In what cases will traffic police check the owner's vehicle?

Major General Nguyen Huu Danh, Deputy Director of the Traffic Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) answers all questions3 weeks before the regulation on fines for unregistered vehicles takes effect.

The regulation on fining unregistered vehicles takes effect from January 1, 2017. So how should people understand this regulation, sir?

- The Road Traffic Law stipulates that vehicles must be registered for ownership. Furthermore, the person who pays to buy or is given a vehicle must be the owner of that vehicle.

For those who sell a vehicle to another person, after 30 days, they must notify the vehicle registration authority to complete the procedures for transferring ownership and vehicle registration to the buyer.

If the transfer procedure is not completed, when incidents related to the vehicle occur, the seller must take responsibility, because legally the seller is still the owner of the vehicle.

In terms of benefits, both buyers and sellers are at a disadvantage if an incident or legal violation occurs.

Major General Nguyen Huu Danh.

There is a car looking for the 16th owner and it is stuck.

If vehicles are bought, sold, or given away without a transfer of ownership, how difficult will it be for management?

- Many traffic accidents occur, when the police investigate, finding the vehicle owner is very complicated.

There are many cases where people have sold it to 17-18 owners, but by the time they get to the 16th-17th owner, they can't find anyone else.

The failure to find the vehicle owner has caused a deadlock in the investigation.

If the perpetrator of the crime or traffic accident cannot be found, the legal responsibility of the perpetrator/accident cannot be determined.

In case the vehicle has been bought and sold through many owners and the first owner cannot be identified to complete the name change procedure, how should this be resolved?

- The Ministry of Public Security has issued Circular No. 12 effective from 2013, which stipulates that all means of transport that have been bought and sold but have not yet been transferred (even through many people) can go through the transfer procedure, as long as the final buyer is legally responsible for his vehicle, then the procedure can be done normally.

We also advised the Ministry of Public Security to propose to the Government a roadmap for implementation with cars from April 15, 2013, effective until the end of 2014, so cars must comply very strictly.

As for motorcycles, due to the large number, the Ministry of Public Security extended the period until December 31, 2016.

People are concerned that when they borrow a car, the traffic police might check whether the vehicle is registered or not. Can you clarify the responsibility of the enforcement force in checking and penalizing vehicles that are not registered?

- Traffic police must comply with the law. Article 30 of Decree 46 stipulates that those who do not transfer ownership when buying, selling or giving away will be subject to administrative penalties according to regulations.

If a wife rides her husband's car, or a child rides his father's car, there is no legal issue, so no one will fine the person who borrowed the car.

In what cases does the traffic police check the owner's vehicle?

How can the traffic police determine whether the driver of the vehicle borrowed the vehicle or has not yet transferred ownership?

- Traffic police on duty on the road are law enforcement officers and citizens driving vehicles must be responsible before the law for their assertions. Therefore, when a driver tells the traffic police that this is a borrowed vehicle, he must be responsible for his verification.

In case of doubt, the law stipulates that the police have the right to investigate and verify.

There may be people who take advantage of lying to deceive the police, but I think this case will not be many, because behind it there is also a monitoring system through license plates.

The violator today said it was a borrowed car, but tomorrow the monitoring system will remind him that the car violated, so he can't lie forever.

In which cases does the traffic police check if the vehicle has the owner?

- The regulation only gives 2 cases, which are when a traffic accident occurs with serious consequences and when going to register a vehicle, if the purchase and sale takes a long time without transferring ownership, then the owner will be punished.

By January 1, 2017, the handling of violations under Decree 46 will take effect and people will have had a very long time (from 2013 to the end of 2016) to complete the procedures for transferring ownership. Therefore, if by that time people do not complete the procedures, it proves that they intentionally do not comply with the provisions of the law.

At that time, the police force, through professional patrolling and controlling activities, handled violations in general, including violations that were the direct cause of traffic accidents. If they discovered cases of not transferring ownership, they would continue to handle them, but would not proactively stop the vehicle for inspection just to handle whether it was the right owner or not.

According to Vietnamnet