What is needed to sell in Bangkok bike with Pattaya plates.

Sep 2, 2011
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I bought a Kawasaki D-Tracker while I was living in Pattaya and moved in Bangkok later. Green book is in my name.

Now I plan to sell the bike, but have no idea how to do it here. Like where to go, should I get some kind of paper from Pattaya, should I register in Bangkok immigration office (I am living on tourists visas, so don't really need it), and so on.

Thank in advance for your help.
 

KenYam

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Nov 2, 2007
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Advertise it - i don't believe you need to do anything ! - The new owner will decide what is needed, maybe he/she may come from Pattaya, Cheers
 
Sep 2, 2011
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Well, I did advertise (on this forum also) and now have a potential new owner from Bangkok who also doesn't have a clue how to do it. :)

So the question stands.
 
Jun 15, 2011
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As KenYam wrote, the EASIEST transfer is if the new owner is from Pattaya too, because then all the paperwork can be done in the same place, i.e. Pattaya. I have been down this road before buying a Chantaburi registered bike and living in Jomtien. We had to take the bike back to Chantaburi ( twice ) because you must transfer the bike out of one region, and into another region. It is not easy, believe me ! Not only that, you must inform them ( Pattaya ) at the same time, that you also wish to either retain the Pattaya licence plate number, or remove this number and put fresh plates on wherever the new owner lives. Also remember as a foreigner, you will have to have a RESIDENT PERMIT to sell the bike which is ONLY available from your local Immigration Office at a cost of 500 baht. Be warned that this document is only valid for 30 days. Let it expire, and it'll cost you another 500 baht. If the new owner is a foreigner, they will also need a Resident Permit to register the bike. So, don't get the Resident Permit until you've done the deal, then it'll be fresh. If you sell the bike outside of the Pattaya region, you'll ( or the new owner will ) still have to take the bike back to Pattaya to de-register it. If you give the new owner a ' Power of Attorney ' form, it'll save you having to go too. For instance, if you sell the bike in BKK., the new owner cannot waltz into a BKK registration office to transfer the ownership. They'll be turned away ( even if you offer them money to do the transfer -- I know, I tried this ). Hope this is of some help..... Mick
 
Sep 2, 2011
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Thanks a lot, finnomick, I know the hard way now. :)

For now, I guess, I will offer new owner to make re-registration in Pattaya and then it will be up to him, if he wants to move ownership to Bangkok or whatever.

If someone has more stories about it, they are welcome.
 
Sep 2, 2011
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Did I understand right that if I want to move bike to another province, I should first come to my home-province and de-register bike? Plates will be taken away, I guess, so how long I'll be able to drive without it?

And then I will need to get Resident permit in a new province and register bike there?
 
Mar 11, 2008
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That wasnt required for any of my inter province transfers..

You have the option.. Either do it in the old province with your out of province address (the new buyers).. Or move it to the new province and get a new plate, this takes longer, couple of weeks last time I did it. This can of course jeopardize a sale.
 
Jun 15, 2011
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No, YOU do not need to take the bike back to your old home province, however, if the new buyer wishes to register the bike, say, in BKK., he will have to. This is where you give him your ' power of attorney ' form. LivinLOS has obviously done his transfers differently to the way we have been told by the licensing office ( our transfers have always been done on the day we went to the relevant licensing office -- we haven't had to wait for two weeks for anything else to be done ). I have had two experiences in transferring vehicles, and both have involved the same proceedure. 1) The Honda I bought in Chantaburi and registered in Pattaya. I went to the Pattaya licewnsing office with the bike. They told me I had to take it back to Chantaburi, ( pay any outstanding back road tax first - great ), then de-register it there, and then bring it back to Pattaya to register it at my Jomtien address. I actually had and used the option to keep the Chantaburi licence plate on the bike as it was pertinent to the age of the bike ( 1966 ) but to even do this I had to pay one of the Chantaburi staff 100 baht ' under the counter ' to use her Chantaburi address to ' guarantee ' an address for the number. This was actually easier than having the Chantaburi plate removed. The bike was then registered in Pattaya. 2). I bought a VW Beetle in Pattaya which was on Yasothon plates but with the book showing a Pattaya address. I subsequently moved to the Buriram area. After visiting the Buriram licensing office, I had to drive the car to Yasothon to de-register it there and advise them of a change of plates and address. We then drove back to the Buriram licensing office where we got new plates and the book address changed to our house in the Buriram province. Another little known fact IS, if you transfer a vehicle/motorbike etc., into a province, you MUST go to the main licensing office within the province to register the vehicle, in this case Buriram. When we wanted to sell the VW and it was going out of province, we could NOT do this in Buriram, but rather in our local office at Prakhon Chai. Again here, we tried to bribe the official in Buriram to save us the hassle, but he told us ' I'll take your money, and then you'll still have to go to the Prakhon Chai office, so save your money ". And, YES, if you are a foreigner, every time you buy or sell a motorised vehicle, you need to get a Resident Permit from your local Immigration Office -- cost, 500 baht every time. I am only telling you how WE had to do our two transfers, but I really don't see how anyone can bypass the system. But, TIT and anything can and often does happen. The misses is quite adamant that any further purchases should be either new, or with our province plates already on. As she has to sort out most of the ' crap ' sorry, paperwork, I don't blame her ( read my report on buying a bike without a green book without knowing the excise duty hadn't been paid )
 
