Buying an unregoed car

[silviaz]

Hi all, I'm going to be buying a car soon (never bought one unregoed, it's in nsw but is regoed in another state) so was looking for some advice on the process. Here is what I was going to do (I already got a quote for insurance and will activate it once the car is bought):

Step 1 - Get an unregistered vehicle permit from Services NSW

Step 2 - Drive the car from the seller to my house and keep it stored

Step 3 - Get green slip online (blue slip should already be provided by seller)

Step 4 - Get a pink slip (or don't need this as I'm getting a blue slip?)

Step 5 - Head to SERVICES NSW to lodge notice of disposal and get plates for car ( should I do this earlier? As I understand I first need greenslip before I can get rego)

Step 6 - All done now, and will do a service

Is there anything I missed or got wrong?

I also just heard that apparently compliance for imports isn't universal for all states? This sounds like a major concern.

Edited June 12, 2023 by silviaz

[GTSBoy]

1 hour ago, silviaz said:

it's in nsw but is regoed in another state)

If it is registered in another state, then it is not unregistered.

There is almost certainly some pain in the arse here though. I think you will struggle to deregister it in the other state, so I suspect that you are saying that you will be buying it unregistered because the owner will be deregistering it before selling it to you. Yes? If so, then your plan is basically ccorrect. But again, I suspect that there is more arse pain to be had here. If you were doing this into SA, for example, you would have to take the car to Regency for an identity inspection, then also possibly a tech inspection (which, in NSW at least is nominally one of your rainbow slips and can be done at Habib's around the corner), and then you can get plates for it.

So I think you need to just call Services NSW and ask them, or look at their website. I'm damn sure that one of their business items is to tell people how to do this.

[silviaz]

Just now, GTSBoy said:

If it is registered in another state, then it is not unregistered.

There is almost certainly some pain in the arse here though. I think you will struggle to deregister it in the other state, so I suspect that you are saying that you will be buying it unregistered because the owner will be deregistering it before selling it to you. Yes? If so, then your plan is basically ccorrect. But again, I suspect that there is more arse pain to be had here. If you were doing this into SA, for example, you would have to take the car to Regency for an identity inspection, then also possibly a tech inspection (which, in NSW at least is nominally one of your rainbow slips and can be done at Habib's around the corner), and then you can get plates for it.

So I think you need to just call Services NSW and ask them, or look at their website. I'm damn sure that one of their business items is to tell people how to do this.

I hope so, yeah that seems like a huge issue. I don't think they will de register it, they bought it sometime ago and I assume with QLD rego.

[Murray_Calavera]

I have a few questions. 

Is the car modified or defected (or defected in another state)?

What do you mean blue slip is provided by the seller? You either need a pink slip or a blue slip, the one you need will depend on your circumstances. It doesn't have anything to do with the seller. 

With the details you've provided, I'm guessing it will be closer to the following - 

Step 1 - Get an unregistered vehicle permit from Services NSW

Step 2 - Drive the car from the seller to my house and keep it stored

Step 3 - Take your modified car to a blue slip workshop. Get laughed at. Drive home. 

Step 4 - Restore the car to stock or near stock. Return to the blue slip workshop and get it signed off. 

Step 5 - Pay for your green slip.

Step 6 - Head to SERVICES NSW. Do paperwork. Get plates. 

Step 7 - Do a skid. Post vids. 

[Duncan]

I've never done an interstate buy, but to add to checking for defects like murray said, also make sure it is not on the stat write off register.

The main check is the blue slip, the shop does the identity check on the car at that point (checks engine number and chassis number(s) with RTA), and they also have to be happy to say any mods are safe (which most shops would not without an engineer taking responsibility for it)

[soviet_merlin]

A bit of a different question: how would your situation look like if you had another $10k in your budget? Please correct me if I'm wrong but it looks to me like you are dead set on buying a Silvia but you don't quite have the funds for it. So you keep coming across these potentially questionable car sales. Last one was an alluringly cheap import from Japan. This time it's a questionable rego situation.

Maybe going against the grain here, but I would propose to wait a bit longer, save more funds and buy a car without the hassle.

Personally I stay clear of ads along the lines of:

- The car doesn't run, but all it needs is <insert cheap thing to fix>

- The car isn't registered, but all it needs is <insert cheap thing to fix>

If it is not a big deal, why haven't people done it before? I'm also mechanically inept so maybe it's not an issue for you.

 

I think the Service NSW section on buying a car is pretty good overall. Personally it made me think twice about whether I wanted to buy a modified import from interstate. I ended up buying in NSW instead.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/guide/buying-vehicle#registering-your-vehicle

 

8 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

If it is registered in another state, then it is not unregistered.

Just as an aside, the first thing on Service NSW website about interstate registrations is this.

