just a little helper here
this is the taiwanese website (in english) with most of the info on it
http://www.tmvso.gov.tw/English/Vehicle.html
Note that if the motorbike insurance or emmisions tax is up for renewal within 30 days you 've got to get new ones before you can transfer (but if it lasts for more than 30 you can transfer no wuckies!)
So, anyone know a good bike shop in guting where I can get the above done?
De-registered bike transfered to new owner (inc vehcal check…)
S
Tried to sell my old scooter (I’ve upgraded to car) last week to be told it is now unregisterable because the engine number is now on the ‘dead’ list, new emmissions controls being enforced at Bade Rd DMV in Taipei. I now have a reliable scooter that I can only sell for scrap :fume:
I guess they’re trying to eliminate smoky heaps. But you could try transferring the registration in another DMV. I heard a while back that Taipei City regs. are stricter than in other places.
I have some question about this. I heard that there are tight regulations regarding “large” (+50cc) two-strokes in Taipei City. But what does that entail exactly?
For a start, I guess it means that these vehicles can’t be transferred to another owner in Taipei City. But how about the biannual registration renewal (getting the new blue card)? Is that still possible?
And how about vehicles originally registered in other areas? I assume they can still be ridden legally in Taipei. But can the registration be renewed there? (In any case, can registration of any vehicle be renewed at a different DMV from the one at which it was originally registered?)
I guess I could try phoning the Taipei DMV and asking them. But it would be much easier if some friendly Forumosan already knew the answer.
i am facing a common problem. I have to transfer the name on my motorcycles blue card into my name. The persons name on the blue card now teaches in south korea, but I am still in touch with him. I also have a quality mechanic in Taichung (thanks joesax). A chop is a stamp?.. what do I need to do to get this bike into my name?.. can my mechanic do it for me? thanks for the help.
Very difficult to get it transferred under these circumstances. If you could get the guy to send you his old ARC, and the bike was registered in his Chinese name and he sends you the chop (yes, a little stamp) too, then you’d have a chance.
If, as seems likely, it turns out that you can’t get the registration transferred, I’d be cautious about putting too much money into the bike. Any time you park illegally there’s a risk that the it will be impounded by the police, and you won’t be able to get it back. Even when the bike’s parked legally, it could still be impounded if there are unpaid fines on it which is possible given that the address on the blue card is not your own, and the authorities have no way of getting in touch with you.
Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but that’s the way it is.
Glad you found Eric. Top guy, and as good a mechanic as they get here.
thanks joesax. we’re in the process of getting everything done to make our bike legal. The 14 year old husky is now running really well, but burns oil like an old antique should. How far will our shoestring budget carry us… we’ll soon see. Anyone have stories about getting new engines in these xpat huskies??? nightmares? husky tales ? i know they are a poser bike. but comfy on long rides. thanks again joesax.
I transferred a bike to my name the other day at the Bade Rd DMV.
The seller didn’t have to be present. I had her ARC (which was expiring a couple of days later- I think that it should still be valid (or look it- she left several months ago- but it only officially expired in April- They don’t cross refence it atall)
You need the owner’s chop. You can have one made at any chop shop. They even told me this in the DMV, bless.
If there’s insurance left on the card you can change it to your name in the insurance shop. I wasn’t charged and needed the chop. I hadn’t had it made yet so the lovely lady just told me to sign the owner’s name. 
the bike hadn’t been inspected for more than five years (or poss cos too old, two stroke not sure why exactly) but it had to be inspected- they told me at the info counter and I was short of time and so came back a couple of days later to do it, no worries). The check was for :
lights: brake, indicators, high and low beam.
engine number: matched the papers
model: matched the papers
description: colour, matched the papers.
You can check the model yourself by crossreferencing the blue card with the DMV website (some chinese required).
The colour is written on the blue card.
The engine number is somewhere above the exhaust (you’ll need a torch).
took about 15mins to do the check- but it wasn’t very busy (after lunch).
Then you check if there are any fines on the bike (I suggest that you grab a number from the changing ownership queue before going to the fines desk, as the registration queue can be very long, then go and sort out the fines.)
If you think there might be a load of fines on the bike then you can type the registration into one of the computor terminals and check before you go to the counter. As far as I can work out if it says no record found it means there are no fines on the bike (we tried several of our bikes and only two appeared and they both had speeding tickets- the others, registered and all just said no record.) . On a previous occasion the girl at the desk told me not to bother paying the fines/transferring the bike as the fines were above 10K and the bike was quite old, but then she was probably just being nice)
go to changing ownership desk and change names. small fee- I forget how much
All of the above means that you should be very careful with your bike papers- If I had simply decided to transfer a bike into my name without permission I wolud have just needed the owner’s ID and the bike papers… 
You’ve gotta love Taiwan! 
Just a reminder or a note to add. Motorcycles are not required to pass any yearly inspection other than exhaust emmisions check. The only time motorcycles are required to take a safety inspection is when they are changing ownership or when they are changing license plates. Keep that in mind when purchasing a used bike as it is very common to find dangerous or faulty bikes for sale.
