Is it possible to register a written-off car: legal grounds, algorithm of actions

There are quite a lot of reasons pushing people to transfer their car from the group of a movable vehicle to an immovable vehicle - one that does not have permission to drive on the country's roads. And each of them can become a pretext for easily carrying out such a thought.

But is it allowed to register with the traffic police a car that was previously disposed of, in other words, does a person have the right to return it to the position of the vehicle? Let's look at it in detail in the article.

Which car is considered scrapped?

A car is considered scrapped if it is proven by the presence of documents (Letter of the Main Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia dated October 18, 2011 No. 13/5-229), specifically the following:

A certificate of disposal of an end-of-life vehicle issued as part of the recycling program.
A certificate issued by a collection center for non-ferrous metal structures or a recycling point.
The owner’s request to deregister the car after scrapping it, submitted to the registration department of the traffic police.

Is it possible to register a vehicle after disposal?

June 26, 2021 is the day when Order No. 399 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs “On approval of the Rules for state registration of motor vehicles and their trailers” came into force.

Until this moment, motorists had no difficulty in deregistering their cars due to scrapping, and then in restoring their registration. Any division of the traffic police carried out such actions as usual ; there were no insurmountable barriers for their employees.

But the situation changed when the employees of the State Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate were notified of the content of paragraph No. 13 of this provision, which stated that if the registration of a vehicle was at one time canceled due to disposal, according to a statement drawn up by the owner, then put it Registration is again impossible.

After the adoption of new rules in 2013, the phrase “deregistration” does not formally exist in legislative acts. Its use is limited to general public use only.

This type of procedure has become available only when selling a car or driving it abroad. In exchange, motorists received an easier way to re-register upon purchase. However, it is no longer practically possible to evade paying transport tax .

Previously, owners could not pay a penny in the following situations (when the vehicle acquired salvage status):

Infrequent or seasonal use of the vehicle.
Vehicle downtime due to loss of a driver's license or deprivation of the right to drive a vehicle.
The presence of a vehicle in a destroyed state for a long period of time.

According to the former rules, in theory there would be no opportunity to avoid paying taxes . But especially cunning and resourceful owners found an option - temporary disposal. Upon identifying such a clever loophole in Order No. 1001, these cases were stopped.

Based on the legislation of the Russian Federation, each owner has the right to dispose of his vehicles at his personal discretion and is not limited in his actions. Thus, the car owner can not only interrupt the registration of the car, but also resume it if he so desires. The owner has the right to register a car with the traffic police department if he had previously removed it from the register for disposal, but for some reason did not turn it into a pile of metal.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation was forced, by its decision dated March 6, 2014 No. AKPI13 1251, to cancel the ban on registration of a vehicle, which was previously stopped at the request of the owner due to the intention to dispose of the car. The reason for this development of events was the appeal of one of the car owners regarding the deprivation of this right.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs took into account the decision of the Supreme Court and implemented it everywhere with the help of Order No. 259 of 02/13/2015, which was replaced in 2021 by Order No. 399, as of 2021 the current administrative regulation is the Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia of 12/21 .2019 N 950. As a result, as of 2021, a car written off as scrap can easily be re-registered . We must remember that this is only possible if it has not yet undergone physical recycling or recycling under the state program (receiving funds for a new car when scrapping the old one).

In what cases is it not possible to restore documents for a written-off vehicle?

The car is physically disposed of.
The car is not insured under MTPL.
When buying a car that is at the recycling stage, but in a technical condition that suits you, you need to check the year the car was delivered to the scrap metal center.
According to the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, issued on June 26, 2018, it is prohibited to register vehicles that were deregistered due to disposal on the basis of accompanying documents confirming the disposal of the vehicle. If the car is disposed of before this order is approved, then you can try to restore the documentation for the vehicle and register the car with the traffic police. You just need to be patient, optimistic and the required amount of money.

What the law says

Until November 2008, no one thought about whether it was possible to register a car after disposal. There were no problems with the removal and installation of salvaged vehicles. This was before the adoption of Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 1001 “On the procedure for registering vehicles.”

