Posted: Tue Nov 3, 2020 10:53pm
Hi Blanco,
As you're in Alicante province, the timing will determine which bills have been debited from your account. Car tax would have been taken April/May, Basura (rubbish) in June - if this is no longer included in your Water bill - and IBI (Council Tax) in November, although usually September, but delayed this year because of Covid-19.
Car tax is not automatically transferred to the buyer. Did you sell your car privately or to a dealer? Did you draw up a "compraventa" (sale contract)? The buyer has 15 days to register the car in their name with the DGT (Trafico) and they will receive a temporary "permiso" to prove that they have done so - did you receive a copy of that from the buyer? If not and they did not do the transfer, you can report them to the DGT, which could result in it being illegal for them to continue driving the vehicle.
Alternatively, you could go to DGT yourself without the need for the buyer's signature. Use Modelo 02 application form and tick the "Notificacion de venta" box'; also take the
sale document (compraventa) and proof of your ID. You'll have to pay a fee of
€8.50, but at least you'll know that DGT have recorded the change of ownership. You can find details of Modelo 02 at:
https://sede.dgt.gob.es/sede-estaticos/Galerias/modelos-solicitud/02/Mod.02-ES.pdf
A friend of mine has recently sold her car to a dealer. It's common for dealers not to transfer ownership of the vehicle from the seller's name to their own, because they don't want to pay transfer charges for a vehicle they plan to sell straight on to a customer. However, you do need the dealer to
register the car as temporarily in their possession, otherwise any
traffic penalties continue to be your responsibility, even if you weren't responsible for the violation - you could probably prove that you weren't driving the vehicle at the time, but it's hassle you won't want to deal with. As with a private seller, you can tell a dealer that if he doesn't make the temporary transfer, then you'll get a 'baja' on the car from Trafico, which would prevent the dealer giving potential buyers a test drive.
Whoever you sold the vehicle to, it's important to ensure the vehicle is transferred to the new owner; otherwise, you continue to be liable for any traffic fines, but more importantly, for the annual road tax.
Kind regards,
Kim