

If the individual who applied received a negative decision on the issue of restoration of violated rights, then it can be appealed to a higher authority.

However, for a successful outcome of the case, it is worth considering some nuances and recommendations:

Pay close attention to the reasons for the minister of justice making such a decision.
Apply to the regional court only if you are able to argue each position of refusal with your own.
You must meet the deadline for filing an appeal, which is only 10 days from the date the person receives the extract. Having missed a time period for good reasons - being treated in a hospital, a serious condition that prevents such activities, the need to care for a close relative, reasons independent of the will of the party (emergency, man-made disaster), time is restored at the request of a participant in the process.
In the absence of a clear concept, it is recommended to seek help from a qualified auto lawyer. If possible, use the services of representation in the courtroom.

Appealing a court decision

The outcome of the case largely depends on the sufficiency of the evidence collected by the plaintiff. In cases where the decision is nevertheless made in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff has the right to appeal it within 10 days. The countdown of this period begins from the moment the decision is received.

A decision can be challenged by filing an appeal with the court that considered the case on its merits. This document indicates the reasons for disagreement with the decision. Arguments must be supported by evidence and references to regulations.

Consideration of cases related to the recognition of rights to a car has its own characteristics. For example, if the owner received a car under a general power of attorney, the judge may not see this as a violation of property rights. After all, the promised power of attorney was issued to the motorist, and the presence of additional oral agreements is a private matter of the parties.

Also, sometimes there are claims from buyers of cars that are listed as stolen. Such a case is obviously a losing one: no court recognizes the right to a stolen vehicle, and the circumstances of the transaction do not matter here.

Length of ownership - a way out of the situation

Many car enthusiasts who purchased a vehicle not at a dealership, but second-hand, are faced with a purchase that is wanted for theft. However, law enforcement officers are not immediately able to detect a stolen car that has already been successfully sold. More than one year has passed since the acquisition by the new owner.

For example, Sidorov purchased a Mercedes car in 2001, registered it and used it quietly until 2007. When it was necessary to undergo technical inspection again, the institution confronted the owner with the fact of illegal possession and imposed restrictions due to being on the wanted list. The man filed an application to the court to recognize his prerogative of property by acquisitive prescription (Article 234 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The court took into account the points related to acquisition and possession, namely:

The individual is considered a bona fide buyer, since he did not know and could not know about the replacement of numbers and engine upon purchase.
He used the vehicle as his own openly, without hiding anything.
For 6 years the owner of the car did not change, he owned it continuously.

Thus, the applicant meets all the criteria for restoring the preference of property based on the fact of ancient acquisition. By court decision, the authorized institution was obliged to return the car and remove the arrest from it.

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Establishing property rights during division may be necessary in several situations:

The car was bought during marriage with money saved before marriage. In this case, both spouses actually become the owners of the car, even if the contract is drawn up for one of them. However, the fact of purchasing a car with premarital funds gives grounds to recognize it as the sole property of the spouse with whose funds it was purchased;
The car was purchased during marriage using common money. Even if one of the spouses did not work at that time, the income of the second is recognized by law as common. During division, it will not be possible to divide the car in kind, so it will go to one person, and he undertakes to pay compensation for part of the cost of the indivisible property to the second.

Inheritance

Features of inheritance are regulated by Ch. 61-65 Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Citizens may need to establish ownership of a car in several situations:

The testator gave the car to another person in his will. There is only one option - challenging the will in court. It is almost impossible to do this, because... it will be necessary to prove that the document was drawn up by the testator under psychological or physical pressure from an unscrupulous successor. The second option is to challenge a will drawn up by an incompetent testator. Here everything is somewhat simpler: it is enough to present a court decision declaring a citizen incompetent, and the judicial authority will most likely take the side of the plaintiff;
When entering into inheritance, there were no title documents for the car. In such a situation, you must first recognize the ownership right of the testator, and then enter into inheritance. If there are no documents for the car, the notary will not issue a certificate to the legal successor;
The successor missed the deadline for entering into inheritance. First you need to restore them in court, and then come with a copy of the decision to a notary to open an inheritance case and receive an inheritance.

