The vehicle title is the most important vehicle document. It contains identifying information about the car and its owners. Among car enthusiasts, a PTS is often called a registration certificate.
Dear readers! Our articles talk about typical ways to resolve legal issues, but each case is unique. If you want to find out how to solve your particular problem, please use the online consultant form on the right or call. It's fast and free!
Such a document is mandatory for transactions of purchase and sale of a car. Recently, cases of fraud have become more frequent when cars with a duplicate registration certificate are sold on credit or as collateral.
When is a duplicate PTS issued and what does it look like?
The owner has the right to apply to the State Traffic Inspectorate office with an application for the issuance of a duplicate PTS. You can receive it on the same day of application, except in circumstances where additional inspection of the car and verification of numbers on parts is required. In this case, obtaining a replacement passport may take up to one month.
In addition to the application, the car owner needs the following documents:
- owner's civil passport;
- certificate confirming ownership;
- a document indicating how the car was acquired - purchase, inheritance, donation;
- insurance policy;
- a certificate confirming payment of the state duty;
- explanatory note (in case of loss of the original).
The duplicate of the technical passport contains information in the “Special notes” column about the reason for issuance, for example: “Duplicate. Issued to replace the scrapped vehicle title." This is its only difference from the original. The series and number of these documents must be the same, as well as all other data in each paragraph.
The grounds for issuing a duplicate registration certificate are:
- change of personal data of the owner - last name, registration;
- the free space for recording the data of the new owner of the vehicle has run out;
- the previous PTS was lost, stolen or damaged.
On a note! In case of document theft, the best option would be not to include the registration certificate in the list of missing documents. According to the order dated April 24, 2008. A duplicate of a stolen registration certificate can only be issued after the criminal case regarding the theft has been closed.
This is often a very long search process, so you will be prohibited from using your vehicle during this entire time. It will be easier to write a statement and an explanatory note due to the loss of the original.
Where to begin
Among the many advertisements for the sale of cars, it is quite simple to find exactly what suits you - on the Internet there are thousands of offers for the sale of cars at a variety of prices. And at this stage you already need to be careful. The date the ad was posted says a lot. For example, if a car has been on sale for a long time, most likely there is a catch hidden somewhere.
Once you have found an acceptable ad, ask the seller to show you the technical data sheet. This document contains all the information necessary to purchase a car, required for the full implementation of the purchase and sale transaction.
- First of all, you need to determine which document you are holding in your hands - an original or a duplicate. How to distinguish an original from a duplicate, read our other article. If the seller has provided you with the original, there is no need to worry yet. If you have a duplicate in front of you, you should be wary. First, ask the seller a question about why he has a duplicate and not the original.
- The next step should be to check the list of former owners of the vehicle. If the used car has had one or two owners before you, then there is nothing to worry about yet. If the list of old owners is longer, then immediately look at the dates of their change. A car whose owners changed every month or two should attract your attention and alert you.
- If you are considering an offer to purchase a car imported from abroad, the next check should concern the PTS column about customs duties. Here marks are left indicating that the owner has paid all customs duties and taxes. If the owner of the car evaded paying them off, you may have problems in the future, including the seizure of the car.
How to legally obtain a duplicate PTS?
To carry out the procedure for legally obtaining a registration certificate, it is important to follow these simple steps:
- Prepare in advance the entire list of necessary above-mentioned documents and pay the state fee for issuing a duplicate and a new STS;
- Arrive at the State Traffic Inspectorate office in a vehicle for which your passport is being restored;
- Wait until the inspection officer completes the inspection of the car and checks the license plates in order to receive a conclusion (this item is necessary in case of loss of the vehicle title);
- Submit your documentation to a specialist from the State Traffic Inspectorate;
- Pick up the finished duplicate on the specified day.
Why is a duplicate PTS bad?
When purchasing a car with a duplicate registration certificate, you can fall for scammers. Most often this is typical for credit cars. Although for this category of vehicle the original PTS is stored in the bank that provided the money for the transaction, experienced fraudsters know how to get a replacement document.
There are also cases of attempts to sell a stolen car using a replaced vehicle passport. A fraudster, under the guise of the owner, can contact the traffic police department to restore, as if previously lost, a PTS, and by such actions receive a duplicate in his name.
Of course, not in all cases, a duplicate registration certificate indicates an “unclean” past of the car. There are legitimate cases that give rise to its issuance.
