I bought a stolen car, what should I do?
What to do if it turns out that the car you bought is listed as stolen? This is, in most cases, revealed during roadside checks.
First of all, don't panic right away. You never know what mistakes there are.
Secondly, you must know that the traffic police officer does not have the right to immediately confiscate your vehicle on the spot.
In the vast majority of cases, your car documents and your driver’s license will be confiscated, and you will proceed as a passenger in your car to the traffic police department.
Upon arrival at the department, license plates will be removed from the vehicle, and the vehicle itself will be placed in an impound lot. You will be required to write an explanatory note. It is mandatory for law enforcement agencies to draw up an appropriate protocol on the detention of a car and its placement in a impound lot.
You must enter into the protocol information about what equipment is installed on the car, what tires are on the wheels, what kind of battery, whether there is damage or not, the mileage of the car at the time of seizure. This information is necessary to help you return the car in the condition in which you picked it up if the issue is resolved in your favor.
In case of car theft, a criminal case must be initiated within 10 days.
A decision to confiscate a vehicle from you is made only on the basis:
- initiation of a criminal case;
- the presence of an injured car owner from whom this car was stolen and who was able to confirm his rights to it.
If within 10 days a criminal case has not been initiated, you are required to return the car.
If the worst happens and the car is returned to the previous owner, you should know that he owes you money. According to the law, you must be reimbursed for all expenses that you made on a car that was returned to the previous owner. To do this, you must provide financial documents for the maintenance of the car.
If you did everything as described on the page “How not to buy a stolen car,” then you should still have the contact information of the person who sold you the vehicle. You must provide this information during the proceedings when it becomes known that the car you purchased is listed as stolen. The materials will be transferred “for their intended purpose” and a criminal case should be initiated against the seller under the article “fraud”, and you will already be considered as a victim. If the seller is found and held accountable, he will have to compensate you for the amount you paid him when buying the car, plus moral damages. But for this, the car had to be re-registered in accordance with all the rules for the purchase and sale of movable property.
If you bought a car under a general power of attorney, then it will be almost impossible to prove the fact of transfer of money. In this situation, you will be left without a car and without money.
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I bought a stolen car, what should I do?
You bought a stolen car.
What to do if the car you purchased turns out to be stolen?
The Code will not protect you!
Imagine that one day you are stopped by traffic police officers and, after checking your car on the computer, they announce that your car is listed as stolen and, naturally, on the wanted list. It is also possible that, having looked at the body or engine numbers, the inspector states that, in his opinion, they are clearly interrupted, or there are traces of erasures and corrections on the documents you provided to him for the car.
Since the Civil Code of the Russian Federation protects the interests of a citizen whose car was stolen, in this situation you have every chance of losing both the car and the money paid for it.
However, the traffic police inspector has no right to take your car away. He receives information about stolen cars from a database stored on a computer. The people who make up this database can make mistakes. In addition, the computer may also fail. One way or another, additional verification is necessary. Therefore, the maximum that an inspector can do in this situation is to take away your license and offer to drive with him to the nearest traffic police department. There they may confiscate your registration certificate, as well as remove the license plate from the car, thus depriving you of the opportunity to operate it.
10 days of hassle
The traffic police are required to conduct an additional check for theft within three days. By the way, the maximum period allotted by law for resolving the issue of initiating a criminal case on the fact of theft is 10 days from the moment the car was detained. Until the results of the additional check are received, your car will be placed in a guarded parking lot of the traffic police or the parking lot of the nearest police station. It is very rare, but it happens that a car is given against a safe receipt to its title owner.
If the suspicions of law enforcement agencies, alas, are confirmed, all materials are transferred to the investigative authorities and a criminal case is initiated into the fact of the theft. Only in this case, as well as when a specific victim is identified (able to not only identify his car, but also confirm his rights to it), the investigator makes a decision to confiscate the car from you to return it to the previous owner.
However, you have the right to challenge the investigator’s decision in court, and until the court makes a decision, the “disputed” car will be stored in the traffic police parking lot. By the way, if a criminal case was not initiated within 10 days after the arrest or the victim was not identified during this period, you are required to return the car without delay, at least with a safe receipt. If the investigator is playing for time and does not make a decision within the established time frame, contact the prosecutor’s office.