If a car does not have a purchase and sale agreement, PTS or STS, it will not be registered with the traffic police. These three documents must be submitted to the department. If the car is bought secondhand, the seller must issue them.

The main document of title is the purchase and sale agreement. If the buyer has lost it, you can apply for a duplicate from the dealer when purchasing a car at the dealership. You cannot draw up a document retroactively - this is a violation of the law.

We suggest you read: If you get into an accident with your work car, you need to compensate for the damage caused

If the car was bought secondhand and the seller cannot be found, you will have to go to court. To establish ownership, it is recommended to request witnesses. It’s great if during the transaction a transfer and acceptance certificate of the car is drawn up - this will significantly increase the chances of winning.

Based on the results of the proceedings, a court decision is made, where the applicant is recognized as the owner. After entry into force, he needs to contact the traffic police to register the vehicle.

During the purchase and sale, a corresponding agreement is drawn up, according to which the seller undertakes to transfer the car to the buyer, and he, in turn, the agreed amount for it. However, some people neglect to draw up a mandatory contract: it may turn out that the seller simply transfers the car for use by proxy, and the buyer still pays its cost.

Formally, this looks like fraud, but it is problematic to prove the fact of illegal actions of the seller. Over time, the buyer may want to sell the car, but this will not be possible, and he will have to establish ownership in court or negotiate with the seller peacefully.

Everything becomes more complicated if the vehicle was purchased under an agreement, but it later turned out that at the time of the transaction it was pledged to the bank, and now it is demanding its repossession to pay off the debt incurred due to the fault of the former owner. Such cases are quite complex and rarely end in success for buyers: the court obliges them to return the cars, and the sellers – to compensate for the cost of the cars and legal costs. You have to wait years for all payments.

Fake VIN number

One of the difficult situations is a fake VIN number. He is usually killed in stolen cars. Ownership will have to be established if this problem is discovered during a traffic police inspection during registration of the car. Of course, it will not be registered, and may be confiscated for further clarification of the circumstances.

A conscientious buyer will have to prove that he did not know about the fake numbers. But the courts do not satisfy claims for recognition of ownership of stolen cars, because this violates the rights of their actual owners. The only option is to find the seller and recover the money paid from him.

If the number is considered unreadable, it is enough to undergo a technical examination and prove that it was erased due to bad weather conditions or improper operation of the vehicle.

Source

Points to be wary of when purchasing

The vigilance of the buyer when inspecting a potential item of purchase has not been canceled. If you are more attentive to the behavior of the seller, you can avoid many unpleasant consequences in the future.

Namely, you should be wary if:

the price is set too low compared to the market average;
only a duplicate of the PTS is displayed;
It is proposed to issue a general power of attorney instead of purchase and sale;
the existence of encumbrances has not been verified in a publicly available database. Such recklessness can lead to the loss of a lawsuit;
the seller encourages the transaction to be completed without formalities. While often the execution and signing of a sales agreement will help, when the facts of encumbrances are discovered, to recover the costs incurred from the culprit.

How to purchase and what consequences may arise after purchasing a used car largely depends on the purchaser himself; everyone chooses a behavior strategy for themselves.

Supporting documents

The main title document for a car is the vehicle passport (PTS). For new cars without mileage, obtaining such a document will not be a problem; it is issued by the selling company (or manufacturing plant) or customs authorities, but with used cars you will have to go through a certain procedure, which is based on one of the alternatives:

Notarized registration of the purchase and sale agreement with the participation of both the seller and the buyer. When completing a transaction in this way, the parties will be required to provide passports, and the seller will also provide his existing vehicle title and registration certificate. The contract drawn up in this way is the basis for the subsequent registration of the vehicle with the MREO in one’s name, as the new owner.
The seller independently deregisters the vehicle and puts it on transit numbers (temporary registration). Next, the parties draw up a purchase and sale agreement (notary presence is not required) and the new owner can go to the MREO to register the car.

When registering, the new owner of the car will need to provide the MREO with a title, a car registration certificate, and insurance (MTPL policy); purchase and sale agreement, registration numbers available on the car, application for registration. Thus, becoming a full owner is still possible only after registering the car, i.e. the completed transaction and the registration of the car are complementary factors.