Is it possible to register a car with fines in 2021?

Car fines – what does the law say?

The first thing that is important to note in our question is that there cannot be fines on a car. Any penalties are applied to the person - the driver or owner of this car. It’s just that in the traffic police database such sanctions are designated within the framework of violations committed on a specific vehicle. But these sanctions do not belong to the car, but to the driver or owner.

There can be no fines on the car.

However, if there are debts from the previous owner of the used car you bought secondhand, you may encounter problems.

What does the law say about paying fines?

Traffic police officers may require you to present a certificate of all paid fines for this car for registration. Such a request on their part would be illegal, since these fines belong to the old owner and have nothing to do with the new one.

This is stated in the “Instruction of the Department of Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 13 / 5-7”, which was issued in 2009. According to this document, an employee who refuses to register a car with fines is subject to disciplinary action.

Also, the entire procedure for registering a car with fines is regulated by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 1001 “On the procedure for registering vehicles.” If a car owner has problems registering a car with fines, he can refer to this order.

Additional information: if a persistent defaulter is discovered, employees will register the car with fines, but they can still issue a double fine (at least 1,000 rubles) or go to court to imprison him for up to 15 days according to Art. 20.25 Code of Administrative Offences.

According to Art. 32.6 full payment of all existing fines by the driver can be demanded only in the event of re-obtaining a driver’s license (if the driver’s license is revoked). However, even in this case, a citizen is only required to pay fines related to traffic violations. Tax and other penalties should not be taken into account by traffic police officers.

What are the penalties for the previous owner?

There are two main risks associated with seller debt:

prohibition of car registration,
seizure of the vehicle.

To begin with, we offer you a quick answer depending on your situation with an online test.

I bought a car, it has fines from the previous owner - what should I do?

1. Have you already re-registered the car in your name with the traffic police?

Not really

2. Check on the website of the traffic police or bailiffs to see if there is a registration ban?

There is a ban There is no ban

3. Look at the date of the ban - was it imposed before the purchase of the car (the date in the sales contract) or after?

Before after

You don't have to worry! There is no need to pay the fines of the previous owner - these are the debts of the previous owner, and not yours and not the cars. Go through again

You need to re-register the vehicle as soon as possible to the new owner - you, before the bailiffs impose a ban due to the previous owner. Go through again

Unfortunately, this is the worst case scenario. Such a ban can be lifted only if the previous owner of the car or you pay all the fines on the car. Also, such a ban may result in the seizure of the vehicle. Go through again

You need to contact the bailiff who imposed the ban with an application to lift it on the basis that on the date of imposition the car had already left the property of the previous owner. Read more... Go through again

Is it necessary to pay fines before registering a car?

Do I need to pay fines when registering a car? When a car is delivered with fines for registration with the traffic police, the new owner’s responsibilities do not include paying off all existing fines. That is, traffic police officers should carry out this procedure without any problems.

If, however, complications arise during this procedure related to registering the car with fines, the car owner may request to receive a document confirming the official refusal to register the vehicle.

This document must indicate the reason for rejecting the application to register the vehicle with fines. Next, you should file a complaint with the prosecutor's office or the head of the traffic police department for further proceedings.

Please note that if a traffic police officer refuses to provide a document confirming the rejection of an application when registering a car with fines, then the car owner has the right to record a conversation with him on video, which will serve as evidence of the refusal.

Therefore, to answer the question: is it possible to register a car with fines from the old owner? Answer: yes, you can.

Will they be registered and what are the consequences?

Arrest and ban are real risks that can seriously complicate your car life - up to the impossibility of operation and even the risk of losing the car with the cloudy prospect of extracting the money paid for it from the debtor seller.

Therefore, when buying a car, it is important to do important things:

check the car for registration restrictions by VIN code on the traffic police website or the bailiffs website,
check for fines from the previous owner using the registration certificate on the official website of the traffic police,
As soon as possible after concluding the purchase and sale agreement, register the car in your name.

If at the moment you are in a situation between the first and second points (you checked the car for fines, found them, but have not yet registered the car in your name), then we recommend changing the owner as soon as possible. But before that, you need to check if the registration ban is already on the car - according to the first point, then we move on to the next one.

What to do if you bought a car and there are fines on it - infographics

If there is a ban?

So, you bought a car, and it turned out to have unpaid fines from the previous owner of the car, in addition, a registration ban was imposed on the vehicle as a result of an inspection.

A registration ban is a restriction of registration actions in the traffic police. Such actions include changing the owner of the vehicle. We discussed the registration ban in more detail in our special article; we also have complete instructions for registering a car.