Quote

Please note: If a vehicle is kept or garaged in NSW and doesn't have a NSW registration, it is considered 'unregistered'. Severe penalties apply if you drive an unregistered or uninsured vehicle.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/transfer-or-register-an-interstate-vehicle

[silviaz]

7 hours ago, Murray_Calavera said:

I have a few questions. 

Is the car modified or defected (or defected in another state)?

What do you mean blue slip is provided by the seller? You either need a pink slip or a blue slip, the one you need will depend on your circumstances. It doesn't have anything to do with the seller. 

With the details you've provided, I'm guessing it will be closer to the following - 

Step 1 - Get an unregistered vehicle permit from Services NSW

Step 2 - Drive the car from the seller to my house and keep it stored

Step 3 - Take your modified car to a blue slip workshop. Get laughed at. Drive home. 

Step 4 - Restore the car to stock or near stock. Return to the blue slip workshop and get it signed off. 

Step 5 - Pay for your green slip.

Step 6 - Head to SERVICES NSW. Do paperwork. Get plates. 

Step 7 - Do a skid. Post vids. 

So the seller said he provide the blueslip before the sale. In terms of defect how do I know if it's defected, is it PPSR? I don't know if it is. yes the car has some modifications.

Edited June 12, 2023 by silviaz

[silviaz]

42 minutes ago, Duncan said:

I've never done an interstate buy, but to add to checking for defects like murray said, also make sure it is not on the stat write off register.

The main check is the blue slip, the shop does the identity check on the car at that point (checks engine number and chassis number(s) with RTA), and they also have to be happy to say any mods are safe (which most shops would not without an engineer taking responsibility for it)

PPSR is all clear.

[silviaz]

3 minutes ago, soviet_merlin said:

A bit of a different question: how would your situation look like if you had another $10k in your budget? Please correct me if I'm wrong but it looks to me like you are dead set on buying a Silvia but you don't quite have the funds for it. So you keep coming across these potentially questionable car sales. Last one was an alluringly cheap import from Japan. This time it's a questionable rego situation.

Maybe going against the grain here, but I would propose to wait a bit longer, save more funds and buy a car without the hassle.

Personally I stay clear of ads along the lines of:

- The car doesn't run, but all it needs is <insert cheap thing to fix>

- The car isn't registered, but all it needs is <insert cheap thing to fix>

If it is not a big deal, why haven't people done it before? I'm also mechanically inept so maybe it's not an issue for you.

 

I think the Service NSW section on buying a car is pretty good overall. Personally it made me think twice about whether I wanted to buy a modified import from interstate. I ended up buying in NSW instead.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/guide/buying-vehicle#registering-your-vehicle

 

Just as an aside, the first thing on Service NSW website about interstate registrations is this.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/transfer-or-register-an-interstate-vehicle

It's a bit of a different situation now, funds are good. Looking local now, I'm getting the car inspected and it just seems the seller is the complication now. The car is in NSW but registered in another state.

[Murray_Calavera]

Is the car modified?

[silviaz]

3 minutes ago, Murray_Calavera said:

Is the car modified?

Hey, just updated it sorry somehow missed that part. yes it is.

Edited June 12, 2023 by silviaz

[Murray_Calavera]

1 minute ago, silviaz said:

Hey, just updated it sorry somehow missed that part. yes it is.

I thought so. 

If I could see the car in person this would be a lot more simple, as I can't let me tell you a story. 

This is the scenario. You have a lovely S15 silvia, looks amazing, pretty typical mods, exhaust, front mount. But the workshop that installed your front mount thought nothing of cutting a bunch of holes in the body to run the intercooler piping. You don't know anything about the engineering process and really, don't know what the workshop did to install the front mount. 

The next day you are frolicking through the fields in your S15, playing with the other woodland creatures when out of no where a wild highway patrol monster appears. 

You are stopped for a random defect check. Oh I mean, random breath test, and the highway patrol monster finds some holes cut in the cars body. Your car is defected and written on the defect is something to the effect of, "holes cut in structural component of vehicle chassis". 

No big deal you think, a workshop did the modification, surely the way they did it is fine. You start speaking with blue slip workshops and engineers. 

Turns out that your car has air bags and other sensors that are tuned to the factory chassis and the way it responds in a collision and now the chassis has been modified/weakened. Now all the engineers you speak with don't want to touch the car with a 10 foot pole, it just isn't worth their time/they don't want to risk losing their engineering licence.

So now the beautiful S15 is unregistered. What are you to do? 

It gets sold to someone interstate who thinks they can easily get around the defect situation. I mean the defect is in another state right? Wrong. The car stays unregistered. 

And now the car is sold to the next person and the cycle continues. 

Maybe this story isn't relevant to your situation. I haven't seen the car. It's something to think about in any case. 

[silviaz]

8 minutes ago, Murray_Calavera said:

I thought so. 