Sep 2, 2011
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Sorry, if I confused you, guys. It's just there is still two options for me: 1) sell the bike and 2) don't sell the bike. Second option looks more real as I have only 4 days left in Bangkok and don't want to bet on Thai efficiency.

Let's sum it up:

1) I somehow get a resident permit (does it matter, if it's from Bangkok or Pattaya), go with new owner (Bangkok resident permit) to Pattaya office and we conclude the deal. Ideally, he can de-register the bike right away, but I won't care from the moment the bike's in his name.

2) If I don't sell the bike, I want to transfer it's ownership to Phuket. Thus I go with the bike to Pattaya and de-register it. I don't need a new address or resident permit. After I come to Phuket, I get a resident permit and register the bike. In this case what's happening inbetween? I mean do they let me keep plates or is there some kind of paper that I'm in transit?

Correct me if I'm not right.
 
Sep 2, 2011
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Or in 1) I get a Bangkok resident permit, my buyer also gets it. We go to some kind of licensing office in Bangkok(where?), not in Pattaya, to conclude the sale. Then I write "power of attorney" form and it's up to him if he wants to register the bike in Bangkok.
 
Jun 15, 2011
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I don't know why the Thai registration office make it so hard. There are two ways to do things when you buy a bike ( or car ). As with my Honda, we didn't change the area where the bike was registered so it kept the old Chantaburi plates. What we did was to change the owner thereby putting my name in the book with my Jomtien address. So it became owner living in Jomtien, bike still registered in Chantaburi area.

To answer your first question, get your resident permit from the Immigration Office where you are living. For this permit, you will need two copies of your passport page, visa page, landing card, address where you are living ( blue book ) and two passport size photos plus 500 baht. Remember it is only valid for 30 days so be sure of the sale before you get it. ( It should be available over the counter, but for instance, at Soi 5 Jomtien, they do not process the same day, you must go back the next day to collect ). Fill out an ' Power of Attorney ' form. Get the money from the buyer. Give him the bike, the book, the ' Power of Attorney ' form, the Resident Permit and let him do whatever he wants to do -- your part has finished. It's up to him to change the registration. The ' Power of Attorney ' form means YOU do NOT have to go to Pattaya. You can buy ' Power of Attorney ' forms at any stationery shop -- trouble is, they're printed in Thai so you will have to get someone to fill it out for you.

Question 2 -- If you don't sell the bike and want to re - register it in another province ( say Phuket ) you do not need to get the Resident Permit because you are not transferring ownership of the bike. There are now 3 ways to go:

1) change the address in the green book but do not change the registration plate

2) change the address in the green book and change the registration plate

3) find an agent who will do all the transfer for you ( I suspect this is how livinLOS did it )

For number 1), you will need someone in Pattaya who will let you use their address to guarantee where the registration plate is registered.

For number 2), the bike has to be de-registered in Pattaya, and re-registered in another province. You keep the old plate during the transition period, then hand them in at the registration office at the new province when you go to change to the new address. They then give you a new plate to put on the bike. A part of the de-registration process is to check the engine and chassis number to make sure it matches what's in the green book.

