A customer buys a car, three weeks pass, and the vehicle is still registered in the dealership's name in the DGT (Directorate-General for Traffic) registry. The buyer calls, the dealership is slow to respond, and the customer decides to file a complaint. Or vice versa: the dealership sold the car, did not notify the sale on time, and fines start arriving in their name for offences committed by the new owner.
Professional dealerships have an ongoing relationship with the DGT that goes far beyond filling in paperwork. Changes of ownership, notifications of sale, MOTs, temporary deregistrations: each operation generates administrative obligations with specific deadlines. Failing to meet them not only results in financial penalties but also opens the door to customer complaints and official inspections. Understanding what can go wrong, and why, is the best way to ensure it doesn't.
Index
When a customer can report a dealership to the DGT
When the DGT acts on its own initiative against a dealership
What penalties the DGT can impose
The obligations to the DGT most frequently failed by dealerships
How to respond to a DGT complaint or inspection
Frequently Asked Questions
When a customer can report a dealership to the DGT
Most complaints that a customer files against a professional dealership stem from one of these three scenarios.
The change of ownership is not processed within the deadline. After signing the sale contract, the buyer is obliged to carry out the change of ownership within a maximum period of 30 days. In practice, many dealerships manage this process on behalf of the customer or through an agency, and when there are delays or errors in the process, the customer perceives it as a breach by the dealer. If the vehicle is still in the dealership's name after that period, the buyer can report the situation to the DGT and demand that it be resolved.
If you want to know how to speed up this process, we explain how the digital transfer of ownership works with the DGT
The car is delivered with hidden charges. A vehicle with an active retention of title, an outstanding embargo, or unpaid fines cannot be transferred until those charges are cancelled. If the customer discovers after the purchase that the car had charges that the dealership did not declare, they can report it to both the DGT and consumer protection bodies. This is one of the most frequent reasons for complaints and also one of the most avoidable: querying the DGT report before putting the vehicle up for sale detects it in seconds.
The vehicle is delivered without a valid MOT. Delivering a car with an expired MOT is a breach of contract that the customer can report. In addition to the complaint, the dealership may face claims for costs arising from passing the MOT or from not being able to drive the vehicle until they do so.
When the DGT acts on its own initiative against a dealership
Beyond customer complaints, the DGT can act on its own initiative when it detects irregularities in a dealership's activity.
Repeated failure to notify sales. Notification of sale is mandatory when the transfer is not carried out jointly by buyer and seller. If a dealership that sells dozens of vehicles a year systematically fails to notify sales, it accumulates vehicles in its name that continue to circulate, generating fines and liabilities that should belong to the new owners. When the pattern is repeated, the DGT can initiate sanction proceedings on its own initiative.
Irregularities in vehicle documentation. A chassis number that does not match the documentation, unregistered technical modifications, or vehicles registered with incorrect data are situations that can be detected during routine inspections or procedures and lead to sanction proceedings.
Sale of non-transferable vehicles. A vehicle with unpaid fines or with the previous year's road tax outstanding cannot be transferred. If a dealership tries to process a transfer on a vehicle that does not meet the requirements, the DGT blocks the procedure and may investigate the transaction.
What penalties the DGT can impose
The penalties that a professional dealership can receive for non-compliance with the DGT vary depending on the severity of the offence.
In the case of a late change of ownership, fines usually range between €200 and €500 depending on the autonomous community. These are not astronomical figures, but if delays are habitual in the business and affect several vehicles a month, the accumulated total starts to become significant.
More costly is the scenario where the dealership continues to appear as the owner of vehicles it has already sold and failed to notify. Until the change of ownership is registered in the Vehicle Registry, fines from fixed speed cameras, insurance, or MOT will continue to arrive in the seller's name. Every offence committed by the new owner who is not registered as the holder becomes an administrative and financial problem for the dealership.
In the most serious cases, where there is falsification of documentation or tampering with the chassis number, the consequences go beyond financial penalties: the vehicle can be impounded, and the act is considered a criminal offence, meaning it must be proven in court that the anomalies are the responsibility of the previous owner.
The obligations to the DGT most frequently failed by dealerships
Knowing where the common risk areas lie helps to avoid them before they cause problems.
Notification of sale after each transaction. This is the most common failure. Many dealers assume that the customer will handle the change of ownership and do not notify the sale on their end. The problem is that if the buyer takes time to make the transfer, fines from speed cameras and for not having passed the MOT continue to arrive for the seller until the change of ownership or the notification of sale occurs. Notifying the sale of a vehicle to the DGT is a procedure that can be done immediately after signing the contract, freeing the dealership from any subsequent liability.
Verify that the vehicle is transferable before selling it. Before closing a transaction, you must check that the car is registered, has paid the previous year's road tax, has no registered charges, and does not accumulate penalties that block the transfer. Skipping this step is the main cause of problems when processing the change of ownership. From Dealcar, you can check the DGT report directly from the file of each vehicle, without leaving the platform, which makes this check a natural part of the workflow rather than an additional task.