Thanks for the post, kitkat and the useful cautionary note on how easy it is to change ownership, even without the original owner present. I believe that, however, that if the vehicle’s registered to a name in Roman letters (can’t bring myself to call it an “English name”), they do require the original owner to be present to sign the papers. Out of four bikes I’ve owned here, only one was registered to me in a Chinese name, and that’s because the insurance shop opposite the DMV in Tainan refused to use my own name. All the DMV offices and most insurance offices are quite happy to use names in Roman letters, and I suggest doing this to anyone who’s worried about the issue you brought up.
Joesax,
Maybe I’ve misunderstood, but I was changing from Roman Letters to Roman letters and it was fine. Do you mean if it was originaly registered in Chinese Characters it might be harder? The chop I made up was in Roman Letters for the previous owner- but I just signed my own name, they didn’t ask me for a chop.
Cheers,
Kitkat
You had a chop made up in Roman letters for the previous owner? How strange. That’s not the normal procedure. Perhaps you were dealing with a clerk who didn’t have much experience at doing this stuff. When I’ve done transfers before it’s required a signature from any party whose name uses Roman letters, and a chop from anyone with a Chinese name. The whole point about a chop is that it’s unique – it has to be, as it replaces a signature. You are definitely not supposed to be able to get chops made up for other people! And as far as I know, a chop in Roman letters is not a chop at all and has no kind of official status.
Why not though? A chop is a laugh anyway as anyone can have one made up with anything on it. It’s hardly like the old days when they were made of an individual stone carving that was much more difficult to fake. I don’t see the difference between making one in Roman as opposed to Chinese characters. When I first came to Taiwan about nine years ago, banks would insist that I had my name made out on a chop in order to open an account. I successfully managed to convince them to take my thumb print instead which makes more sense to me anyway. Why bother with chops at all when they don’t/can’t/won’t database them to confirm their authenticity?
I have had at least three different chops made of other people’s names to ‘ban(4)’ one thing or another with those people’s consent. The way I see it is that if some individuals use two or three different chops in their lives for different things, then there is no way of those individuals proving that they did or did not agree to something on paper, when it could have easily been someone else. It is for this reason that they should either use finger prints or another fairly full proof method of proving their will or intentions. It’s ironic to me that the usage of chops is so frequently abused and yet is still a formal requirement and yet credit cards are used all the time and few people ever check the reciept signature against the card.
I know what you mean, and it bothers me too. That’s one of several reasons that I’ve kept my vehicle registrations and other official documents in my regular name instead of getting a Chinese name for the purpose. Normally, as far as I know, Kitkat’s experience notwithstanding, names in Roman letters cannot be chopped, and require a signature. And as vehicle ownership transfer requires photo IDs as well (ROC ID or ARC), hopefully the clerks check the faces against the photos.
Don’t many of us whiteys all look the same to them? 
I’ve had three bikes transferred to my name using a roman letters chop for my signature. I wasn’t there for any of them, but then they were being transferred to me- no signature required.
The one I did the other day was a romanised chinese name (TW american- on an ARC, uses roman name). She wasn’t there for them to check her picture. The other times bikes have been transferred to me I haven’t been there either…so…I guess it would be hard to get someone’s ID and their bike papers, and their keys, and the bike without their knowledge unless you were pretty close to them, so maybe it’s such a minimal chance that they don’t worry about it too much. You’d have to be pretty brazen, and probably a spurned lover.
My boyf. has renewed my papers several times without me being there- I’ve no idea what the proceedure for that is though- maybe there’s no signature required, maybe not even ID. I don’t recall him asking for anything, he’d just mention he’d sorted it out every so often. Total sweetheart. 
Can you transfer your registration to someone else if your registration has been expired for a few years? also, how do i find out if i have any unpaid fines?
Should be possible. I bought a motorbike from someone else in this situation. You’ll have to pay all back taxes and any fines before the transfer, though.
If you only want to find out about the fines, just ask at the DMV and they’ll check the system.
Or at the Bade Branch you can just type your registration in ot the handy ATM style machines on the first floor and if you have any fines it will display them. If it has no record of your registration then you don’t have any fines. Simple. At one point I went in to change a bike over and the lady behind the desk said to my boyf that since the fines were so high and the bike relatively old we’d be best not bothering… very helpful at that office. I was just careful where I parked and even then we managed to get it back the couple of times that it did get impounded by pulling our very best foriegner hopeless faces down at the pound. I never worried too much about driving in the wrong lanes on that bike either … the previous owner had left for good so it didn’t really matter. (I hasten to add that the high fines were built up by the friend who had the bike before me, “Scooters can’t go through this tunnel…but I can!!!” was probably the main cause.)
I was sad when that bike never quite made it back to me after being lent out to a friend… still, it was pretty old and would’ve died of natural causes before long I suppose.
I have a scooter registered in my name but I foolishly let it expire, does anyone know how and where I can re-register the scooter? I don’t have a Taiwanese license but I do have an international driving license, will that cause me problems?
[quote=“spunkymonkey”]I have a scooter registered in my name but I foolishly let it expire, does anyone know how and where I can re-register the scooter? I don’t have a Taiwanese license but I do have an international driving license, will that cause me problems?[/quote]It’s worth trying. It depends on how long the registration has lapsed, but it might be possible. You’ll have to pay registration fees for the lapsed period of course.
Any of the DMV offices will give you information and do the renewal if possible. For addresses see this thread:
forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=59213