If your classic turns out to be stolen

While he's not gone ...

Its a shame, but there is nothing to do about it

You naturally think: “bought is bought, so from me”. Usually it works. But there can be a big catch in our playing field. Here's how: A vague acquaintance saw a nice motorcycle on the internet. A classic project. He went to visit the seller. That turned out to be a nice man. The project was also fun enough to adopt. The machine had been purchased quite a few years earlier, but the refurbishment had never happened. But “Oh yes, the papers are not complete. The license plate is dormant. But the original number plate is still on it. So you can simply request the license plate from the RDW. ” Top! The buyer received a purchase form. Ready.

Apparently there was nothing to be insured or paid for dormant license plates

So the license plate remained dormant during the restoration. Two years, a lot of hours and quite a bit of invested money later, the motorcycle could be put on a hanger to the RDW, where after inspection the license plate would be awake again. The judge saw the stuff coming and decided to inspect the engine immediately, praised all the work that had gone into it and found the engine in good order.

The story about the license plate turned out to be incorrect

But that didn't seem to be a problem for the time being. Until the motorcycle was reported as stolen according to the computer. There you go with your good behavior and invested effort and money. The police were called to make an official report. The motorcycle was arrested on the spot. Whatever the restorer tried to explain. He was told the investigation would take at least two months. And then the prosecutor would rule. In the meantime, our acquaintance had to find comfort in evidence of seizure. In the meantime he had written off a lot of hours and money in one fell swoop.

The dejected ex-motorcycle owner angrily returned to the seller.

The seller who, according to the police, was not the rightful owner of the project, and therefore had not had the right to sell the thing. That seller appeared to have been in good faith. So the conversation became kind of fun. The bike was bought in the past through an acquaintance of an acquaintance, from a friend who knew someone ... The ex-owner promised to look for the previous owner. He has put in serious effort and time there. And so a file came and was handed back to the public prosecutor.

That story was watertight by human standards. Bureaucracy does not always work according to human standards, however.

But in an overhaul of the official case, the last seller appeared to have acted in good faith. But he shouldn't have sold the bike. The detection file supplied was ultimately so appreciated that there were reasonable grounds to assume that something had ever gone wrong somewhere in the previous administrative or transaction processes. Or so.

A cynic summed it up like this

“They had something wrong in the computer at the RDW. But because of all the work you've done, they were able to give you back your bike without losing face. ” Now we only have good experiences with the RDW, but of course something can go wrong with such a large government software structure.

But still: That ends well, all right. But always check the numbers and papers when purchasing a classic. The Honda project in the photo is for illustrative purposes only. The V77 has its papers. And is registered in name.