Lapsed registration, vehicle licence & change of ownership questions

**klingon** · 24th December 2008, 17:03

I just bought a GN250 to swap the engine into my Volty. The GN's registration has lapsed, which leaves me with the following questions:

Do I need to do a change of ownership?
Do I need to do something to match up the new engine number with my Volty's VIN and/or rego details?

I purchased a report from CarJam, and it gives me the following info:

Licence

Licence expiry:2006, June 14th (expired more than 2 years ago)
Last licence issued on: 2005, December 14th

Registration

Registration status: lapsed
Date of first registration in NZ: 2004, December 15th
Cancellation date of registration: 2007, June 15th
Date of last registration: 2004, December 15th

Ownership information:
3 NZ owners on the records:

Persons Unknown owned since 2006, January 4th (for more than two years)
Registration Has Lapsed owned since: 2007, June 18th (for 1 year)
Russell Eric Blank owned since: 2004, December 15th (for more than 2 years)

What does all this mean for me?!

**Max Preload** · 24th December 2008, 17:12

Originally Posted by klingon

I just bought a GN250 to swap the engine into my Volty. The GN's registration has lapsed, which leaves me with the following questions:

Do I need to do a change of ownership?

No. There's no registered owner because there's no current registration to tie it to.

FYI the fact you are the registered owner of a vehicle is not proof of ownership anyway. The closest thing we have to proof of ownership is the receipt you get from the seller, but who is to say they are the owner?

Originally Posted by klingon

Do I need to do something to match up the new engine number with my Volty's VIN and/or rego details?

When it's next WoFed the engine number change will be noticed. I'm unsure of the exact requirements and procedure but since you know the registration number of the bike the engine came out of and it's presumably not 'of interest' to the Police it should be fairly straight forward. Unless there's some LVVC requirement because the model designations are different, even if they are the same engine.

**popelli** · 24th December 2008, 17:20

motor registration has a form you fill in to change the vehicle details

just fill in the form and note the new engine numbers

they don't ask any questions or make any enquiries as to why the engine numbers are being changed

**Max Preload** · 24th December 2008, 17:30

Further to my comment regarding the possibility of a LVVC being required, it appears not. See Page 10 of this.

**Ixion** · 24th December 2008, 18:36

Originally Posted by klingon

I just bought a GN250 to swap the engine into my Volty. The GN's registration has lapsed, which leaves me with the following questions:

Do I need to do a change of ownership?
Do I need to do something to match up the new engine number with my Volty's VIN and/or rego details?

I purchased a report from CarJam, and it gives me the following info:

Licence

Licence expiry:2006, June 14th (expired more than 2 years ago)
Last licence issued on: 2005, December 14th

Registration

Registration status: lapsed
Date of first registration in NZ: 2004, December 15th
Cancellation date of registration: 2007, June 15th
Date of last registration: 2004, December 15th

Ownership information:
3 NZ owners on the records:

Persons Unknown owned since 2006, January 4th (for more than two years)
Registration Has Lapsed owned since: 2007, June 18th (for 1 year)
Russell Eric Blank owned since: 2004, December 15th (for more than 2 years)

What does all this mean for me?!

Nothing much. There's no change of ownership . In fact in NZ there is no such thing as "change of ownership" .Although we all use the term. It's really a change of registered licence holder - "registered keeper" is the Pom term. Not applicable here because the registration (as distinct from license) has lapsed. Legally, it's just a pile of parts. Legally , you *should* hand in the plates at a VTNZ branch (and fill in a form). Nobody ever does.

You can fill in a form (again) at VTNZ to change the engine number of your Volty's details to the "new" one. I don't think there's any charge, and you don't have to prove it or anything. If you don't it's not a big deal, just possible, but not very likely some officious WoF dude might notice the different number and query it. But it's not an offence, and you don't need certification or anything like that (for a like-for-like swap). Otherwise engine reconditioners' lives would be a nightmare. Just a paperwork thing.

Myself , I'd just ignore all that . But I'm a bit informal in such matters. It would be good though to have something in writing from Mr Blank saying that he sold it to you. Just for the record. Silly man letting the rego lapse. The frame would be a LOT more valuable with a valid rego, and it costs nothing to stick it on hold.

**Swoop** · 24th December 2008, 18:48

Originally Posted by Ixion

and it costs nothing to stick it on hold.

Quite true.
If you leave it for longer than two years, you will get a letter from [insert current name of the gummint agency that "used to be" Transit] saying that you are a naughty boy and they haven't heard from you about the registration of the vehicle.
I've just been through all of this with one of mine...