Transferring registration from interstate to the ACT

Wow, that makes it all sounds very complicated lol

I recently bought a Vic car – I drove it for the allowable month before you have to change it over, then all in one day I went over Dickson pits, got roadworthy – took roadworthy, old plates, old rego cert, and receipt from old owner to Shopfront. Done. Shiny new ACT plates.

After paying a small fortune of course lol

Have also sent the appropriate form back to VicRoads to get refund on remaining rego.

“I’ve experienced before the frustration of turning up to an ACT Government Shopfront, getting your ticket, waiting for half an hour (or more) only to be told that you haven’t met the prerequisites or brought the right documents for car registration transfers and the like …”

This information is publically available, and also documented on your registration papers, UVP or inspection certificate, not much excuse.

“Firstly, you’ll need a valid inspection report.. The dealer will probably supply you with a valid report at the time of purchase of the vehicle. Note that these reports are only valid for 14 days – if you don’t complete the registration transfer within this period you’ll need to get a re-inspection done, and these must be done by the same place that did the original inspection.”

Inspection reports are valid for 28 days. The ’14 days’ is the time limit after the bill of sale is completed, to register the vehicle or get hit with a late fee. A ‘re-inspection’ is different to having to get re-inspected due to certificate expiring. If you fail on an inspection, the form can only be passed by the place that failed it. If it has simply expired, you can go anywhere.

“If the registration on the car has lapsed you’ll need to purchase an Unregistered Vehicle Permit (UVP) – this will cost around $28 per 12 hour period…”

Im pretty sure the cost increased recently, but from memory this cost is made up of a CTP component (7-days worth) plus a registration fee. This means if you get a 1-day permit, for the next 1-day permit you only pay the registration fee, so two permits cost less than twice the cost of one.

“.. and another for today so I could drive it in for the re-inspection.”

Youre not required to have a permit on your car, if youre driving for an inspection.

“Why did I leave it 6 months before doing the transfer? Because the car had 6 months of rego left on it – and I was told by the dealer I bought the car off that I would lose that 6 months if I’d done the registration transfer back in August 2007.”

If the vehicle had ACT registration, you dont lose anything. If the vehicle had NSW registration, you could have probably cancelled it, and paid for more than 6 months of ACT with the refund you get back.

“A very big thank-you to the awesome friendly and helpful guys at Magnet Mart in Belconnen in the tool and timber section who helped me out. I marked the holes on my plates and took them in and they drilled the holes for me, for free. That made my day.”

Its nice to see some businesses these days still endeavour to provide customer ‘service’, even if youre not a customer, good plug for them.

I’ve experienced before the frustration of turning up to an ACT Government Shopfront, getting your ticket, waiting for half an hour (or more) only to be told that you haven’t met the prerequisites or brought the right documents for car registration transfers and the like … so having just completed transferring the registration of my Mini Cooper S from NSW to ACT today I’ve just got some notes, guidelines and lists here if you need to do the same.

Firstly, you’ll need a valid inspection report/certificate – these are performed by Approved Inspection Stations. The dealer will probably supply you with a valid report at the time of purchase of the vehicle. Note that these reports are only valid for 14 days – if you don’t complete the registration transfer within this period you’ll need to get a re-inspection done, and these must be done by the same place that did the original inspection. I think they typically charge around $11 for a re-inspection, however the guys at Rolfe Mazda in Belconnen did it for free (thanks!).

If you purchased the car from a dealer (like I did) you’ll also need to take in the Section 20 – Dealers Notice – this is a pink piece of paper.

And you’ll also need to take in your number plates – so take a Philip’s head screwdriver if you’re driving your vehicle to the Shopfront, as I did.

If the registration on the car has lapsed you’ll need to purchase an Unregistered Vehicle Permit (UVP) – this will cost around $28 per 12 hour period and they are only valid till 7:00pm on the day you purchase the UVP for – and you don’t have to get it for the same day … you can buy them for future dates. These are purchased from an ACT Government Shopfront. I got two at the one time; one to drive my car home from the service centre where my Mini was being repaired (fried General Module) and another for today so I could drive it in for the re-inspection. You’ll get the UVP on a piece of paper similar to what your rego sticker comes on – just tear off the bottom bit and display it on your windscreen.