Correct management of temporary deregistrations. Stock vehicles that will not be on the road for a while can be temporarily decommissioned to reduce costs. But temporary decommissioning has its own obligations: if the vehicle is in a temporary decommissioned status, the owner must re-register it before carrying out the transfer. A temporarily decommissioned car that is sold without managing the prior re-registration blocks the process and generates delays that the customer ends up paying for with their patience.
If you want to understand how this process works, we explain the complete procedure in our guide to temporary vehicle decommissioning: process, benefits, and considerations.
Valid MOT at the time of delivery. Selling a car with an expired MOT is not only a legal problem for the buyer: it is a direct cause for complaints and reports. Keeping track of the MOT status of each vehicle in stock is a basic task that, with many cars in the showroom, can be lost sight of if not managed systematically.
If you want to go deeper into the specific obligations related to the MOT, you have all the details in our article on MOT obligations for car dealerships.
How to respond to a DGT complaint or inspection
If you receive a notification of a complaint or a communication from the DGT regarding an irregularity, these are the steps you should follow.
Do not ignore the deadline for appeals. Every administrative penalty includes a period to submit appeals, normally between 10 and 15 business days from notification. If you have documentation proving that you complied with your obligations (signed contract, registered notification of sale, DGT report prior to the sale), this is the time to submit it. A well-documented appeal can reduce or cancel the penalty.
Gather the transaction documentation. The purchase contract signed by both parties, proof of the notification of sale, the DGT report queried before the transaction, and any communication with the customer are the evidence you need to defend your position. If you do not have any of these, it is time to reinforce the process so it does not happen again.
Review which documents cannot be missing from each transaction in our article on mandatory documentation for dealerships during a sale.
Consider legal advice in serious cases. For minor penalties resulting from administrative delays, direct appeals are usually sufficient. When the complaint involves allegations of fraud, falsification of documentation, or serious irregularities, having a lawyer specialised in administrative or consumer law is the most sensible decision.
Establish a protocol to prevent it from happening again. A complaint or penalty is a sign that a process is not working properly. Reviewing the flow of each transaction, from the purchase of the vehicle to delivery to the customer, and identifying which step was skipped, is more valuable than managing the penalty itself.
The relationship between a professional dealership and the DGT is not complex, but it does require order. Most complaints and penalties received by dealers stem from administrative oversights that accumulate as the business grows and processes do not scale with it. Being clear about which procedures are mandatory, within what timeframe, and with what documentation, is the difference between operating smoothly and spending time and money resolving problems that should never have occurred.
More than 750 dealerships already use Dealcar to manage their daily operations
From querying the DGT report to generating contracts and monitoring the status of each vehicle in stock, everything is recorded in one single place. With each transaction correctly documented, responding to any DGT request is a matter of opening the vehicle's record.
If you want to see how it works, you can book a free demo at dealcar.io.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a customer report a dealership to the DGT for not making the change of ownership?
Yes. If the dealership undertook to manage the change of ownership and did not do so within 30 days from signing the contract, the customer can report them to the DGT and to consumer protection bodies. The 30-day period is legally mandatory, and failure to comply generates liabilities for the party responsible for managing it.
What happens if I sell a car and do not notify the DGT of the sale?
Until the notification of sale or the change of ownership is registered, the dealership continues to appear as the owner of the vehicle. Any fine, offence, or MOT issue generated by the new owner will continue to arrive in the dealer's name until the situation is regularised. Notifying the sale immediately after signing the contract is the easiest way to avoid this.
Can I sell a car with an expired MOT?
Technically the sale can be carried out, but the vehicle cannot be driven with an expired MOT. Delivering a car in these conditions to the customer is a direct cause for complaint and can lead to a formal report. The recommendation is to pass the MOT before delivery or expressly agree to it in the contract, making it clear who bears the cost and handles the process.
What documentation do I need to respond to a DGT sanction?
The purchase contract signed by both parties, proof of the notification of sale registered with the DGT, the DGT report queried before the transaction, and any written communication with the customer. The more documentation you have in order, the stronger your appeals will be in the event of a penalty.
Can the DGT penalise a dealership for selling a car with hidden charges?
The DGT can block the transfer if the vehicle has uncancelled charges, which generates a direct conflict with the customer. If the dealership knew about the charges and did not declare them, liability can lead to a civil or consumer claim in addition to administrative issues with the DGT. Checking the vehicle's status before each sale is the only way to avoid this situation.
A customer buys a car, three weeks pass, and the vehicle is still registered in the dealership's name in the DGT (Directorate-General for Traffic) registry. The buyer calls, the dealership is slow to respond, and the customer decides to file a complaint. Or vice versa: the dealership sold the car, did not notify the sale on time, and fines start arriving in their name for offences committed by the new owner.
