What to do if you have lost your car title

Why is it necessary to change the PTS?

Why is PTS so important? Is it possible to do without it? In accordance with the traffic rules, when a citizen is stopped by a traffic inspector, it is necessary to present documents, among which there must be a technical condition passport.

However, in the absence of such a document, the measures provided for in Article 12.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses No. 195 of December 30, 2001 may be applied to the person.

Important! A vehicle passport is the most important document that ensures the vehicle can move legally on the road surface.

Losing a vehicle passport can lead to various unpleasant situations and difficulties , and may also make it impossible to carry out transactions with the vehicle. Therefore, you need to take appropriate measures immediately to restore or change the document. Delay may result in fines, as well as the fact that the paper may fall into the hands of fraudsters. If you are a driver who has encountered the loss of your passport for the first time, then you need to understand how to restore your title and what to do first.

You need to familiarize yourself with the information that will regulate this issue.

Is it possible to restore a passport for a car without the owner?

Let’s imagine that the situation regarding the restoration of the title is complicated by the absence of the owner of the car. What to do in such a situation? Is it possible to restore such a document?

In fact, it is almost impossible to answer this question unambiguously. It all depends on the circumstances surrounding the situation, which can provoke a positive or negative response.

In a situation where you want to restore a vehicle’s passport without the owner’s knowledge, without notifying him or warning him, the law will prohibit you from such actions. And all because you, without having the appropriate authority to do so, are trying to carry out a legal action.

Reference! In order to restore it in the absence of the owner, it is necessary to obtain the proper documents. Such a document is a power of attorney, which was drawn up in kind.

If the owner of the car himself has authorized you to carry out this procedure, and you have the appropriate document, then the answer changes to positive.

This means that you can restore a document even in the absence of its direct owner.

This means that this document has a prescribed form, a notary’s signature and his seal. Also, when drawing up a power of attorney, the notary enters information about this into the appropriate register, which is then stored for up to three years.

And actions performed under a power of attorney cannot be challenged. Only in this situation is it possible to restore the title without the owner of the car.

Next, we will tell you in detail how to restore a title without the owner, if the document is lost or missing.

How quickly will the PTS be issued?

It all depends on how you decide to file an application for loss of title for your car. If you come to the traffic police without an appointment and stand in line, the time frame for restoring lost documents may be delayed. Usually the inspectors are completely sold out. You may go for several days, but still not get an appointment to restore your lost vehicle title.

The Gosuslugi portal is the best invention of the state. If you apply for new documents for a car through him, then you won’t have to stand in line. You reserve a certain date and time and arrive at the inspection at that time. The main thing is not to be late - after a quarter of an hour the reservation is canceled.

After receiving the documents for the car from you, the traffic police officers will need no more than one hour to prepare a duplicate of the PTS due to its loss. However, in some cases you may be refused to issue new documents. There are several reasons for this.

Reasons for refusal

Firstly, a refusal may occur if traffic police officers suspect that forged documents have been provided to restore the vehicle title. Or the applicant lost the vehicle passport for one car, and handed over the papers to the inspector for another car.

Secondly, they will refuse to issue a PTS if the documents provided do not comply with the law. For example, instead of a car purchase and sale agreement, the inspector is presented with a certificate for wheels.

Thirdly, if false information is provided to the traffic police, this may also be the reason for refusal to prepare a new vehicle title. For example, the applicant reports the loss of a document, but in fact the car is under arrest, and all the papers for it are kept by the bailiffs.

The fourth reason for refusal to issue a PTS is the search for a car. Until the search case is terminated, new documents will not be provided to the applicant.

And the last reason not to issue a duplicate PTS is the ban on registration activities with the car. For example, such a restriction can be imposed by bailiffs if the applicant has debts.

A refusal to issue a new PTS is issued by a traffic police officer in writing and with justification. If you disagree with this decision, you can appeal it to the head of the road inspection or through the court.

Sources:

Replacing PTS through State Services

Vehicle inspection

1. A person who is going to participate in the procedure for restoring the title must bring the car to the inspection procedure. This is necessary in order to issue a duplicate PTS.
2. The vehicle must be thoroughly inspected by authorized authorities.

• The car must be on the observation deck.
• Inspect the body. Check that its number matches the engine number.
• If the body and engine elements are dirty, the car must be washed.
• Check that the rear and front lights are lit.
• Inspection of wipers, brake system.
• Checking databases for theft and theft.

