I am purchasing a car from someone this week, and am still waiting for my international drivers license to come in the mail from the states (I have my New York State license here at the moment). I know I can’t drive until my international licence arrives, but am wondering, can I get the vehicle transferred into my name without it?
The reason I ask is that I am in a bit of a rush…the person selling is leaving the country in a week and I’m not sure if the international license will arrive before that!
Transferred registration of a 10yo Nissan March at the Bade Rd DMV in Taipei City
1.Get lost in DMV
2. Car has to have exhaust, brakes and weight check
3. Insurance transfer across the road
4. Back to DMV with
owner’s chop, ID, original registration papers, insurance card and owner’s husband for good measure
my ARC, no chop needed
Get befriended by a nice policeman and a stranger who pester other people out of their position in the queue and then have everything stamped 3000 times while discussing holioday destinations with pleasant clerk.
Road tax and rego paid.
Drive away after paying owner balance of car price.
Does anyone know where the law stands on riding a scooter registered in someone else’s name? If the bike is insured, the rider has a valid license etc. etc., is it legal for someone other than the registered holder to ride it?
AFAIK there’s no problem riding someone else’s scooter or bike. However, if you’re pulled over by the cops and they run a check on the registration and it turns out stolen, the person riding will be fingered for the theft.
If you carry the registration card, or better yet, a photocopy, and the information on the card matches the information in their system, you’ll be ok. Nine times out of ten if you have the registration information they won’t run the check but send you on your merry way.
Cool, can anyone else confirm this? I’m talking about a legitimate bike that I know isn’t stolen but registered to a foreigner who has since left and taken their ARC with them. I can get the registration card.
What about the fact that the name on my license wouldn’t match the name on the registration card? As long as a bike is registered, does it not matter who it’s registered to? This seems unusually lax for Taiwan but I can’t find the laws on vehicle registration.
Or as a hypothetical question, what about registering a bike for your wife/husband/girlfriend/dog - does it not matter as long as the registered owner has given permission for someone else to ride the bike and accepts responsibility for fines, insurance etc?
Again, as long as the bike isn’t stolen and registration and insureance are all paid up, it’s not a problem. You (obviously) can’t transfer the bike into your name.
This is how bikes become “foreigner” bikes, ie bikes that have legal papers in the name of a long-departed foreigner. They get sold from person to person, the downside being you can never really own the bike, the upside being you can get away without paying fines. I wouldn’t recommend it, really.
I’m looking at buying a scooter whose original (foreign) owner has since left Taiwan. I’ll be living in 清水山, Taichung where I don’t think random police checks are likely any time soon. I also hear that police south of Taipei are more ‘relaxed’ than their northern bretheren. However, I’d rather have peace of mind that I’m paid up ‘n’ legal for when I need to zip into the city.
Can you actually buy insurance without the registration card? I’m not really sure how it works… is it the individual who’s insured or the bike?
Cheers Joe, I was sure something wasn’t right somewhere… if I get the card am I good to go even if it’s not in my name? It seems to me though that since the current owner doesn’t care about registration transfer that the bike is almost certainly going to have racked up all manner of unpaid fines and taxes. I’m beginning to think it’s worth just paying more for a properly registered bike.
I have been told by the seller of a car that taxes and insurance must be paid AGAIN on re-registration even though they’ve already been paid by the existing owner.
Is this right? I recently bought a motorbike, and both the tax (like in the UK) and insurance (NOT like in the UK) remained effective, with just a small transfer fee to pay.
I bought a new scooter a few weeks ago because the old one just wasn’t reliable anymore. I want to get my old scooter of my name. The mechanic shop where I bought my new scooter said that they can take care of that for me and that they will pay me 1000nt for my scooter. It is an old Yamaha Jog, 50cc. It has been standing at the shop for the last few weeks.
But they said they want my ARC and chop for anything from 3 to 7 days. I am not comfortable with anyone having my ARC and chop for such a long time. Does it really take that long for them to transfer it to their name? I have heard of people doing it in a few minutes or at least the same day. What could possibly take so long?
So now they have said that if I want to do it by myself, they wont’t pay me for my old scooter. Doesn’t that sound strange?
So how do the procedures work if I only want to get the scooter of my name - not transfer it to a new buyer? And what does one do with the old scooter?
It doesn’t take that long but some shops are just extremely incompetent and/or put stuff like this through an agent. It takes literally minutes to do it in person at the DMV office and my scooter shop handles anything like this same day, or by next morning if the DMV is closed.
Yes. The 3-7 day thing coupled with this sounds very fishy. Probably just extreme incompetence and/or laziness but I think you’re right to be wary. I’m sure you could get rid of this thing for NT$1,000 or even more if you advertised around the usual online classifieds. Failing that, give it away for free on condition that the new owner pays the registration fees.
I suggest you go to your local DMV office as there are various procedures for deregestering damaged/obsolete/stolen vehicles and they’re the best people to advise you. If you tell us where you are I’m sure someone can give you the address of your nearest office.
If you can’t find anyone to buy it then if I were you I’d give it away and save yourself the hassle of obsolete vehicle registration and disposal.
I think that if you scrap the vehicle and hand in the plate to the DMV they give you some cash anyway. But do check with them on that before taking any action!
My friend and I just transferred his 150 to me. I didn’t go back and review all these posts but here was my experience.
When I bought my 125 in Hsinchu, I simply gave them my ARC and my U.S. drivers license. It was still valid in the U.S. but I knew it wasn’t recognized here. The owner and I sat at the bike shop for about an hour sipping on some really terrible liquor until his helper arrived back at the shop with my registration and insurance. Don’t expect a new bike purchase to work like this in the big city.
Now I have just bought my friends 150. We both took our ARC, driver’s licenses (Taiwanese) and insurance papers to the Banciao office of DMV (or whatever it’s called). We transferred his bike and insurance to me and paid a 150 NT fee. I also renewed my driver’s license at no charge. She explained that his insurance was now transferred to me and I would have his renewal date of Jan. 1. We were in and out in less than 15 minutes. Total cost 150 NT and a free driver’s license renewal. Damn I love Banciao.
As an aside, I am aware that you CAN NOT transfer from a seller to a buyer without the seller being present at the office. I say this from a friends experience and he is still riding a bike he has paid for but now it’s illegal because he cant get a current registration, emmissions certificate or insurance. Don’t pay money for a bike until you are at the office and doing the transfer. Go in knowing that you will need a valid driver’s license, a valid ARC, Insurance (can be bought in the same office in Banciao) and 150.00 NT fee. A smile and a nice “thank-you” should be liberally applied.
I’ve never been asked to show my driver’s license when transferring (buying or selling). I’m pretty sure that it’s not required.
And if I remember rightly I sold a bike once without having to go to the office – I think I just lent the buyer (an old friend of mine) my ARC. Not so sure on this one though.