Write, Shura, write!
When your vehicle is detained, a report must be drawn up. To get your property back safe and sound, record all valuables and equipment in the car that can be easily dismantled. For example, indicate that the cabin is equipped with a Sony KBA-210R stereo radio and six speakers from the same company. The car is shod in MATADOR MP-21 185/60-R13 tires on alloy wheels in the shape of a five-pointed star, and has a spare wheel of the same type. Battery - Hoppenergy 120 A/h, etc. Please note that the car is running, technically sound, without external damage, all lighting fixtures are in place and intact, the windshield is without cracks or other damage, etc. The odometer readings must be recorded in the protocol.
It's a small thing, but it's nice!
If the previous owner of the car is found, know that he owes you. Not much, of course, in comparison with the loss that befell you, but as they say, “from a black sheep there’s at least a tuft of wool.” The point is that when you return the car to the previous owner, he is obliged to reimburse you for the costs of storing the car and, as agreed, pay part of the cost of the improvements and operating costs you have made. Therefore, when drawing up a protocol, demand that all the improvements and changes you have made (fender liners, new paint, tires, etc.) be included there. If you used the services of a paid guarded parking lot or kept your car in a rented garage, collect papers confirming these expenses.
Now is the time to think about compensation for the losses you have suffered. Let's look at a few of the most typical situations.
Not everything is so hopeless
Situation one. The car was purchased from a private person at the car market. At the time of purchase, you did not know that it was stolen, the numbers were changed, the documents were forged, and the seller did not live at the specified address. In this case, traffic police officers must transfer all materials to the police to initiate a criminal case for fraud. If the fraudster is found and prosecuted, in court he will have to pay you the cost of the car. If he has money, movable and immovable property, you will receive some kind of compensation relatively quickly. But if the fraudster has nothing (or is not found), then after serving his sentence he will pay you a monthly part of his earnings (pensions, scholarships, benefits, etc.), that is, in reality the cost of the car will be paid to you after many, many years.
It’s another matter if the seller is known to you and does not hide his place of residence. Then, at your request, he will voluntarily or through the court compensate you for the damage caused. In this case, he is unlikely to be accused of fraud; most likely, he himself involuntarily found himself in an unpleasant situation, having purchased a car from a third party. This fact makes it possible for him to subsequently demand reimbursement of expenses from the one who sold him the stolen car.
Situation number two. You purchased a stolen car by proxy. This is the most unpleasant case, since both the police and the prosecutor’s office will answer you that your rights have not been violated by anyone anywhere, the car does not belong to you and its owner must take care of compensation for losses. But even if you find a seller, you are unlikely to be able to get money back from him. Meanwhile, the car taken from you will either be returned to the victim (if he is found, which is very problematic), or it will become the property of one of the police officers.
Situation number three. The car was purchased at a car dealership, consignment store or any other organization that has the right to trade cars. In this case, you have every right to contact this organization with a demand for voluntary compensation for damage, and in case of refusal, you can go to court. However, you can also find yourself in a situation where the store or organization that sold you the ill-fated car no longer exists. In this case, it will be possible to compensate for the damage only by identifying the legal successor of the disappeared office. But no - your money was crying.
Interpol is authorized to declare
Situation number four. Let's say the car you bought was previously stolen in Germany. Local police opened a criminal case into the theft. Then, together with the security service of the insurance company, the police checked the circumstances of the theft and put the car on the wanted list. However, the hijacker was not caught, and the case was suspended “due to the absence of the accused.” The vehicle data was entered into the theft database. The company paid the victim (if his illegal activity, for example, simulating theft) was not proven. From this moment on, the stolen car legally becomes the property of the insurance company. Therefore, after the loss is “discovered” in Russia, its further fate will depend on whether the Western insurance company demands the return of the car or not.
The Russian database usually receives information about a car stolen in Germany with a delay of several months to several years. Therefore, the likelihood that the car will quickly be identified as stolen is close to zero. Of course, after some time it may be accidentally discovered, for example, in the city of Tukukino, but there is no evidence that its last owner is the thief.