If I could see the car in person this would be a lot more simple, as I can't let me tell you a story. 

This is the scenario. You have a lovely S15 silvia, looks amazing, pretty typical mods, exhaust, front mount. But the workshop that installed your front mount thought nothing of cutting a bunch of holes in the body to run the intercooler piping. You don't know anything about the engineering process and really, don't know what the workshop did to install the front mount. 

The next day you are frolicking through the fields in your S15, playing with the other woodland creatures when out of no where a wild highway patrol monster appears. 

You are stopped for a random defect check. Oh I mean, random breath test, and the highway patrol monster finds some holes cut in the cars body. Your car is defected and written on the defect is something to the effect of, "holes cut in structural component of vehicle chassis". 

No big deal you think, a workshop did the modification, surely the way they did it is fine. You start speaking with blue slip workshops and engineers. 

Turns out that your car has air bags and other sensors that are tuned to the factory chassis and the way it responds in a collision and now the chassis has been modified/weakened. Now all the engineers you speak with don't want to touch the car with a 10 foot pole, it just isn't worth their time/they don't want to risk losing their engineering licence.

So now the beautiful S15 is unregistered. What are you to do? 

It gets sold to someone interstate who thinks they can easily get around the defect situation. I mean the defect is in another state right? Wrong. The car stays unregistered. 

And now the car is sold to the next person and the cycle continues. 

Maybe this story isn't relevant to your situation. I haven't seen the car. It's something to think about in any case. 

 

9 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

If it is registered in another state, then it is not unregistered.

There is almost certainly some pain in the arse here though. I think you will struggle to deregister it in the other state, so I suspect that you are saying that you will be buying it unregistered because the owner will be deregistering it before selling it to you. Yes? If so, then your plan is basically ccorrect. But again, I suspect that there is more arse pain to be had here. If you were doing this into SA, for example, you would have to take the car to Regency for an identity inspection, then also possibly a tech inspection (which, in NSW at least is nominally one of your rainbow slips and can be done at Habib's around the corner), and then you can get plates for it.

So I think you need to just call Services NSW and ask them, or look at their website. I'm damn sure that one of their business items is to tell people how to do this.

I just called Service NSW and they said, they take interstate plates and de rego the car, which sounded odd.

[The Bogan]

Needs a ???green slip??? NOT a 3rd party slip, one for an unregistered car, or a engine swap

I did this years ago for an interstate car, and on engine swaps

Not 100% on it now though

I do know that if your licence says you live in NSW you only have a short time to get your rego changed to NSW, fines apply if you don't, and the interstate "3rd party" insurance in null and void as well I believe 

RMS inspection will require alot of mods to be returned to STD or equivalent as well I believe 

You "may" be able to get an engineer to sign off on some of it, there's alot of stuff that needs to comply to do it legally, an engineer can help with it all

Check the RMS website for allowable modifications 

[The Bogan]

Blue slip, not green

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/authorised-unregistered-vehicle-inspections-blue-slips

 

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/modified-and-non-standard-vehicle-inspections

[silviaz]

4 hours ago, The Bogan said:

Blue slip, not green

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/authorised-unregistered-vehicle-inspections-blue-slips

 

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/modified-and-non-standard-vehicle-inspections

Looks like I'll need both green and blue. Green and blue are mandatory.

[silviaz]

7 hours ago, The Bogan said:

Needs a ???green slip??? NOT a 3rd party slip, one for an unregistered car, or a engine swap

I did this years ago for an interstate car, and on engine swaps

Not 100% on it now though

I do know that if your licence says you live in NSW you only have a short time to get your rego changed to NSW, fines apply if you don't, and the interstate "3rd party" insurance in null and void as well I believe 

RMS inspection will require alot of mods to be returned to STD or equivalent as well I believe 

You "may" be able to get an engineer to sign off on some of it, there's alot of stuff that needs to comply to do it legally, an engineer can help with it all

Check the RMS website for allowable modifications 

What did you mean by engine swap? I think you replied to one of my other threads about repairable writeoffs having different engines numbers, are you saying if it's different to the original one it can cause issues?

[The Bogan]

1 hour ago, silviaz said:

What did you mean by engine swap? I think you replied to one of my other threads about repairable writeoffs having different engines numbers, are you saying if it's different to the original one it can cause issues?

Yes, if the replacement engine has been reported stolen, or gets reported as stolen later on

If it isn't stolen it is a blue slip if I recall correctly and they update your rego papers and stuff on their computer system 

[r32-25t]

If the car has a blue slip, get a green slip, a ppsr and take all 3 to service nsw. pay rego and transfer fee and they will supply you with a new set of plates. Then do skid and post video 

[silviaz]

Also note, the seller doesn't have proof how the car came into their possession, so will get them to rego it. I assume services nsw will ask them for that information and if they can't fork it up, then I dodged a bullet.