For example, the original ran out of free space to enter information about the new owner. In this case, the buyer should most likely be wary of what circumstances caused the frequent change of owners.
○ Methods for checking PTS?
To definitely protect yourself from scammers, you should check your PTS. Moreover, this action is justified both in the case of a duplicate and when selling a car with an original passport. You can check in different ways:
✔ Contacting the traffic police.
You and the seller can contact the traffic police MREO at the place of registration of the vehicle. The employee will check the document using the electronic database; for this you do not need to write an application or pay a state fee. The procedure is free and fast. If there are no problems with the car, a request for a visit to the MREO should not cause difficulties for the seller.
✔ Online services.
You can also check the PTS yourself on the Internet. The easiest way is to visit the official website of the traffic police and find a car in the database. You can also use various Internet portals where you can find the necessary information, for example, https://zakon-auto.ru/vin/proverit-avto-po-pts.php, or https://avtobot.net/.
To check in all cases, you only need the VIN number, and you will receive comprehensive information about the vehicle being checked.
How to protect yourself when buying a car with a duplicate title?
If the future owner has his eye on a used car, but the seller only has a duplicate title, it is important to be very careful before concluding a deal.
Need to check:
- how many owners are indicated in the document and how often they changed - a large number of owners in a short period of time seems very suspicious;
- check the license plates of the registration certificate and the car so that they are identical;
- pay attention to the region where the car was registered and the residential address of the last owner - if the distance between them is very large, then this factor should be treated with caution;
- check the information about the last owner with the seller’s information in the car’s registration certificate - it is better to draw up an agreement with the owner than with an authorized representative;
- pay attention to the records of termination of registration. If a car has been deregistered due to disposal, it can no longer be used;
- look at the date of issue of the technical passport - the relatively recent issuance of a duplicate may indicate that scammers are trying to sell it faster after some illegal manipulations;
Also in the registration certificate you can find information about criminal cases in which the car was involved, about the replacement of any parts and repainting.
Responsibility for counterfeiting PTS
Purchasing a car with a fake passport can result in serious problems for both the new and old owner. The sale of a credit car using a duplicate title falls under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud) and is punishable by large fines or imprisonment for up to five years.
Directly carrying out work to falsify a vehicle passport is punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, correctional or forced labor. The use of a deliberately forged document by the new owner entails a fine of up to eighty thousand rubles. However, it will be extremely difficult for law enforcement officials to prove the fact of deliberate use of a forged document. But it is quite possible for a careless buyer to lose documents and the car itself.
Do you have a question or comment?
Write! Click to cancel reply.
How to check the authenticity of a duplicate PTS?
Often the subject of fraud is a fake document, which they try to pass off as a reliable, replaced vehicle title.
To check its authenticity, you need to pay attention to such signs as:
- the duplicate, like the original, is manufactured at a specialized enterprise in accordance with State Standards;
- the specific design of the document must be clear;
- hologram in the form of a circle of high quality and clarity;
- a three-dimensional pattern on the back of the technical passport in the form of a flower that changes color from green to gray when the viewing angle changes;
- a three-dimensional volumetric watermark “RUS” is visible when holding the document up to the light
- The document is marked in large letters “DUPLICATE”.
The authenticity of the replaced document can be checked on any Internet resource that provides such information. If the registration certificate contains reliable information about the car, then during an online check there will be no problems in obtaining information about the car and its owners.
You can also verify the originality of the document at any nearest traffic police department.
Signs of the original vehicle passport
- The first sign of an original document is its ornamentation. Checking the PTS by ornament is carried out by closely examining it from different viewing angles. At the same time, the ornament should not lose clarity.
- The most important thing is to check the PTS using a hologram, the forgery of which is considered the most difficult part of the work of fraudsters. The hologram must have a clear appearance, be easy to read, be completely intact and distinguishable.
- The design placed on the back of the passport should change color when viewed from different angles and under different lighting conditions. In this case, the color changes from gray to green and vice versa. This drawing is three-dimensional, it can be felt tactilely, by touch.
- Watermark protection is also a very complex element of protection. When examining the vehicle's passport against the light, the “RUS” sign appears on it.
The presence of all the above elements to protect the PTS from counterfeiting is mandatory. The absence or poor condition of any of them is a problem that cannot be ignored. You should refuse to buy such a car.
How not to buy a credit car?