For number 3), find an agent in the province to which you are moving to who will do the whole process for you. What they will do is take the engine and frame numbers by using masking tape and a pencil, get all the relevant paperwork from you and leave it up to them. I've never used this method so don't know how long it takes or how much it costs or even how safe it is. These ' agents ' are not usually registration office employees, but they may operate from just outside the registration office building.

The whole process is very confusing, especially when you get inside the registration office because most people don't know where to start or what paperwork you need. We've done it the ' hard way ' -- twice. If you can find one of these agents and are prepared to pay, then use them, they do this every day and they know what to do and where to go. They usually go to the front of the queue too.

Good luck, but feel free to ask any more questions
 

cdrw

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Oct 6, 2006
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This may possibly be adding to the confusion with regards to changing a bikes license plate (but not dealing with a change of ownership):

In March 2010, I bought a bike in Phuket, with Phuket plates, and rode back home to Pattaya. The green book had been change to my name and listed the bike's prior owners.
The local Pattaya [Banglamung] Transportation & License Dept said I couldn't change the bike's Phuket license plate to one for Pattaya, but I could if I drove to the main Trans & License Dept in Chonburi. Chonburi city is the provincial capital of Chonburi province.
With the green book, a letter verifying my Pattaya residence from Immigration and the bike, I rode to Chonburi city, where the bike serial numbers were verified.
As I'd arrived late in the day, I had to return the following day, and I was given a new green book and license plate for Pattaya. One thing I found surprising is that the new green book listed only me and none the bike's prior owners.
Total cost at Chonburi was 425-Bt, plus 200-Bt that Pattaya Immigration scams for the residence letter
 
Jun 15, 2011
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...I wish the licensing offices had told me about this option, it would have saved a lot of mucking about. Good to know about this now -- just in case. Hopefully it will help EyeShield77 too !
 
Feb 23, 2010
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I live in Bangkok and I had purchased a bike from Chiang Mai with CM plates. All I did was changing the green book under my name in Chiang Mai, get the bike to Bangkok and change the plates to Bangkok plates after using it with Chiang Mai plates for 5-6 months. It does not matter where the plates are from as long as the green book is under your name. I was worried there might be issues with getting a Bangkok plate but it only took an afternoon at the Transportation Office at Mo Chit.
 
Feb 23, 2010
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To add; in order to change your plates from one province to the other, you will need a proof of address for the city you would like to change the plates TO. In my case, I used my work permit.
 
Mar 11, 2008
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cdrw;271185 wrote:
The local Pattaya [Banglamung] Transportation & License Dept said I couldn't change the bike's Phuket license plate to one for Pattaya, but I could if I drove to the main Trans & License Dept in Chonburi. Chonburi city is the provincial capital of Chonburi province.

Perhaps thats why the Phuket one was never a problem, as Phuket province only has the Phuket town central DMV so your automatically dealing with the provincial main office ??

All I know is 2 different out of province vehicles, both sold in the last owners name, last owners out of province address.. I then moved to my name in Phuket province as easily as a local province purchase. The only difference was the additional time taken to get the new plate. No agents used and done simply by Phuket DMV without any special requests or tea money.

Both vehicles fully road legal and with up to date taxes. I guess its possible if they had back taxes they had to go back to settle those first. But a non issue to me in my buys.

I was quite nervous as the first time I ever did this was a car from CM, where I flew up, bought it and drove home and REALLY didnt want to repeat the drive twice more over a technicality. I was going to put it in my name in CM first but the finance co held the book and it wasnt going to be released instantly. CM DMV confirmed to me that if I had the book both options would have been valid, either my name Phuket address and CM plate done in CM.. Or my name Phuket plate and Phuket address done in Phuket slower.

Until this thread I didnt even know there was a problem with this process.

Bangkok plates have some special dispensation where they are allowed to register and transfer more easily in the provinces.
 
Jun 15, 2011
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It seems the real problem here is that no two Vehicle Licensing Offices use the same rules and regulations for transfers, but then most things in Thailand are " done on a wing ". I even know a Swedish couple in Surin who were told they could not register a motorbike in their name despite them owning their own house there. Your luck just depends on whom you speak to.....and which way the wind is blowing.