As with all transactions in Spain, selling your car is filled with red tape and paper work. I have come across so many of my friends who have sold a car and the buyer has promised to deal with the "transfer of documents" and quite often deducted money for the inconvenience. This is fine and normal practice BUT after a month or two you should check that the transfer has been made as quite often the buyer does not complete the transfer with Traffico. You might save a lot of money in the long run if you do it yourself or ask a gestor or lawyer to do this for you.
If no transfer has been made...
a- you are still liable for all car taxes with the town hall so you may find yourself with a hefty bill of past year's tax + interest + fines for non payment.
b- if the car has an accident or is involved in any crime you are still leaglly resposible for the car.
If you find that your previously sold car has not been transferred you can report it as stolen and/or you can go to Traffico with as much documentation as you can muster and "debaja" your car. ie legally take it off the road.
If your partner dies and the car is in his/her name you still need to either debaja the car or transfer the paperwork to your name or, if you sell it, to another person. This is made harder by the fact that the owner is the only person who can fill out the paperwork ( unless your lawyer has a "poder") so therefore a new realm of death certificate presentation is required.
When you buy a new car you should ensure that all tax has been paid with the Town Hall before you part with your money. You will then need to take over payment of tax from the following year. (check with the seller that he has paid the current year).
If you decide that your car is no longer road worthy you can take it to a breaker's yard called a Desguace and they will also be able to help with the relevent paperwork.
If you "Debaja" your car you will need to pay at least 3 month's taxes to the town hall. Take your debaja notice to the Town Hall and they will let you know how much you owe, but this can take them several months to do and they should notify you by post. NB. this payment must be paid within a certain amount of time and is NOT subject to any normal anual payment limits.
For example. I put my car in "debaja" in February 2009. I went to the town hall with my paperwork and was told to return to pay the following month. I went in every month for the next 4 months and the sum had not been calculated. Eventualy I received notice at the end of July but as it was the beginning of summer and all my other town hall payments had a dealine of November I left it and went in at the end of October. I was then charged a small fine for non payment as payment should have been made within a certain amount of time after I signed for the paperwork. phew .
Paperwork in Spain is very tricky and made worse by the fact that the officials appear to make the rules up depending on the day of the week, however, in their defence they have greatly improved over the past 10 years.
