Written Off Vehicles

[curly]

MEDIA RELEASE

David Campbell MP

Minister for Transport and Roads

BAN ON ‘REPAIRABLE WRITE-OFFS’ TO HIT CAR RE-BIRTHING RACKETS

Thursday, 8 April 2010

The NSW Government will introduce legislation to ban the re-registration of all ‘repairable

written-off’ vehicles to clamp down on car rebirthing, Minister for Transport and Roads

David Campbell announced today.

Mr Campbell said the legislation will mean that write-offs will no longer be able to be sold at

auctions, where the vehicles can then be re-birthed and on-sold to unsuspecting

consumers.

“There is a black market for purchasing written-off vehicles at auctions, then using stolen

parts to rebirth and register the car, to be sold for a tidy profit,” Mr Campbell said.

“This isn’t being done by licensed repairers - in most instances it’s not financially viable for

genuine repairers to repair these cars using legitimate parts.

“In many cases, it’s being done by unscrupulous operators in backyards and workshops

using stolen parts, who then sell the vehicles to unwary motorists.

“Some consumers are being taken for a ride - motorists might be driving around in what’s

effectively a stolen vehicle.

“More importantly, many of these vehicles have had dodgy repairs which can mask major

structural damage. It’s extremely unsafe.

“Car re-birthing is a significant problem which has been known to have links to organised

crime syndicates.

“Today’s announcement will put a massive dent in these illegal operations.

“It’s estimated that as many as six out of ten of the 20,537 repairable written-off vehicles

presented for re-registration in 2009 posed serious questions about the origin of the parts

used to repair them.

“Around 19,000 vehicles were stolen in NSW in the 2008-09 financial year – of these,

around 5,700 have not been recovered.

“Today’s announcement means any car which is written off will not be able to be reregistered

even if it can be repaired.”

Mr Campbell said the NSW Government made the decision to ban repairable write-offs

after a discussion paper was released for consultation in August last year.

“What we found was that consumers – as well as legitimate car dealers and repairers –

wanted better protections in place,” he said.

“NSW is the first state to introduce this ban on repairable write-offs, and we would

encourage other states to follow our lead and implement similar laws.

“There will be very limited exemptions to the new laws – for some vehicles written off

because of hail damage, and for some classic antique cars.

“We will also strengthen written-off vehicle notification requirements – for example, vehicles

currently being sent to a scrap yard for crushing are not required to be registered on the

Written-off Vehicle Register (WOVR) and this presents an additional opportunity for

rebirthing.”

Mr Campbell said the new laws are on top of the RTA’s Vehicle History Check service

launched last year.

“The RTA’s Vehicle History Check service allows potential buyers to check whether a used

car has ever been written-off anywhere in Australia,” he said.

“The service also provides customers with details of a car’s history including the number of

previous owners, when it was first registered in NSW and odometer readings.

“All you need is the car’s registration plate details, vehicle type and the last four digits of the

VIN/chassis number,

“It’s a simple check you can do on the RTA website for under $20.”

The new laws will be implemented following stringent legislative change and will take effect

in August this year.

[Gavclassic]

Problem is insurance companies will just freight the cars interstate to be sold. The industry of dodgy people just dealing in repairable write offs in NSW is huge. If i'm not spending my day selling cars i'm out there buying, i can spot a RR vehicle from its on line add straight away, there are certain areas of Sydney i just never buy cars from.

Lets just hope this doesn't make our insurance premiums go up!

[Teddy]

woot for more cars in QLD auctions :( sweeet.