In our situation, there are two options for imposing restrictions on which further actions depend:

the ban was imposed after the conclusion of the purchase and sale agreement due to fines of the previous owner of the car - then it was imposed illegally, and we move on to reading the instructional article on removing such restrictions,
the restrictions were imposed a long time ago, and you bought a car with a registration ban.

The last case is the worst. Here, in fact, there are only 2 ways out of the situation for you:

convince the seller to pay fines on the car,
You must pay these fines yourself.

Oh yes, there is a third option - ride without registration. In this case, you will need to either constantly renew the purchase and sale agreement, or drive as is - in an unregistered car. There are sanctions for this: for the first time a fine of 800 rubles, in subsequent cases - up to deprivation of rights. But according to the law, it is not your fault that the prohibition exists; you are a bona fide party to the car purchase and sale transaction. The bad news is that the traffic police inspector on the road will most likely still issue a fine or a protocol for deprivation, and you will have to defend your position further.

But there is another risk of the latest scheme...

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Arrest

Sooner or later, if the fines are not paid for a long time, and the bailiffs have initiated enforcement proceedings on them, the ban may turn into the seizure of the car. In practice it works like this:

You are driving on the road in a car with unpaid fines from the previous owner, which has been subject to arrest,
as part of one of the raids of the bailiffs together with the traffic police, an inspector stops you, and the bailiff sitting next to him in his car checks the license plates of the car for debts, finds an arrest warrant,
as a result, the car can be taken away legally on the road,
All you have to do is terminate the sales contract and claim back the money paid for the car.

There is one common myth that supposedly only the bailiff who is handling the case can take away a purchased car when it has fines as part of an arrest. But that's not true. The only good news here is that for 2021, the bailiff databases do not overlap between regions. Therefore, if you were stopped in another region, the bailiffs may not see the existence of a ban and arrest.

Something else useful for you:

Bailiffs have banned the registration of a car due to the previous owner - how to remove it?
All about the ban on registration actions in questions and answers
How to check a car for seizures?

Registration with fines

Is it possible to register a car if there are unpaid fines?
Not a single law, nor the Code of Administrative Offenses, requires a citizen to pay debts under sanctions. Based on this, it is concluded that the inspectors’ demands are illegal. Previously, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation received a large number of complaints about the actions of law enforcement officers who refused to register a car if it had outstanding debts. Because of this, appropriate amendments to the current legislation were adopted, which prohibited department employees from committing unlawful actions and refusing citizens to register cars. All that is required to register a car is a list of documents, as well as the presence of the car itself; the current legislation does not provide otherwise.

If a similar situation arises, you should immediately write a complaint to higher management, after which the inspector who took the initiative will be held accountable. The current version of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation contains Article No. 20.25 “Evasion from execution of administrative punishment”, on the basis of which a new fine is applied to the outstanding debt, as well as payment of the previous one in double amount. Only the court has the right to hold people accountable under this provision, and not the traffic police inspector, who does not have such powers.

If there are restrictions

In this case, things are not entirely good. There are 3 options in which you can register your car:

Talk to the previous owner so that he can pay off the outstanding fines.
Pay them instead.
File a lawsuit with a request to terminate the purchase and sale agreement due to the fact that you cannot drive the car and register it.

The first two points do not cause difficulties, but the last option may not work out, since the law has not been finalized. The question is that you can only submit an application to terminate the contract. But the judge will not be able to force the seller to pay off debts without bailiffs. And they have already initiated proceedings and prohibited the registration of the car.

If the lawsuit is won, the contract will be canceled and you must return the car in exchange for money. You will return the car, no matter voluntarily or through the bailiffs. But, if the former owner does not have the money, then you may have to wait a very long time for the amount to be returned for the car.

Therefore, it turns out to be some kind of paradox - the car was bought with fines and a ban, as a result you are left without a car and money. The most correct option would be to talk to the previous owner about paying off the debts, or to pay yourself. The last option also makes sense if the amount is small. But, if the restriction is imposed because of millions of debts, then it will no longer be possible to get out of this situation.

The only option in this case would be to file a lawsuit to terminate the contract. But you need to find out in advance what property the old owner has. If it exists, then in the statement of claim you must indicate a request to seize this property so that the owner does not get rid of it.

What should I do if, when registering or deregistering, they still require me to pay fines?

When a traffic police officer talks about the obligation to pay all fines to register a vehicle, you should remind him of the above-mentioned instruction of the Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate and demand a written refusal to register or deregister, which should contain the motivation for such a decision and its grounds. When a written application is submitted, the traffic police officer must refuse in writing.

If such an employee refuses, even a written explanation, his verbally expressed refusal must be filmed on a video camera to obtain evidence of the refusal. He has no right to prohibit himself from being filmed.

Then, having evidence, you need to contact the head of the MREO department of the traffic police or the prosecutor's office.