Sold Van - New owner hasn't changed ownership

[AE86less]

Pretty much as per the title.

The van's rego is expired but not dereg.

I sold the van to a guy on a long weekend when the postoffice was closed and neither of us had a credit card to do it online, so I let him take it on the proviso that he changed it the next week. He never did.

Since then I have recieved mail from LTNZ saying that the rego is overdue etc. I no longer have any of this guy's contacts (even his name) aside from a phone number and he never answers my texts and hangs up when he finds out who is calling.

What I want to know is whether I can go down to the post office and deregister the van? Or what are my other options? I realise that I shouldn't have let him take it without changing the ownership.

[Punter]

Yes you can de reg it, although if you don't hand in the plates they will make you pay the outstanding reg fee.

I'd send the guy a text saying if you don't here back from him in 24 hours you will de-reg the the car.

[Punter]

Also bear in mind that you are responsible for the registration up till the change of ownership, which means when/if he changes it over you will have to pay the over due reg.

[Pies]

had this issue with my old RX30 Cressida. Guy didnt change ownership

I posted on a couple of forums that if he hadnt changed ownership by X time on X day that i was gonna de-reg it. 10 mins before i went to de-reg it he rang me saying he had just changed ownership.

but yes

you can de-reg it. Or just report it stolen

[AE86less]

Yes you can de reg it, although if you don't hand in the plates they will make you pay the outstanding reg fee.

I'd send the guy a text saying if you don't here back from him in 24 hours you will de-reg the the car.

What if I didn't have the plates for some reason? Would it be possible to convince the post office guy to not charge me? The reg fee is at $188 according to the last mailout I got, i don't wanna pay that

I know a guy at Vodafone, I might see if I can get this guy's address from him....

[thegreatestben]

You aren't allowed to deregister it if you don't have possesion of the car.
I had this problem on a car that was somehow in my name. Sure you can walk into the shop and do it but I think it could cause even more problems in the long run.

[AE86less]

I knew I should have made him wait... 20/20 hindsight aye?


What would you suggest? Report it stolen like Pies said?

[thegreatestben]

Basically it comes down to you chasing him up about it.

[AE86less]

F*ck.

Just texted the guy again, I don't think he is going to be very cooperative "Well it's a bucket of rust and you fried half the electrics in it. Cheers m8", was the entire reply. Except that I told him about all of it before he took it and he inspected it himself...

I just found out which rd he lives on in Mt Roskill, might go borrow his plates...

EDIT: Or should I say MY plates?

[solitaire]

...

Might pay to take a couple of large friends in case you get into grief

[crazed_silvertop]

I had this happen to me... only I ended up with $2000 worth of fines

Ring land transport new zealand - explain the situation to them - they can load into the system that you have disposed of the car. Unfortunately for you, you are legally liable for the outstanding rego. Theres nothing you can do about it. Trust me, been there paid that

[Bling]

I'd be doing something pretty quick as you're lucky you haven't recieved any fines going by the guys attitude to things.

might just have to bite the bullet and de-reg it and pay the $188 fkn sucks tho!!! but its only going to get worse not better.

[gleem]

same happened to me, didnt change it for a few months and kept getting mail about it, i turned up at his doorstep and told him to change it and he did it that week.

[snwtoy]

Take a drill with screwdriver bit - get the plates off in like 20 seconds flat and then gap it, de-reg it and forget about it. Lesson learned, only cost $200... could be a whole lot worse.

[thegreatestben]

$200 that will $&#$% him right off too.
totally worth it if he's being a dildo

[MR2SIK]

They only charge you for overdue rego if you dont hand the plates in,
It shouldnt be hard to get them at night once you know where he lives,

[rolla_fxgt]

And after its been de-reg'd ring up the council and say you were walking past this house the other week and you saw this car with no plates parked outside the property & perhaps they might be interested in it.

Then he'd get a huge fine too

[astrae]

My partner had a similar problem but it was a car that was traded into a dealer.

Traded the car in, filled out the change of ownership papers at the car yard, the dealer then onsold the car to an auctioneer.

Two months later received overdue rego papers.

We spoke to the dealer and he wasnt very concerned so we rang Land transport as well. We told them the situation and they canceled the rego.

They only did this though because we had the papers for the new car that showed that we had traded the old one. (even though they didnt ask to see them)

They said if we have any problems with fines etc to produce the paperwork. Bit different for you though if you have no paperwork what so ever.

[Roydon]

yup learnt my leason just last year, sold a car end of 2006 and didnt notify ltnz. ended up recieving 2 $200 fines for no rego or warant around september last year. Pissed me off to as i was about to fly to the states in a few days and didnt want the chance of having to pay at customs. long story short though i ended up notifying ltnz that it was sold and i didnt have the new owners details. i had to pay the outstanding rego fees $121 so they could take it out of my name, and the $400 for the fines. Now every time i sell a car i notify the guys either on there website or on the phone ASAP. I think anyway you look at it you will probably be paying some $$$

[stalker]

yea...sadly, u will have to pay the outstanding rego, with or without plates.
You can opt not to pay the fees, but then they just load a bad debt against you at baycorp for 5 years.

Your can cancel the rego without plates or car. All you need to do is walk into the place (post office/ltnz/vtnz etc) and fill out a form and its done...but if you dont have the plates to hand in to cancel it, then they charge you a $14 fee for loss of plates.

I personally wouldnt do the idea of calling the council after removing the plates, cause then the council will tow the car away and impound the car, but they will VIN search the owners details (YOU) and then send you a $500 fine for it.

What ever you choose to do, do it today!! Or like everyone else has said, it will only get worse.