Safer sale of vehicles in NZ

NZ Transport Agency need to amend the process of selling a vehicle. Innocent people get stung by irresponsible car buyers who fail to change ownership into their name. Until they do this, the vehicle and all it's bills remain with the previous owner, including registration fees, fines for no warrant and registration, road user charges fines, speeding fines, and toll road costs. You can send the notification of sale form provided to NZTA, but there is no guarantee that they will receive it, and in fact it is highly likely that they wont. And even if they did, it is a pointless procedure as it does nothing to the status of the vehicle. It is still yours until the ownership has been changed.

After all of this, the new owner may willingly accept to have all debt transferred into their name, but for NZTA, this is an impossibility. It is impossible for the debt to be signed over to the responsible party. The debt remains yours for as long as it takes the new owner, or yourself, to pay it, even if it leads to bad debt against your name.

This is an age old system that has proven highly ineffective and needs to be amended. I propose the following solutions to be implemented to rectify these problems:

1 - That both parties be present during the change of ownership. Whether it be done online, at NZ Post or at an NZTA branch, both driver licences should be submitted at the same time before the vehicle is transferred. The workload is also halved for NZTA to processing only one form as opposed to two.

I mean, both parties are present during handover and transfer of money, so it shouldn't be a problem.

2 - That the parties willing to transfer debt incurred prior to this amendment into their name are able to do so, and the previous owner to be cleared of the debt in question.

If someone is WILLING to take responsibility, why must it be an impossibility? It is a very simple procedure.

This is just one idea. I welcome any other suggestions for solutions that consider the best interests of all parties to put forward with this petition. But please…SIGN THE PETITION!