• And after the inspection procedure has been carried out, an employee of the authorized body of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate can carry out the procedure of verifying the vehicle license plates with the existing records that have ever been recorded in the registry documents and registration acts.
• In a situation where no comments were found during the inspection and no claims were made, the registration authority decides to issue a duplicate vehicle passport for the car.

What to do if your vehicle title is stolen?

As a rule, the PTS is stored directly in the car along with other documents. The vehicle passport contains the main technical characteristics and parameters of the car, information about the transfer of ownership of it, etc. The PTS is also part of the documentation that can be checked by traffic police officers and other authorized bodies.

The theft of a vehicle title may be accompanied by the theft of a car, or the theft occurs directly from a car in a parking lot. The key nuance of theft is the secret nature of the criminal’s actions, i.e. the owner may find out about the loss of the document after a long time. If there are no obvious external signs of a vehicle being hacked, the loss of the vehicle title can only be detected by a random check of papers or concluding a transaction with the car.

The theft of a vehicle passport does not deprive the car owner of the right to own or drive. Since this form must always be with the driver, it must be restored through the authorized traffic police service. To restore the title in case of theft, the owner of the car or his representative must contact the traffic police with a notarized power of attorney.

Immediately after determining the fact of theft, you need to perform the following steps:

• make sure that the documents were not left in another place, they were not taken by one of the relatives or other persons who had access to the car;
• report a crime to the police - the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation allows oral or written reporting;
• contact the traffic police service with an application for the restoration of the PTS and the issuance of its duplicate.

Note!

The recovery rules will differ significantly in the case of theft and accidental loss or damage, as well as in the absence of empty fields when filling out information about the transaction. In particular, it will be impossible to obtain a duplicate PTS in case of theft without issuing a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirming the closure of the criminal case in view of the identification and punishment of the culprit.

For this reason, most car owners prefer not to file a theft claim, but to immediately file a petition for restoration of the title due to loss. In this case, when a duplicate is issued, the original document will lose its legal significance.

List of required documents

Regardless of whether you are the owner of the car, or a third party in this matter, you need to take care of creating a package of documents. You need to remember that you can only obtain a duplicate PTS at an authorized traffic police department. And applying there is an official request with the provision of a number of documents.

When the title is restored not by the owner, but by a third interested party, then you need to attach a power of attorney that authorizes the person to take steps to obtain a duplicate.

Important! The power of attorney must be in notarized form, signed by a notary and provided with the required seal.

Issuance of a duplicate PTS through State Services

To obtain a duplicate PTS using the State Services portal, you will need a little free time. You need to follow a few simple steps:

1. Register on the portal or log into your personal account.

   

2. Go to the section of the site called “transport and driving”.

   

3. Select the “Vehicle Registration” section from the categories presented in the window.

   

4. The next step in obtaining a duplicate PTS through State Services will be to select a service called “Loss of documents or changes in vehicle data.”

   

5. You must select the link entitled “Obtaining STS, PTS or registration plates..”.

   

6. On the page that opens, you should familiarize yourself with the information posted and then click on the “Get a service” link.
7. The new page is a data entry form. Also on the page, the user selects the time and date of application to the MREO, a convenient address of the traffic police department for receipt.

The undeniable advantage of using the site is the absence of queues, as well as an impressive discount, which allows you to save 30% when paying the state fee by bank transfer through the site for receiving a duplicate PTS.

The simplicity of registration and the absence of the need to visit the traffic police department twice attracts a huge number of users and makes the State Services portal increasingly in demand among car owners.

Refusal to issue a duplicate

There can be a lot of reasons for refusal, and first of all it is necessary to note the most important of them.

1. The first reason is related to suspicion of car theft.
2. The second reason is related to the presence of restrictions on car registration.
3. The third reason is the finding of the car or its license plates and series in search activities. However, the decision to refuse must be properly motivated.

You cannot be refused without appropriate grounds. If you believe that the decision to refuse is unreasonable and violates your rights, then you can appeal to the court.

Grounds for issuing a new document

PTS is subject to restoration in the following situations:

• The owner of the vehicle does not have the document. The reasons for the absence of a document may be a banal loss due to the negligence of the car owner or theft of a document;
• there is no free space in the document to indicate the registration data of the new owner. In accordance with Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 496, in the standard document form you can indicate the personal data of 6 owners;

If a car, trailer, motorcycle or other vehicle changes owners more than 6 times, then you must obtain a duplicate PTS.

