Answers to Queries.
Page 15
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Registration of Second-hand Vehicles. .
[1,335]" ITALIAN WAREHOUSEMAN "asks you let me
know whether I can use the registration (number) plate which is upon a motorvan that I have just bought from a dealer. He does not seem quite sure about it, and I ,want lobe on the safe side."
ANSWER.Article IV of the Motor Car (Registration and Licensing) Order, dated the igth November, '9°3—Statutory Rules and Orders, 1903, No. 998—provides :—" If the ownership of a motorcar is changed, notice .of the change shall be given either by the new or the old owner to the council with whom the motorcar is registered, and an application•Shall also be made either to cancel the registratibn of the car or to continue the existing registration under the new ownership."
It is not sufficient for the seller to assume that the purchaser will notify the registering council, and fines have been .inflicted for such omissions on the part of the vendor of a registered car, which includes any commercial vehicle or tractor. On the other hand, if the party from whom vou have bought the van has taken no action, you are in the wrong too. We advise you to send five shillings to the Clerk of the Council with whom the van iS now registered, .stating. that you have pin-chased it; that you deStre to continue the existing registration in your own name, and giving your full postal address. The matter will then be in order, and you will be furnished with_a copy of the entries (as.amended) in the Council's register. This is the quickest and safest way out of the difficulty, for you may be stutimoned yourself while you are corresponding with the man from Whom you bought the van. By ali . means try to recover the 5s. afterwards.
A Technical Infraction of the Law.. •
[1,336] " A.J.P.." writes :—" I sent one of my regular drivers off of a road-loco. engine, with a road tractor, to Wimbledon, a few days since. This driver does not require a license as a road-loco. driver, but the driver of the motor, who has driven it upwards of two years past, was away temporarily; therefore, the road-loco. driver was sent in his place. The police stopped him on the road, and asked him for his license, but he could not produce one. .Arp right• in maintaining that I am not legally wrong? "
ANSWER.—We regret to advise that you are legally wrong, though the infraction of the law is a purely technical one. We recommend you to adopt the course of allowing your driver to go to Court and to plead guilty, with an expression of regret for the inadvertence of the offence. At the same time, you might write a letter to the clerk to the magistrates, if the ease gets that far, whilst, in the interval, we recommend you to let the man obtain a motorcar license,. which he can do at the office of any registering authority: of which — is one, on payment of 5s.