Selling a car

First of all, let it be known that website information is not what it is cracked up to be. Abu Dhabi police have a helpful website with information about documents needed to buy, sell and register a car. Unfortunately it is not accurate! We decided to buy a second hand 4WD the other day. We’ve been looking for a while and I noticed that when I found one that seemed interesting it was often sold before I got to contact the owner. So when I finally found one that my spouse and I agreed upon we committed to it quickly. Actually at this writing we have not completed that transaction, but this is not the story of that purchase but instead the sale of our 3 year old small sedan car. Having decided to buy a car, we needed to sell the sedan to help pay for the 4WD. I looked up the website to find out what is needed to buy and sell a car. I was soon to discover just how fast the car market is here in Abu Dhabi.

Since we were going to get this other car we needed to get rid of the sedan. So at 6pm on a Tuesday evening, two hours after deciding to buy the 4WD, while waiting for one of my daughters to finish a dance class, I logged into Dubizzle.com, created an account and created an ad from memory.  When I got home an hour later I got a call from a prospective buyer asking me about the car. I walked out to the sedan to check the odometer because I hadn’t known the exact reading (my spouse drives it) and found it was 6,000 more than I’d put on the website. . He wasn’t particularly concerned but wanted to know what my “last price” was. I said that as the car had been on the market for less than an hour I wasn’t going to negotiate just yet!  I went back on the website, corrected the mileage and uploaded two photos of the car. One a standard long shot that was actually a little old but still quite representative of the model and colour. The second was a close up of a self inflicted scrape on the rear fender where I had inadvertently backed into the edge of a wall. During the remaining part of the evening I received a number of calls and texts. I had offers made that were 3~5000 less than the listed price and a couple of people who seemed genuinely interested in coming to see the car the next day. I turned the phone off at 11pm to put an end to the evening.  As far as I was concerned I wasn’t interested in offers from people who hadn’t even seen the car and certainly not with a chance to test the market at my stated price. My ad said to text during the day and call during the evenings.  I got a couple of texts during the next morning, and few calls that I couldn’t take, and a couple that I did. I had people calling from Sharjah, and Dubai which I thought was a little odd since it would be a long journey for them to come and survey the car from there and the Dubai market seemed much more dynamic. My earliest opportunity to show the car was at 4pm so I offered that time to some of the texters. When I returned home from work I picked up the car and drove around the corner to my nearby easy meeting point and found my interested party already there. He walked around the car and talked to me a bit and wanted to know my "last price". I said it was still very early days but I’d consider dropping by about a 1,000 since it was due for a 50k service. He said he wanted it. I practically forced him to take it for a test drive around the block first. He said he trusted me because I have been up front and posted the pictures of the damage, and he felt that this meant I’d be honest about other problems if there were any. Actually he is correct but I wouldn’t suggest anyone to rely on that logic too much in this market!  Result, a commitment to buy less than 24hours since I’d placed the ad online. I took the ad offline at 5pm.
 Next came the difficult part. My schedule is pretty tight and we soon discovered that there was no mutually possible time to do the ownership the next day, which was his only day off. That left doing it the same day. He would go home and get the cash, I would take a different progeny to a music lesson and we would meet up again at 7pm to do the deed. I warned him that according to the website he would need his passport, and perhaps employment certificate and that he would have to arrange insurance at the time. The car registration was only 4 months old so a new vehicle test would not be needed according to the website. At 7pm we began the process. First getting the insurance.  None of the companies who have offices on site were particularly known to us but he chose one and accepted their quote. They took his money and wrote up the paperwork. Into the main hall, we found the line for collecting queue tickets was rather large as the ticket issuer was on a break... Once we got that and eventually our turn came to register the transaction we discovered that the car actually did need to be retested. No amount of pointing to the website page which I had printed out would counteract that her computer said to do it again. So, we had to pay more money (120aed), and line up outside for the car to go through an inspection (exhaust, brakes, lights and undercarriage). It was getting quite late by this time so the line to do that was mercifully short. Then back inside again, pick up the new certificate and back into line for processing. Now the car had been bought under hire purchase (or mortgage as they like to refer to it here) and I was appropriately armed with the certificate of clearance from the bank to say it was paid off. At the time that I had received the document I had been annoyed that it had cost a large amount to have it couriered to me but I was glad to have it now. However, I was shocked to be asked to pay 200aed to have the document accepted by the system to register the release of the mortgage. More gouging was my inner thought! Still it was done, a text arrived instantaneously on my phone to say the car was no longer mine. Outside, in the car, he offered to drop me back home, but made me drive! 9pm I was back at my house minus one car.
Next task was to de-register the Salk tag, and get a refund on the insurance. I had removed the Salik tag from the windscreen and I phoned the call centre to get them to deal with it. However, they told me I had to email them all the details because I was from Abu Dhabi! Two days later I got a text to confirm the de-registration was complete.  At the time of the change of ownership I was given an insurance release certificate so that I could get my remaining insurance refunded. Actually that will end up being credited to our next policy as we want to stay with them to ensure easy receipt of the no claims  status.

