MOPT Yards Filled To The Brim With Abandoned Vehicles
March 10th, 2010 | by admin |Vehicles involved in a traffic accident and confiscated vehicles have the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) yards filled to the brim, some vehicles have been parked for decades.
And although the Dirección General de Tránsito doesn’t have a definitive number, the majority shouldn’t be there, say MOPT officials.
The situation is so bad that in some cases the vehicles are parked on the along the driveways leading into the yards, like the case in Pavas.
The question is, what has happened to their owners?
In the majority of the cases it is a simple case of the common practice of Costa Ricans and foreigners in Costa Rica not to complete the transfer of ownership to avoid paying the tax.
When a vehicle is purchased/sold, a lawyer or notary is used to prepare the appropriate documentation for the transfer of ownership, have the transfer tax and legal fees paid and proceed to submitting the paperwork for registration.
The purchaser has the responsibility to transfer the title of the vehicle and pay the taxes. For the seller, the notarized purchase/sale agreement is all that is required
However, a customary practice is do nothing. The buyer uses the vehicle as his or her own, pays the circulation permit and submits the vehicle to the annual inspection.
However, nothing has changed from a legal point of view. And thus where the problem begins when there is an accident and the vehicle towed to the MOPT yards or the vehicle is confiscated by the traffic police for whatever reason.
Only the registered owner – the owner of record in the Registro Nacional – can retrieve a confiscated vehicle and the required paperwork for the process. In many of the cases, the registered owner is not available or cannot be found and as such the vehicle sits waiting.
In other cases the fines owed on the vehicle are greater than the value of the vehicle.
The concern of transportation officials is that with the new Ley de Tránsito, the number of confiscated vehicles will increase, while MOPT officials work on a regulation to be able to dispose of the vehicle.
Currently, there is no clear law that allows the MOPT to dispose of the vehicles – sell them off, donate or junk them. The current regulations only allow MOPT officials to store the vehicles up to and until the time the legal owner shows up with a court order to retrieve it.
