After having finally managed to buy your new vehicle and so excited about it, you will want to drive it around with your family or friends to show off a bit. Well that’s not bad, however is better to you do not put yourself in trouble by making sure you have gone through all the necessary process that make you a legitimate owner of the car you have bought. Every country has their own process of car registration and Ghana is no exception. What happens is that when a car is manufactured it goes into the record of the manufacturer or the franchise selling it, however there is no record that the car really exists in the national registry of Motor Vehicles. This means that it is an illegal to have such a car moving about since is can be used for any criminal activity and can’t be easily tracked at the same time if such a car is stolen it’s difficult to report such circumstance to the Police because there is no record of existence for it. Every car must possess a registration number to make it legal to drive around.
Documents Needed to Register Your New Vehicle
Before your car is registered to make you a legitimate owner, here are some few documents you have to have in possessions.
This is evidence that you are legitimately allowed to drive a car, if your license been suspended or revoked, this means that there is no way to can acquire the legal right to register your vehicle or even drive it.
Certificate of Title:
This document is what establishes you by law as the true owner of a vehicle. Therefore if you buy a car from a private seller of dealer without this document, that means the car still belongs to the seller because the certificate will still have the name of the seller on it. If you buy a car that has already been registered, you’ll have to make a transfer of legal ownership from the seller or owners name to your name as the new owner.
Proof of Insurance:
This document is a proof that the car has been insured which is usually in a paper card form and provided by the insurance company with details like policy information and effective date.
A Sales Contract:
This is the first document given to you when you buy a car. And serves as an evidence of transaction between the buyer and the seller. The contract should identify the product sold, the quantity, the price and pricing payment terms. Additionally it is very important that in the sales contract you state or specify provision for termination of contract and process of resolving disputes.
Bill of Sales:
This document is also to serve as evidence or record of the transaction between you the buyer and the seller. It gives details of the date the vehicle was sold and information about the seller as well as the vehicle in order to enable the buyer to cross check.
Customs Clearance Form:
This is where the car is examine to know if all car documents are original, customs authority have to check if the duty and charges for clearing the car has been paid. They are to confirm if the year of the car matches with the year of manufacture on the document. If the car is in the name of another person you have to provide a valid identification to be able to get the necessary documentation.
DRIVERS AND VEHICLE LICENSE AUTHORITY (DVLA)
The Drivers and Vehicle License Authority will access all the information you have provided and process all the documentation you need to make you the right owner and that includes giving a license plate number for your car.
The Different Codes of License Plate in Ghana
GR/GT/GN/GW/GS = Greater Accra Region
WR = Western Region
UW = Upper West Region
ER = Eastern Region
AS = Ashanti Region
BA = Brong-Ahafo Region
CR = Central Region
NR = Northern Region
UE = Upper East Region
VR = Volta Region
Note: There are also some supplementary plates which are not included in this journal.
Credit: Carmudi.com.gh