Further events may unfold according to the following scenario. The Russian investigator is obliged to inform the Russian Interpol Bureau about the discovery of the car. There they check the information received and submit a request to the police abroad. As a rule, a confirmation comes from there and a request to send additional information: where the car is located, what is its technical condition, whether it has been in an accident, etc. Based on the data received, the new legal owner of the car - the insurance company - decides whether it is worth taking the car or whether it is more profitable to abandon it.
The procedure takes more than one month, and all this time the last owner of the equipment is forced to be in limbo: the car is listed as stolen, so even if it is returned with a safe receipt, it can be “confiscated” again at any time. Insurance companies, however, strictly look after their interests and for the sake of a 6-7-year-old Ford (and one that has been in an accident) are unlikely to worry: moving the car to Germany will cost more than its value. But they will definitely compete there for a new Mercedes or BMW! In this case, through the prosecutor's office of its country, the company appeals to our Prosecutor General's Office with a demand to return the find. As a rule, our prosecutors very rarely refuse in such cases. The investigator receives a command, and the car is sent to its foreign homeland. Of course, the Russian owner has the right to file a claim in court, but everyone understands that the proceedings will be resolved in favor of the foreign owner.
Can't return it!
Thus, for the last owner of a stolen car, events can unfold according to three possible scenarios:
— at the request of its Western colleagues, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office orders the return of the car, and then its Russian owner is left with nothing;
— The Prosecutor General’s Office decides to leave the car to its Russian owner. Then, in the documents for the car, the traffic police officers make a note: “The car is listed as wanted in the Interpol database.” Of course, you can only drive such a car within the territory of Russia;
— foreign insurers have no claims, refuse the rights to the car and remove information about it from the theft database. At the same time, the car is no longer listed as stolen in Russia.
Olga Lysenko, Bureau of Legal and Consulting Services “Sovetnik”, “Car Market of Kaliningrad”, No. 17 dated May 2, 2005
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Steps to take when buying a stolen car
In the life of every driver, a situation may occur when the purchased car turns out to be on the wanted list. Of course, you can protect yourself as much as possible from such problems, but when purchasing a used car, you cannot completely eliminate this fact.
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Where do you need to go and how to get your money back? What actions are recommended? Let's deal with the problem step by step.
If the car is wanted
So, I bought a car and it turned out to be stolen. What to do? Firstly, one should proceed from the situation in which this fact became clear.
It could be:
- stopping on the road to check documents;
- detection during registration activities.
If the fact of theft is discovered during an attempt to register, the car will be sent for additional examination without registration.
If this aspect is clarified during the verification of documents, then:
- the driver's license will be confiscated;
- The car was seized until all the circumstances are clarified. It can be placed in a special guarded parking lot or returned to the owner against signature, but without license plates;
- the owner will be asked to go to the traffic police department to clarify all the circumstances of the incident.
In any situation, the vehicle is sent for additional inspection, which must be carried out within 3 days.
If, as a result of the examination, it is revealed that the car is indeed on the wanted list (that is, this is not the mistake of the person entrusted with maintaining the database), then a criminal case is opened on this fact (10 days are allotted for the procedure).
The vehicle is confiscated to be returned to the previous owner. The car can be returned if the person who owns it can prove that the presented vehicle belongs to him.
To do this, you will need to carry out an identification procedure and prove this fact with documents.
When a car is seized by a police officer, a protocol is drawn up, where it is necessary to enter information about the equipment installed in the car during the period of operation by the new owner and about other valuable things.
For example, it is recommended to indicate the type and manufacturer of the radio, speakers, and tires on the wheels. It would also be a good idea to indicate the mileage of the car and describe the appearance (chips on the body, glass, lighting fixtures, and so on).
Without a protocol, it will be impossible to recover any funds from the previous owner in the future.
If the previous owner is not found within 10 days, the vehicle is returned to the new owner.
There are situations when investigative authorities deliberately delay the consideration of a case and/or the adoption of any decisions. In such cases, you can contact the prosecutor's office with a complaint against a specific executive.
Should you contact the police?
If the fact of the theft of a car becomes known to the owner before it is discovered by the traffic police, it is recommended to immediately report this to the police.