When purchasing a car, the buyer must make sure that it is not owned by the bank that provided the owner with funds for its purchase. If the car was purchased on credit, then the original title is kept by the organization as collateral until the debt is fully repaid.
Fraudsters can receive a replacement car passport document from the traffic police due to the alleged loss of the original. When making a transaction to purchase a car, the owner shows you a duplicate of the title, then you should pay attention to the date of receipt of the registration certificate. If the document was issued recently, then perhaps this was done specifically to get rid of the credit car.
The vehicle's title and service book contain a note about the dealership where it was purchased. The buyer has every right to contact a representative of the organization and use the VIN number indicated in the registration certificate to find out how the car was purchased.
A useful safety net when concluding a transaction is to indicate the full cost of the car in the contract, despite the seller’s excuses that he will have to pay a high tax. This can be a guarantee that in the event of litigation, if the buyer wins the case, he will be compensated for the entire amount specified in the document.
Otherwise, if you were sold a credit car through fraud, then while it is owned by the bank, they have the right to take it away for non-payment of the debt, or you will have to pay the loan, since you are the owner. Therefore, it is better to check everything carefully in advance.
Indirect signs of a non-original passport
Indirect signs of problematic PTS are no less important than direct ones. A list of features that may indicate a non-original or problematic passport is given below:
- PTS for foreign-made cars imported into Russia must be issued by the customs service of the Russian Federation. Passports issued by other organizations are either duplicates of the original or are of illegal origin, indicating fraudulent activities in relation to the vehicle.
- Duplicate PTS. In some cases, a duplicate passport may indicate that the original document is pledged to the bank. This can be suspected in cases where a duplicate was issued for a new or practically new car, the age of which does not exceed 4-5 years.
- The seller’s refusal to check a dubious title on the traffic police website or during a personal visit to the traffic police is not even indirect, but a direct sign of problems with the document in question. You need to refuse a deal with such a seller immediately.
It is worth noting that cases where a duplicate title for a practically new car is made for valid reasons are quite common. The document may be lost, damaged, or originally drawn up with an error. In addition, the seller, after registering the car, could change personal or registration data, which could also require replacing the passport. In this case, you should not refuse the purchase, but the PTS check should be carried out with special care.
How to sell a car with a duplicate title yourself?
For most potential buyers, a duplicate registration certificate is a signal that the car may be “unclean” in some way. A conscientious and honest seller will not be concerned about any checks.
A duplicate PTS could have been obtained under legal circumstances. It is also a mandatory document when concluding a transaction. The replaced passport, like the original one, has full legal force.
It is important for future car owners to be able to correctly distinguish a duplicate registration document from a fake document. Before concluding a transaction, it is necessary to carefully check the accuracy of the PTS and the information contained in it.
Still, it would be better to be careful about buying a car with a replaced document, because later you yourself may have to face the difficulties of selling a car with a duplicate registration certificate.
Didn't find the answer to your question? Find out how to solve exactly your problem - call right now: +7 (Moscow) +7 (812) 309-53-42 (St. Petersburg) It's fast and free!
Free online consultation with a car lawyer
Didn't find the answer to your question? Find out how to solve exactly your problem - call right now: +7 (Moscow) +7 (812) 309-53-42 (St. Petersburg) It's fast and free!
Who falsifies PTS and why?
It is easy to guess that it is almost impossible for an ordinary car owner to forge a vehicle passport. Creating documents with security mechanisms requires certain knowledge and skills, as well as technical equipment. Today, fake PTS is carried out mainly by fraudulent organizations involved in the illegal import and distribution of vehicles on the territory of the Russian Federation. In addition, the passport of an expensive vehicle, the owner of which spared no expense in passing off the problematic car as legally clean and receiving the full market value for it, may turn out to be fake.
A type of PTS counterfeiting is obtaining a duplicate of it. A similar scheme is used by sellers of credit vehicles who want to sell them on their own, without involving a creditor bank or a commission car dealership in the sales process. It is worth noting that when using such a scheme, the PTS will not be fake. Formally, such a document is official, issued by a government agency. The presence of restrictions can be determined by other criteria.
A duplicate PTS obtained as a result of the loss of the original document, its complete wear and tear or the end of space for records is not a fake. A vehicle passport obtained in this way is completely legal and allows you to perform the same actions with the car that the original PTS allows you to perform. However, the duplicate must have all the features that allow you to establish its legality. It is not possible to check the presence of credit restrictions using this document. For this purpose, there is a special database, which is checked by a notary.