So, when you go into the ACT Government Shopfront to do the interstate registration transfer, assuming you bought it from a local ACT dealer with interstate plates, you’ll need:

Yellow vehicle inspection report/certificate
Pink Section 20 – Dealers Notice
Number plates
ID (your ACT driver’s license is fine)

The transfer will require a bit of time by the operator at the Shopfront so this isn’t necessary, but if you want you can complete the back of the yellow vehicle inspection report before going into the Shopfront. You’ll need to provide your name and address/es, the dealer and the purchase and market price of the car (the purchase price will be on the Dealers Notice) and just sign and date the bottom of the yellow sheet.

Note that you’ll also need to pay for stamp duty (typically 3% of the purchase price) and the transfer fee of around $60. Surprisingly I did not incur a late fee even though I bought the car last August. Including 3 or more months rego and for me this all came to around $1,200.

Why did I leave it 6 months before doing the transfer? Because the car had 6 months of rego left on it – and I was told by the dealer I bought the car off that I would lose that 6 months if I’d done the registration transfer back in August 2007.

I don’t know if it’s legal to leave your car by the side of the road without plates – but I had no choice in this case and I’ve heard of other people who’ve done the same … so it’s up to you.

Now – another piece of advice; everything was going well for me this morning; the re-inspection took about an hour, I’d taken my two pieces of paper, my number plates and driver’s license into the Belconnen ACT Government Shopfront, came out with my ACT number plates (they have a stash at the Shopfront, so no waiting time) and a 3 months rego sticker, my Mini was out the front with a UVP displayed under the windscreen … and then I discovered the number plates wouldn’t fit on the car. The screw holes on the ACT plates didn’t match up to those on my Mini!

So – take a piece of wood, a battery drill and a suitable size metal drill bit with you and perform the plate surgery by the side of the road if you have the same problem.

In my case I didn’t have the necessary equipment and I didn’t want to risk driving home without plates (I’m not sure if that’s legal – I doubt it) so I drove around the corner to the local Belconnen hardware store.

A very big thank-you to the awesome friendly and helpful guys at Magnet Mart in Belconnen in the tool and timber section who helped me out. I marked the holes on my plates and took them in and they drilled the holes for me, for free. That made my day.

So now my Mini is back on the road with ACT registration, ACT plates (though I will get the plates changed over for plastic slimlines sometime in the next month or so) and I’m off to Sydney in a few hours!

More information: Transferring Registration (Rego.ACT)

bd84 – thanks. I thought the deregulation occurred a year ago so I was surprised to find that I still have to pay the NRMA who are ridiculously overpriced compared to AAMI. Monopolies for windfall profits be damned!

All this just confirms my long held opinion that state-based rego should be dumped and a national system be developed!

Hmm ok, because he mentioned I’d probably still be hit with a late fee (which I wasn’t) which presumably is different from the penalty for not transferring within 14 days …

forgot to mention you can leave interstate rego on the car in the dealers name until the rego expires and drive it. Dealers commonly tell you to do it, unless you can hit them up for 12 months ACT rego too! It’s a loophole in the law or something that allows dealers to register cars interstate and it also bypasses the transfer in 14 days rule in ACT law without penalty. Didn’t have any problems doing it with my latest car.

The old laws are still in place, you have to pay the NRMA part still (my father got a renewal notice a couple of weeks ago). having googled a bit I found stanhopeless’ media release announcing the change would commence “in early 2008”, in fact the bill as been presented in the assembly but has not been passed as law yet.. give em another 6 months to get off their asses lol

as for the story above. I would have to say most of the tips are common sense really, plus the requirements are listed on the rego act website.

Also agreed with the helpfulness of magnet mart staff had a similar experience with them when replacing numberplate screws a few years ago, came out to see which ones i needed then helped me fit them on the spot.

oh and i drove my car all the way across canberra and back with no numberplates on my car that day too (the plates got stolen btw). You’d be lucky to see a police car on the road let alone have one pull you over lol, a decent excuse like i just registered the car and the plates didn’t fit would pretty much see you right with them anyway.

Very useful info Nath (may I call you that? 🙂

Are you guys sure about the CTP? I don’t seem to get an option to either change or seek it from another company when I get sent my renewal notices??

it’s deregulated. I had Suncorp Metway CTP a number of years ago, but have since moved back to NRMA as they are cheaper at the moment.