If a violation is detected by the State Traffic Inspectorate, a criminal case will be opened regardless of the owner’s wishes.
You can find information on insuring your bicycle against theft and total loss here.
How to get money back for a car
Judicial practice shows that it is possible to return money for a purchased car that is listed as stolen, but this is not always easy to do.
There are several different situations:
- The stolen car was purchased through a car dealership. You can contact the seller with a request for a voluntary refund or demand the money spent through the court. If the sales organization works more, then you can try to find the receiver or the owner of the salon and send your requirements to him. Car dealerships are required to conduct an examination of the cars they accept for sale, so it’s not difficult to prove your case.
- The car was purchased on the market or from a private person. This situation can be divided into several subtypes:
- the seller of the vehicle has been found and is not hiding from law enforcement agencies. The claim for reimbursement of the cost of the car must be sent to the seller.
If he has money or any property, then the amount spent will be returned to the victim quickly enough. If funds for payment are not found, then the seller will be obligated to return the amount in installments. It will be automatically deducted from your salary or other official source of income.
In this situation, it will take a lot of time to fully receive the amount spent on the purchase of the car;
After receiving confirmation, a request is sent to the Russian police about the technical condition of the found car in order to make a decision on its transportation to the territory of their state. If the car is old or has been in an accident, then the cost of transportation may be more than the cost of the car.
- a notification is received about the need to send the car. In this situation, it is practically pointless to initiate legal disputes with an organization of another state, that is, it will not be possible to return the money spent on the purchase;
- a request to transport the car is received, but the General Prosecutor's Office, due to some circumstances, decides to leave the vehicle on the territory of the Russian Federation. The new owner is given all registration documents, and the car is returned, but with a note that its operation is possible only in Russia;
- an insurance company in another country refuses the car and removes it from the search list. The car is returned to the Russian owner.
It is worth noting that all interstate issues regarding stolen cars are resolved very slowly. Sometimes processes drag on for months, or even years. The vehicle will be kept by the police for the entire period of resolving disputes.
If the car is returned to the previous owner, then the latter can also be required to pay the money spent on the reconstruction or modernization of the car, as well as on its storage.
Naturally, this is not the entire amount spent on the acquisition, but as they say, at least something. To do this, the court will need to provide receipts for the purchase and installation of new equipment, as well as confirmation of the fact that the car was stored in a paid parking lot.
In most cases, the amounts spent are returned to the person from whom the car was seized.
How to check documents before purchasing
To protect yourself as much as possible from scammers and not purchase a stolen car, we recommend:
- Before purchasing, check all the numbers indicated in the documents (PTS, registration certificate) with the numbers installed on the machine components. If at least one number does not match or is difficult to read, then the car was most likely stolen;
- Under no circumstances should you purchase a vehicle by proxy. It is recommended to re-register the owner of the car. When carrying out registration actions, traffic police officers check the car and verify all license plates. If they have questions, the car is sent for technical examination to a specialized laboratory;
- check the car using the traffic police databases, which are freely available on the traffic police website. To do this, you will need to enter the VIN number of the car, consisting of 17 letters and numbers.
The traffic police database is updated daily. It is possible that the car has been checked in the database and there are no complaints at the time of purchase, but the car ends up in the database much later (the owner reported the theft late). So you still won’t be able to completely protect yourself.
If you notice signs of a car being stolen, you must immediately notify the police or traffic police department. A criminal case will be opened regarding the crime. In 50% of cases, buyers of stolen cars can get their money back. Such issues are resolved in court.
How to check a motorcycle for theft by VIN, read on the page.
A report of car theft to the traffic police is reviewed here.
Video: Auto scammers. Beware of cashless payments!
- Due to frequent changes in legislation, information sometimes becomes outdated faster than we can update it on the website.
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The car I bought turned out to be stolen
I purchased a VAZ 2170 Priora car. At the checkpoint they stopped me to check my documents, ransacked the database, the car turned out to be stolen, and they parked it. An investigator called me and demanded that I provide documents for her. What should I do?
Lawyer's response:
You must comply with the police officer's demands. Therefore, provide documents for the car.
