Hi Baldrick
I note with particular interest the discussion about trailers, roadworthies, cof's and licenses. I am new on the site but have a few comments to make to all those eager beavers that responded.
It is easy to always lay the blame on someone else, in this case the Police, testing station or Licensing Dept. I do agree with and share the majority's sentiments regarding the general state of non delivery and the associated arrogance of the so-called Officials that are useless and incompetent.
However not one of us should be allowed to transgress the National Laws that are in place, and yes you can all argue that the laws in this country only apply to certain people and only certain elements at best are ever enforced. Be that as it may for the Motoring section of the law, there is an Act called The National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996. This Act has all the Acts and Regulations pertaining to all aspects of vehicles, in any form, the policing of citizens, the registration and licensing of vehicles, cross border transportation and the likes. One of the most important and perhaps unknown FACTS about this Act is that is forms part of the Criminal Procedures Act (CPA) for which offences you can go to jail AND in addition get yourself a CRIMINAL RECORD!!! That is not a joke but a reality!
For your particular situation I have the following advice, and please, you can do whatever you want with it, that is up to you. All I am doing is giving you the facts!
To 'arrange' to have a so called trailer builder accept the instruction from you is, besides being extremely unethical, totally against the law. If this case was taken to the police and a charge laid, the 'builder' could face either a stiff fine or even the fine plus a visit to the nearest prison for fraud! On top of this, and if he is really a REGISTERED builder, he would also face another problem being that the Provincial Authority can revoke his license and cancel his NaTIS number effectively erasing him from the system. To become a REGISTERED 'MIB' (Manufacturer, Importer or Builder, you need to comply with a very long list of requirements according to the same NRTA 93 of 1996. One of these is that you will have to be approved by the SABS and the DTI. Should you find yourself in the unfortunate position described above, you will be 'deleted' from their data base, the result is self explanatory.
The next important issue is that, whilst this ‘builder’ is being charged criminally, the law will automatically force the police to charge you at the same time, also for fraud and perhaps bribery. The ripple effect only becomes known after the fact.
If you do not have the papers for the trailer and have legitimately purchased said trailer from whomever you say, all you really have to do is go to the nearest police station and make an affidavit with all the facts and as much information as possible. This document and your proof of purchase will suffice when it comes to proof of ownership. From her you take this affidavit and your proof of purchase to your nearest Licensing authority where you request a form called an RPI, an acronym for Request for Police Introduction. The next step is to take the trailer to the SAPS Vehicle Theft Branch closest to you and show all the documentation. Once they have done all that you hand them the completed form. Once that is done you take that document, now stamped by the SAPS, back to the authority where you obtained the form from and they process it, after which you get another form from them called an RPC, an acronym for Request for Police Clearance. This document now has to go back to the same SAPS branch that did the RPI. The SAPS then load the details again and issue you with a stamped and signed document which has, yet again got to go back to the authority. The next step is to have the trailer weighed and a roadworthy certificate issued by an authorized testing station. You now are at the point of getting the trailer licensed. With all this documentation you hand it in at the authority and after processing all the information, you are issued with a license disk. Once that is done you have to obtain a license plate from a SABS registered vendor.
By now you are saying that it is all not worth it but I can assure you that it is and you then can, at any time sell your trailer to whomever you please without fear of prosecution.
Another important point I picked up from your forum was where one of the people said that no matter what, you are always liable for the outstanding license fees. This is a gross misconception as the following is the true version of the policy and procedure applicable to transfer of ownership and selling of vehicles.
The NRTA 93 of 1996 in regulation 53 (3) (a), (b), (c) & (d) very clearly state that the CURRENT Title Holder of a vehicle, that is the person or institution that has financed or is financing the vehicle, HAS to, not IF they want to, complete the required blue form and get the OWNER to sign it and provide a copy of their Identity Document, after which the CURRENT Title Holder has to submit these documents to the authority to have the changes done into the Owner’s name and hand them the changed document. Effectively this means that the BANKS have to also pay for the transaction as they have to hand the document to you in your name as the Title Holder AND Owner. For the past 40 years the banks have been ripping us off by handing you a signed document with the ID copy of their Proxy and we, like a bunch of stupid sheep, have merrily obliged. All the while the banks were laughing all the way to the bank, pardon the pun. The Banking Council has also responded by saying ‘our banking RULES say that we do it that way as we have for however many years’ what they seem to not comprehend is the FACT that NO banking RULE can ever override a National LAW!
If you are interested I can give more information on the way vehicles may be sold, correctly that is. Hope I have not stirred up a hornet’s nest.
