Hope someone can help me or point me in the right direction!

I sold a car of mine around 8 years ago. In my naivety I signed across the documents and gave them to the buyer. Turns out he didn't transfer them.

Since then I've moved back to the UK but first discovered the yearly road tax bills were going to my parents place. I paid a lawyer to 'take care' of it, or at least that's what I thought he did. Turns out he only took it out of my responsibility to pay the road tax, but the car is still in my name because 'someone must own it according to Spanish law'.

Move forward 2 years to now and I am receiving speeding fines, 2 in total. I'm told I can't take it out of my name as I don't have any of the documentation or any way of contacting the previous owner (didn't take his details down, and his old number no longer works). I did see the car once a few years ago and it had different drivers, so he may have moved it on again since.

Nobody can tell me what I should be doing. I've been told going to a police station and placing a denuncia might help, but I'm in the UK. I also don't have the cash to be paying speeding fines, and wondered if I could plead my case after proving I am in the UK and have been since they were issued.

If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it, I'm really stressing about what to do with it

Thankyou!

I am not sure, but if your parents are still in Spain, it would be best for them to find a gestor on your behalf, they should know what to do!

Good luck!

The trouble is that it’s the seller’s responsibility to change ownership with the authorities.

It happened to me and needed a trip to the local Trafico to fill out a couple of forms, which was quite simple, followed by a trip to Suma. I did it without a Gestor but it would have been easier with one.

I still had to pay car tax for a year the car didn’t belong to me.

You might want to speak with a Gestor or one of these Specialist Agencies that deals with Trafico on behalf of expats and get them to do a Baja for you so the issue stops now. Not sure that you can do anything about what's gone on up to know though...

I've emailed a few Gestors so will have to wait I guess.

The Gestor that did it previously is no longer active. I did ask for it to be completely sorted out but guess he didn't actually do it.

I've recently been told I can't do a Baja as I don't have the details of the new owner... and therefore can't transfer ownership. If that is indeed what it means. All very stressful, especially as I'm in a different country and not with much money.

God this situation must be awful.

Can anyone tell me what happens if you scrap a Spanish car in another country, do you have to inform anyone? I have recently done this and I had never received the papers for it for some reason. It was just an old banger I bought and used to travel to another country in.

I did pretty much the same thing and had to solve it by tracing who I sold it to. In my case he had dumped the car in a field and I offered to scrap it legally for him. It cost a few hundred and it depended on finding the car. I dont know if you can achieve that.

What is the correct way to transfer a car to the new owner?

As far as I know......
Both buyer & seller to sit with the Gestor and fill out the simple bill of sale (this will have no terms and conditions)
Copies of NIE/NIF etc are taken & Traffico is informed by the Gestor, the transfer tax needs to be paid by one of you (can be either) a week or two later you recived the new log book.

This thread has got me re-thinking, as I have recently been looking at LHD cars for sale at a long established dealer in UK. They have some already on spanish plates and I was considering flying back for a visit and whilst there buying a vehicle from them and driving back to Spain. But - how do they deal with the transfer???
I think I had better send an email to the company to query this. It seemed a good idea at the time. There could be outstanding road tax and fines that I would end up taking over, or would I?

There is a document called "solicitud de transferencia" obtainable from your provincial jefatura de trafico. This should be completed with buyer and seller details and it is the resoponsibility of the seller to see it gets sent to the jefatura. This is the step that Turismo and I missed , trusting the buyer. In fact it is exactly the same in the uk no?

Many thanks.
Seems like a strange way, but a lot of the bureaucracy in spain makes no sense to me
I have never bought or sold a car private sale in spain. I have always traded via a dealer, simply gave him the papers and had no issues.

Not the same in the UK. Seller completes V5 with buyers details and sends to DVLA gives tear off slip and gives to buyer. Buyer gets new V5 direct from DVLA.

Even if he does not complete the relevant parework, seller is not responsible for any unpaid road fund duty. He simply tells DVLA car was sold on ..... when he gets the reminder.

A friend of mine who's son took and old car to the Uk and had it scrapped there and not getting any proof from the scrapyard are still having to pay the tax on it as it is in their name.

I believe they have tried several ways to get this resolved but as there is no written proof anywhere they are still paying.

Yes, that's what I was worrying about.

I have a paper signed by the purchaser, in three languages saying he bought it for spares or repairs with no papers and he will dispose of it responsibly in his country, it has his name and address on too, I hope this works, when I get back to sort it out.

I never did receive any papers after purchase, maybe they are in the garage I bought it from?