I have been naive and sold a car in Spain without following the correct channels with regard to paperwork etc and am now receiving road tax bills and a traffic fine.Any advice or assisitance would be much appreciated.
My father died late 2007 and left a house near Marbella and car (Spanish registered 1998 Audi A4 2.8) in Spain to my mother. The estate was all handled properly by a lawyer and the car ended up registered in mothers name in 2008.
The car was redundant so we sold it for E4000 cash to a local expat who buys and sells cars.We have vaguely known this guy for years.He assured us that he would handle all the paperwork in due course, which he obviously has not.
I did a little research at the time and got the guy to sign a “Contrato De Compra Venta” in which he declares to be fully responsible for the car and all liabilities therafter.I also took a copy of his passport and established his full address (he is still there and owns the house,or so he said).I also kept copies of the car documents and he took the originals.I havent yet approached him over this matter, while we decide what to do next but I dont expect him to cooperate.
Our lawyer doesnt really want to handle the matter and suggested a Gestoria. (He probably would take it up if we insisted).
The Gestoria was very positive at the first meeting that Trafico could be persuaded to remove our name from the car but after a visit to Trafico now thinks we may need the purchasers NIE certificate and a certified copy passport, which we cant get.
What can I do to
1. Remove mothers name from the car and avoid futher problems
2. Resolve the outstanding road tax and fine.
and maybe
3. Find a lawyer who has seen this problem before
thanks for reading this.