You should find out on what basis your car was seized: whether it was wanted, whether a criminal case has been opened. In general, does your car require such close attention from the police? Has the vehicle been identified and what conclusion has been reached based on the results?
Based on what document you purchased the car and how the transaction was completed. Who acted on the other side of the contract: an individual or a legal entity (for example, a car dealership).
If the contract was concluded between individuals, then you should find out whether you can actually find the seller to make the relevant claims. As a rule, this is impossible to do. In most cases, even if the court satisfies the requirements, in reality it is not possible to execute such judicial acts (evasion by the defendant, lack of funds and property).
If the second party to the contract is a legal entity, then the opportunity to find it is somewhat easier, as well as subsequently to execute the court decision.
It is your right to prove in court that you are the bona fide buyer. Although this fact does not guarantee that the car will be left behind you 100%, there is a chance. If the conditions I specified above regarding the car being on the wanted list and the initiation of a criminal case are not met, there will be good grounds for resolving the issue in your favor.
Some other answered questions from the section “Buying and selling cars”:
My daughter bought an old car. My daughter's husband repaired the car himself. When they began to draw up a purchase and sale agreement, it turned out that there were four heirs to this car: the wife of the deceased and three daughters.
I sold the car by proxy by hand, the car is registered in my name! Can the new owner sell the car without me and how legal will it be?
The previous owner hid many of the car's shortcomings from me. After I contacted the auto repair shop, it became clear that the car could be repaired. Do I have the right to terminate the contract?
I bought a car under a contract, did not register it, but I am included in the title. Can I sell it under a contract? Will the new owner have any problems with registration?
I bought a car. At the traffic police checkpoint they stopped me to check my documents, they rang through the database, the car turned out to be stolen, and they parked it. An investigator called me and demanded that I provide documents for her.
Exchanged the car. During the exchange, the owner of the car I was buying claimed that it was a “designer”, but not a “cut”. When registering with the traffic police, I was informed that it was a “cut.”
I entered into a commission agreement with a car dealership for the sale of my car. After the sale, the salon must transfer the money to me within 10 banking days. 10 days have passed, and the car dealership does not give specific deadlines for payment.
I bought a car two years ago. Now during the inspection it turned out that the body and engine numbers are not primary. What consequences await me due to this fact?
I became a legal entity a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to buy a car and register it in my name, not the company's. How will transport tax be calculated?
I bought a stolen car, what should I do?
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But in order to significantly reduce the number of road accidents and, especially, incidents with serious consequences for the people affected, it is enough to just slightly change the traffic rules and make a number of amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses. Such amendments will most likely be adopted in the near future, since the top officials of our state spoken All that remains is to wait for changes to be made to the traffic rules. And these changes are incredibly simple - you just need to limit the maximum speed! All. And the lower the maximum permissible speed, the more the number of car accidents will decrease. Do you agree that the probability of getting into an accident, and, moreover, dying in it, at a speed of 40 km/h is much lower than at a speed of one hundred km/h? Further discussion of this simple option for saving tens of thousands of human lives every year and the development of this topic can be found on the forum .
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Almost 40 million cars are registered in Russia. According to official statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, more than two hundred thousand road accidents occur in our country every year. Based on the results of 2005, Russia was recognized as the country with the most dangerous traffic in the world , a study was conducted by the World Health Organization jointly with the World Bank. For every 10 thousand cars in Russia, approximately twelve road accidents occur annually, in which human losses exceed army losses in the so-called “hot spots”. Every year, the population of an average city in Russia—more than 30 thousand people—dies on the country’s roads. The reasons for such a high accident rate and the severity of the consequences of road accidents are the low culture of drivers, non-compliance with traffic rules, neglect of the technical condition of cars, of course, the unacceptably low quality of roads, as well as the underdevelopment of the accident prevention system. The conclusion from all of the above is disappointing: every driver, when getting behind the wheel, should always be prepared for an emergency situation on the road that could potentially lead to an accident. One of the goals of our site is to equip every driver with knowledge about what needs to be done in the event of an accident , as well as how to act in the event of an accident, including how to compensate for damages from an accident , obtain qualified legal assistance in case of an accident, protect and defend your rights.
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