Ordeal of car ownership transfer

Sir,

I wish to share my harrowing experience of ownership transfer of my car. I had a Ford Ikon car that I had bought in April 2006 which I wanted to sell. But though the car was in a good condition, buyers would ask for much less price.

In January last year, I went to a car dealer to buy a new car in an exchange offer. After inspecting my car, they offered a price that was satisfactory to me. After the deal, they took the original RC Book, keys of the car and other papers duly signed. They assured me that the ownership transfer would be done within two months.

But my worry started after 3 months as there was no word from the car dealer about ownership transfer. When I contacted them, a person at the dealer’s office told me that my car was given to their known second-hand car dealer and requested me to wait for a fortnight.

But even after a month there was no information and I took objection to this and he gave me the contact number of the second-hand car dealer. When I called him he told me that the buyer was not available and the transfer would be done soon.

After a month I enquired at the RTO and to my surprise, the car was still in my name. My wife saw the car being driven by someone with wedding decorations. I was shocked because if the car meets with an accident or if used by someone for illegal purposes, I, as the car owner, would be penalised.

My lawyer also suggested getting the ownership transfer done. I narrated what happened and he contacted the sub-agent and asked him to submit all necessary documents to the RTO. On 19.10.2017, the records were submitted and I was assured that the ownership transfer would be done. Unfortunately it was not the case.

After three weeks I went to the RTO to verify. It was as before. Usually it takes 3 weeks for ownership change. I explained the case to Office Superintendent and when scrutinised, it was found that the file of my car was not traceable! They said that the file might have gone missing while shifting office files as it was more than 11 years old.

The search continued till December 2017. On 3.1.2018, the ownership transfer took place finally and I want to thank Madhura, Office Superintendent and Radha, Section Head, RTO Mysuru, for solving my problem.

Points to learn

• Do not handover cars after sale without ownership transfer.
• Better to take the buyer to RTO personally and get acknowledgements for documents submitted.
• Be careful with exchange offers before handing over documents.

– Dr. T. Balakrishna Achar, Sr. Consultant Physician, Mysuru, 6.1.2018

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