The Order separately included paragraph 13, which explained that it is impossible to register a vehicle if it was deregistered due to disposal. This was done to prevent situations where drivers wrote off their cars in order to avoid paying transport tax. Law enforcement authorities stopped these attempts and issued an appropriate order.

Car owners were outraged, because when they wrote off the car they were sure that it was temporary. Those who did this before the order was issued completely lost the rights to their vehicles. Many owners, after removal, try to sell the car for parts, but not many succeed. Then they try to restore both the car and the registration. Or they sell the car to those who want it, who will also need to register it later.

Then citizens began to fight for their rights. After several appeals to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, it invalidated clause No. 13 of Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 1001. After this decision, traffic police officers were again required to register scrapped vehicles. If you know the law, then you won’t be able to allow inspectors to refuse to carry out such a procedure.

It is impossible to restore the registration of a car if it was disposed of under a state program and a monetary reward was paid for it to purchase a new vehicle.

What does a scrapped car mean? Based on the Letter of the Main Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia No. 13/5-229 dated October 18, 2011, a car is considered disposed of if there is official written confirmation of this. In this case, it is impossible to restore the scrapped car.

Documents confirming disposal:

Owner's statement regarding self-disposal.
Certificate from a recycling or scrap metal collection point.
A certificate issued under a scrappage program indicating that the vehicle has been scrapped.

Cancellation of a vehicle for the purpose of disposal is possible only on the basis of a personal application from the owner.

If the car is not disposed of, you can re-register it. To do this, you need to restore the technical condition. If you purchase a serviceable written-off car, you need to know how to register it.

Who has the right to re-register a car?

According to the current legislation of the Russian Federation, only the current owner of the vehicle has the right to register a previously scrapped car with the traffic police department .

For this reason, when purchasing a scrapped vehicle, it is important to discuss with the previous owner of the vehicle the time of a joint visit to the State Traffic Inspectorate office or the possibility of signing a notarized general power of attorney for the right to conduct business on behalf of the owner and the right to restore registration records.

How to do this correctly?

Search for the previous owner of the scrapped car. In most cases, vehicles are scrapped by their former owners. They are most likely included in the car’s passport, so it’s worth finding them and asking them for help. The owner needs to be persuaded to renew the registration of the car with the traffic police departments; sometimes, a necessary measure is an additional fee. You can do it in two ways:
- The previous owner is responsible for restoring the registration on his own.

The second method is safer, because you will have the right to personally monitor the progress of operations, to be nearby during all procedures, and this is a guarantee of the success of the planned business.

Reference! The previous owner is required to issue a general power of attorney for the buyer. This document must be certified by a notary. Also, it must contain information that the person to whom this document was issued has the right to register the car again.

Writing an application at the traffic police department indicating:
- state number;
the moment of its release;
engine and body identification numbers.

Regarding additional data, it would not be superfluous to indicate information on the power of attorney (if available), as well as details of the vehicle passport.
The addressee field must contain information about the traffic police department that will be responsible for registration. As additional information, you should note the details of the vehicle passport and the details of the power of attorney, if available.

Read more about how to carry out registration actions without the owner of the car here.

Required package of documents

To restore the registration of a scrapped car, the owner must provide the traffic police department with a package of documents consisting of:

An appeal drawn up to the head of the registration department of the traffic police.
Identity cards (Passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation).
Vehicle passports (until November 2021, both electronic and paper forms are allowed, after that only electronic forms).
Vehicle registration certificate (if available).
OSAGO insurance policy.
Receipts for payment of state duty.

An application for vehicle registration is drawn up in free form. The text should indicate the car model, its production date and license plates, as well as body and engine identifiers. Registration of a vehicle without a preliminary technical inspection is impossible, so the car must be delivered to the inspection point by tow truck.

Important! It should be noted that the vehicle must be delivered on a tow truck, but you cannot drive it in person while driving. Otherwise, the local authority will immediately issue a fine if the traffic police officers do not do this on the way to the department.