In the end the documents required were

• Seller’s drivers license
• Buyer’s drivers license
• Car registration certificate
• Fresh vehicle certificate
• Buyer’s vehicle insurance policy
• & Mortgage clearance certificate if been on hire-purchase

Documents that were suggested as necessary but not actually needed were

• Employment certificate
• Passport

In the past a No Objection certificate has also been required but that seems to have faded completely.
Now, all of that happened quickly but purchase of the new car is taking longer. But that is another story entirely :-)

The car registration saga.

A year is up and my trusty Mitsubishi came up for re-registration. This is meant to be a relatively straight forward procedure since it is only one year old, therefore it doesn’t require an inspection. I queried a friend about the process as he had just been through it and apart from having to pay an unexpected traffic fine, had no trouble. I had recently checked online with Abu Dhabi police via my driver’s license and had no fines listed so I thought that should be okay. I downloaded the instructions from their website of what I’d need in the way of documentation, and after the normal amount of prodding I got the necessary letter out of the college addressed to the traffic department. A passport and visa copy are always at hand so that was not problem. The other requirement is an insurance policy for the car. As part of my car loan, with HSBC I got a three year policy from AXA with the full premiums locked into the loan (which is pretty good because it locks the no claims rate in for the full period). So armed with my insurance, letter from the college, passport copy, old rego card and money in pocket I headed off to the police department promptly one morning.

I got there early before they started issuing numbered tickets so I was told to sit in a line in front of the couple of stations that were processing people early. After sitting for quite a while behind someone who must have been a dealer with a number of multiple registrations, I noticed the number system had started so I wandered over and got lucky number seven and returned to my nesting spot. Needless to say the number got called before my dealer got finished so I skipped over to that booth. I handed over all my documents and the woman behind the counter began to enter details then stopped and told me I had 600drh speeding fine! What, where, when, I had looked on line and there was no record of that. But she showed me a photo of the car from 4 months back so there was no denying it, but I failed to understand why I wasn’t able to find out about it before. I had to race over to the conveniently located ATMs by the door and withdraw the money to pay to be able to continue the process. However, that having been paid was the not the end of things. She asked me where my insurance was. I showed her the policy but she said no, that I couldn’t have a three year policy. Well, that was what the car company registered it with, and that was all I had. She needed a current policy that lasted 13 months (12+1 is the rule here) and mine did that so I didn’t see what the problem was. She insisted that you can’t have a 3 year policy. Finish. She sent me off to her superior who also insisted you can’t have a three year policy, that I’d have to get a new one from AXA.

Outside, fuming in the car I phoned AXA, but they told me that they didn’t issue 3 year policies, that must be HSBC and kindly gave me their number. HSBC didn’t seem to know anything about the policies being a problem… Was I the first to run into this problem? They said they would issue me with a one year version. Could I come in and collect it? No! Not with the parking around their offices I couldn’t. They could send it to me, and why hadn’t they done that prior to my having to call them since it was obviously going to be necessary???

Now to add to the complications here, my renewal came due during the Eid holiday break at the end of Ramadan. My first visit to the traffic department was Tuesday. That left two working days to get the letter delivered. It was going to be touch and go, since from Friday on would be public holidays.

To my relief, at 10am on Thursday the courier arrived with the one year policy. I got straight in the car and went back to the traffic department. Got my number and felt happy that there weren’t too many numbers in front of me. I handed over my documents and sat wondering how long the process would actually take when the woman (a different one this time) said that the insurance was no good. The date was for the 20^th and today was the 17^th, she couldn’t put in a future date. But the car registration runs out on the 20^th, so that was when the new insurance ran from. The existing insurance was still current and indeed would run for 13 months (one more) if it complied to the previous registration rules, and actually of course still had two years to go. So what was the problem? The system can’t handle it. Can’t you put it in with today’s date? No! Off to see the superior again. Remember me, I got the one year policy you told me to get. “Why did you put the 20^th on it,” he asks me. I didn’t put it on. Can’t have a future date, even one for the day the car registration is for. But the office is going to be closed, if I wait until the 20^th and then the registration will be overdue. I don’t want to pay a fine! He assures me that I won’t pay a fine for the first month and unless I want to go to the bank and get another letter there is nothing I can do that day. So Eid begins and the car registration runs out. Three days late, on the 23^rd when business begins again, I make my third trip to the traffic department! I handed over my documents, she handed back the letter from the college and my passport photocopy with a look of, what did you give me those for (well they were listed as required by on the website). And taking my 105drh gave me a sticker and new registration card. I texted my friend. “Hallelujah” was his texted reply.