I sold a car to a friend 2 years ago who has just moved to Queensland.
So she went to get the car registered and the TMR told her it had been in an accident in 05 and would need to be inspected to determine if it was safe to drive. (it was a good car when I had it and showed no sign of being in an accident)

Now they wont give it back, until she can prove where she got it and that its rightfully hers.

They wont accept the receipt she got from me when she bought it or a statutory declaration, now they want me to fax all the documentation I have.

The car was registered to me in NSW and then to her for about 2 years before she went to Queensland.

Anyone come across this before? all seems pretty bizarre to me.

No it's normal if the Vin has been
Listed on the national database. Seems like it was probably a statutory write of or similar from insurance. What can happen is people buy a wrecked car at auctions for the vin- Be it stat or economic write off then use that Vin on a stolen or repaired car. Used to be was only recorded in that state but now as the national data based are merged to stop these cars being sold interstate,it may be a case of this.

That's why they want your records, to see where it came from and trace the sale to point of origin.if the car is one of these reshell, it can be scraped by law, leaving your friend with a civil duspute with the seller in some cares or with the person that originally re registered the car.

It's messy.

Sorry for bad scenario but it's not uncommOn. Happened lots in qld and Vic with imported cars and stolen/ repaired cars from nsw.

So essentially seven years and who knows how many owners ago some unknown person may have done something dodgy and now an innocent girl with no money may lose her car for good, sounds like a pretty average system.

It's possible. Same goes if you purchase stolen goods, knowingly or not, the original owner can seize it back if it's found leaving you with nothing but civil action against those who sold it to you.

Be it car, DVD player, tv whatever pretty much.

In Vic a whole heap of cars were registered feadulantly by Vic roads staff allegedly and they were terminated. Vicroads was forced to pay compensation in some cases and bring orher imported cars up to Australian standards. A lot originated from nsw. And a lot of vic cars ended up in nsw.

She should be told why she can't register it or take her car back, they should be providing an explanation. If not she may be able to lodge a complaint and even report it to police saying they are holding her car without just cause or explanation. It's a long shot but I highly doubt there has been
No explanation

Whilst I feel your/her pain, I guess that is why you pay a couple of $$ for a revs check.
What if she de-rego'd it, would they give it back?
If so at least it would be in her posession until the problem was sorted.
I hope they aren't charing her storage to keep the car too?

at the end of the day her fault.. always do a revs check with every car so avoid bullshit hassles later on... the amount they charge for a revs check could save you thousands!!

^^^ explanation is car may be unsafe as stated in first post.

sounds suss to me, they tell her they're not giving it back until she provides proof its hers yet they would be able to see on her file how long the cars been registered in her name or they could ring nsw people to check that and get the files faxed. i'd assume they'd be able to look up your licence number to and check it was registered to you

if it was me i'd abuse them until they gave me a proper explanation, if unfamilla is right they cant tell her they're giving the car back when they've got no intention of doing so. only other thing is when she's got the roadworthy done the guy put the wrong vin number in, i've had major dramas because rwc wasn't filled out properly dumb ass behind the counter tried telling me my vintage motorbike was a stolen caravan