According to the law, motorists cannot drive a car that has been scrapped, even if it is in working order . The final stage is the issuance of a new technical passport of the vehicle in the name of the new owner.

After registering the car by the previous owner or his authorized representative, the new owner must strictly enter into a purchase and sale agreement for the car.

The provision of this agreement will be required in the future when re-registering the vehicle to a new owner. It is important to remember that if a purchase and sale agreement is signed before the registration is restored, the document will be considered nothing more than a piece of paper, i.e. will have no legal force.

Approximate time frame and total cost of the process

If both participants have collected everything they need in advance and prepared for the procedure, then the process of resuming registration will take about a couple of hours . The established amount of state duty for registering a car with the traffic police in accordance with Art. 333.33 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation is 2,850 rubles.

This figure is calculated from:

2 thousand rubles – issuance of registration numbers;
350 rubles – adding a new mark to the vehicle passport;
500 rubles – issue of a new vehicle registration certificate.

More information about the cost of the car registration procedure and methods of payment can be found here.

The order of the car restoration process

As already mentioned, the person who terminated the registration of the car must renew it. You go to the traffic police department where you deregistered the car and submit documents for its restoration. If you bought such a vehicle, you need to find the former owner and ask him to carry out the registration procedure himself or give you a notarized power of attorney.

As a rule, the service costs money, because the person will spend his time and effort on you. Since you will not be able to register a written-off car in any other way, you will have to incur these expenses. Having received the power of attorney, you take your passport and go to the State Traffic Inspectorate office, where the decision was made to deregister due to the disposal of the vehicle.

The verification procedure follows. The inspector must inspect the car delivered to the department by tow truck. It is better not to drive the car under your own power, since it is still deregistered and is legally illegal. After all checks have been carried out, it is registered to the former owner. All that remains is to draw up a purchase and sale agreement and re-register the car in your name.

If everything went well, the vehicle will be registered in your name and the registration of the scrapped vehicle will be completed.

If the registration department of the traffic police refuses to restore the registration of a formally disposed but not destroyed vehicle, they must do this in writing. The refusal can be appealed by appealing to a higher official of the registration department or the court.

Is it possible to return the old license plates?

License plates cannot be returned, as they are surrendered when deregistered due to disposal. PTS and STS are also available for rent. The car's passport and registration certificate were then issued in a cut state, but license plates were not. So, if you have to restore your car after scrapping and manage to do this, get ready to receive new license plates.

What to do if you haven’t found the previous owner

If the previous owner of the car does not get in touch, submit a statement to the traffic police that you have found the car. No matter how strange it may sound, this is exactly the way you will get help from law enforcement officers. If they are also powerless, then after six months of unsuccessful searches, you have the right to file a lawsuit in which you request to assign you ownership of such an unusual “find.”

Will it be possible to return the old license plates?

Previously, the traffic police authorities deregistered a car, canceling the validity of state registration plates, as soon as the database received a request for disposal from the owner of the car.

Based on the letter of the Main Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia No. 13/5-229 dated October 18, 2011 and the new Administrative Regulations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 905 dated December 21, 2019, stopping the registration of a vehicle in connection with disposal is only available in the presence of a document indicating the fact of destruction (extract from the recycling center).

Vehicle owners submit to the registration offices of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, where the following documents are subsequently disposed of:

Car passport.
Certificate of vehicle registration.
State registration marks.

Therefore, after scrapping, it will not be possible to return the old signs.

Why do you need to scrap a car?

Recycling your car eliminates the need to pay annual vehicle tax. Recycling is possible even if there is nothing left of the car, including documents and registration plates. In fact, the owner can dispose of a vehicle with only a passport and a completed application. Other documents and state registration plates are provided if they have been preserved. There is no state fee for the deregistration procedure for disposal.

To recycle your car you need:

Step 1. Remove the car from registration with the traffic police.

Step 2. Recycle.