• The document has become unusable (cannot be read).

If lost

If the owner of the vehicle has lost the title, to restore it, you will need to contact the registration unit of the State Traffic Inspectorate (MREO) at the place of residence or registration of the car owner with the following package of documents:

• passport of the owner of the vehicle or his legal representative acting on the basis of a written power of attorney;
• power of attorney (subject to the operation being performed by a representative of the car owner). If the vehicle belongs to a legal entity, then the power of attorney to receive a duplicate of the vehicle is issued by the head of the organization;
  

  If the vehicle is the property of an individual, then to restore the vehicle passport, a general power of attorney certified by the signature and seal of a notary is required.

• a vehicle registration certificate issued to the owner after registration and a copy of the title, if available;
• OSAGO policy. In accordance with Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 605 (regulations on the registration of vehicles and the issuance of duplicate documents), a motor vehicle license is a mandatory document provided by the owner;
• a purchase and sale agreement (donation) or other document on the basis of which the right of ownership of movable property arises;
• receipt of payment of state duty;
• an explanatory note in which it is necessary to indicate the estimated date, time and place of loss of the vehicle passport;
• a written statement from the owner of the car or his representative.

An application for restoration of PTS (a sample can be found on the traffic police website or in Appendix 1 to Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 605) and the specified documents can be submitted:

• in person at the MREO office. For the convenience of car owners, each traffic police department has a preliminary registration, during which a date and time for registration actions are set. You can make an appointment with a specialist by phone or on the official website;
• through the public services portal (online). In this situation, the application is filled out according to the form provided, and scanned copies of documents are attached.

After a preliminary check of the data of traffic police officers, a time will be set for a personal visit and obtain a duplicate document.

When the vehicle title is restored due to loss of the document, the vehicle is not inspected.

The amount of state duty in this situation varies depending on the actions performed by traffic police officers.

If you need to not only obtain a duplicate car passport, but also replace the registration certificate and/or license plates, the cost of the service will be higher.

After the theft

If the PTS was stolen, then all the documents specified earlier and a resolution to terminate the criminal case, which can be obtained at the district police station, are submitted to the State Traffic Inspectorate.

The resolution confirms that an investigation was carried out into the theft, which did not lead to the discovery of the document.

When restoring a motor vehicle passport after theft, you must provide the vehicle (scooter, motorcycle, trailer, etc.) for an inspection, during which all license plates of the vehicle will be checked against the information available in the traffic police database.

The amount of the state duty for the theft of a PTS also varies depending on the accompanying actions (obtaining a duplicate registration certificate, changing license plates, and so on).

After disposal

It is possible to restore registration and obtain a duplicate title after disposal only if the vehicle was not actually disposed of, but was deregistered.

To obtain a title and restore the registration of a scrapped vehicle with the traffic police, in addition to the previously specified documents, a certificate of disposal, a registration certificate and an old vehicle passport (if these documents were saved by the owner) are provided.

Before restoring the title, a vehicle (motorcycle, trailer, etc.) must be inspected at a specialized station, during which the compliance of all units with the intended design of the vehicle and unit numbers with the existing database is checked.

After the vehicle is restored, the owner receives:

• new PTS;
• new registration certificate;
• new license plates, if the old plates were not given away for preservation.

The need to obtain a large set of documents and license plates leads to an increase in state duty.

Let's look at common mistakes

The most common mistake when restoring a vehicle title is a third party applying for this procedure to the traffic police department without a properly executed power of attorney. In this situation, the traffic police have questions as to whether the car is listed as stolen .

And also, in accordance with the law, it is not possible to issue a duplicate PTS to a third party without a power of attorney. Therefore, you must draw up such a document before contacting the inspectorate. The owner must give you all the rights and powers that allow you to restore the vehicle passport.

The procedure for issuing a duplicate PTS if there are no free fields to fill out

The procedure for replacing a title that has run out of fields for entering new owners is carried out in accordance with Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation No. 496 of June 23, 2005. The scheme of actions is not much different from the classic one. The citizen will have to:

1. Collect the necessary documents. The old PTS will have to be added to the list. In this case, there is no need to provide an explanation.
2. Wait for the package of documents to be verified and accepted. The vehicle is not inspected.
3. Receive a duplicate PTS. Typically, the document is provided on the day the application is submitted. The information is entered into the new passport without changes. The adjustment will only affect the “Special Information Clause” column. Information about the replacement is entered there.

The process is completed as quickly as possible.