If I buy a car and the road tax has not been paid for two or three years do I as the new owner have to pay it. Also if the car has parking fines from the previous owner do I then have to pay these.

All bills go to the owner on the docs, so if there are any get them to pay them before your name goes on the docs.

More to the point JDR. How as a buyer can you find out about outstanding fines and such?

Over in the UK, you turn up look at a car, if you want it, you pay the money and drive it away.

In Spain to do that you are opening up a whole can of whup-ass, so how does one buy a car they like, without being lumbered with somebody else's bills?

it will cost more but try buying from a dealer, you have someone between you and the law.
a dealer should be able to confirm a vehicle is debt free, a guy from the pub round the corner will just say its clear cos he wants a sale.

is there not a fail safe legal statement that can be used, I know Spain is very good at legal paperwork in that it has lots of the stuff

Very simple - you employ a gestor to do the work for you. As part of this exercise, they can be asked to ensure that there are no fines outstanding and that tax has been paid by asking trafico.

Doesn't cost much but well worth it.

Take a look here:

www.buscamultas.com

It is not always totally up to date though.

More relevant, the site says that the only fines it can display are ones shown in public bulletins..... not anything sent through the post. What public bulletins are these and what would be published there and not sent to the person direct? I ask because we quite often have issues with not receiving mail despite having a buzon!

As already said, buy it from a dealer, or get a gestoria (not the one from the guy selling though) to check it out for you before you transfer it to your name.

Fiona, thats the place to look if you have trouble with recieving post

That's not quite what the website said; and what and where are they anyway?
Dangerously close to off topic here!
Anyone want a 5yo Navara?

I joined RACE (like our RAC) to buy my last second-hand car. They check everything for you, do transfers, as well as providing the normal breakdown, legal service etc. RACE's badge on your car also impresses trafico.

Thanks to everybody who replied. So the only way to ensure a car is debt free when buying privately is to use a gestor.

You can do it your self but it really isn't worth the hassle and you get better peace-of-mind this way.

Even using a gestor to sell, I have just received a tax bill for a car I sold in 2009 and they made me pay the tax before it went. I gave all the paperwork to the new owner, so it's back to the gestor next week

This depends on when in the tax year the car was sold.