Professional dealerships have an ongoing relationship with the DGT that goes far beyond filling in paperwork. Changes of ownership, notifications of sale, MOTs, temporary deregistrations: each operation generates administrative obligations with specific deadlines. Failing to meet them not only results in financial penalties but also opens the door to customer complaints and official inspections. Understanding what can go wrong, and why, is the best way to ensure it doesn't.
Index
When a customer can report a dealership to the DGT
When the DGT acts on its own initiative against a dealership
What penalties the DGT can impose
The obligations to the DGT most frequently failed by dealerships
How to respond to a DGT complaint or inspection
Frequently Asked Questions
When a customer can report a dealership to the DGT
Most complaints that a customer files against a professional dealership stem from one of these three scenarios.
The change of ownership is not processed within the deadline. After signing the sale contract, the buyer is obliged to carry out the change of ownership within a maximum period of 30 days. In practice, many dealerships manage this process on behalf of the customer or through an agency, and when there are delays or errors in the process, the customer perceives it as a breach by the dealer. If the vehicle is still in the dealership's name after that period, the buyer can report the situation to the DGT and demand that it be resolved.
If you want to know how to speed up this process, we explain how the digital transfer of ownership works with the DGT
The car is delivered with hidden charges. A vehicle with an active retention of title, an outstanding embargo, or unpaid fines cannot be transferred until those charges are cancelled. If the customer discovers after the purchase that the car had charges that the dealership did not declare, they can report it to both the DGT and consumer protection bodies. This is one of the most frequent reasons for complaints and also one of the most avoidable: querying the DGT report before putting the vehicle up for sale detects it in seconds.
The vehicle is delivered without a valid MOT. Delivering a car with an expired MOT is a breach of contract that the customer can report. In addition to the complaint, the dealership may face claims for costs arising from passing the MOT or from not being able to drive the vehicle until they do so.
When the DGT acts on its own initiative against a dealership
Beyond customer complaints, the DGT can act on its own initiative when it detects irregularities in a dealership's activity.
Repeated failure to notify sales. Notification of sale is mandatory when the transfer is not carried out jointly by buyer and seller. If a dealership that sells dozens of vehicles a year systematically fails to notify sales, it accumulates vehicles in its name that continue to circulate, generating fines and liabilities that should belong to the new owners. When the pattern is repeated, the DGT can initiate sanction proceedings on its own initiative.
Irregularities in vehicle documentation. A chassis number that does not match the documentation, unregistered technical modifications, or vehicles registered with incorrect data are situations that can be detected during routine inspections or procedures and lead to sanction proceedings.
Sale of non-transferable vehicles. A vehicle with unpaid fines or with the previous year's road tax outstanding cannot be transferred. If a dealership tries to process a transfer on a vehicle that does not meet the requirements, the DGT blocks the procedure and may investigate the transaction.
What penalties the DGT can impose
The penalties that a professional dealership can receive for non-compliance with the DGT vary depending on the severity of the offence.
In the case of a late change of ownership, fines usually range between €200 and €500 depending on the autonomous community. These are not astronomical figures, but if delays are habitual in the business and affect several vehicles a month, the accumulated total starts to become significant.
More costly is the scenario where the dealership continues to appear as the owner of vehicles it has already sold and failed to notify. Until the change of ownership is registered in the Vehicle Registry, fines from fixed speed cameras, insurance, or MOT will continue to arrive in the seller's name. Every offence committed by the new owner who is not registered as the holder becomes an administrative and financial problem for the dealership.
In the most serious cases, where there is falsification of documentation or tampering with the chassis number, the consequences go beyond financial penalties: the vehicle can be impounded, and the act is considered a criminal offence, meaning it must be proven in court that the anomalies are the responsibility of the previous owner.
The obligations to the DGT most frequently failed by dealerships
Knowing where the common risk areas lie helps to avoid them before they cause problems.
Notification of sale after each transaction. This is the most common failure. Many dealers assume that the customer will handle the change of ownership and do not notify the sale on their end. The problem is that if the buyer takes time to make the transfer, fines from speed cameras and for not having passed the MOT continue to arrive for the seller until the change of ownership or the notification of sale occurs. Notifying the sale of a vehicle to the DGT is a procedure that can be done immediately after signing the contract, freeing the dealership from any subsequent liability.
Verify that the vehicle is transferable before selling it. Before closing a transaction, you must check that the car is registered, has paid the previous year's road tax, has no registered charges, and does not accumulate penalties that block the transfer. Skipping this step is the main cause of problems when processing the change of ownership. From Dealcar, you can check the DGT report directly from the file of each vehicle, without leaving the platform, which makes this check a natural part of the workflow rather than an additional task.
Correct management of temporary deregistrations. Stock vehicles that will not be on the road for a while can be temporarily decommissioned to reduce costs. But temporary decommissioning has its own obligations: if the vehicle is in a temporary decommissioned status, the owner must re-register it before carrying out the transfer. A temporarily decommissioned car that is sold without managing the prior re-registration blocks the process and generates delays that the customer ends up paying for with their patience.
If you want to understand how this process works, we explain the complete procedure in our guide to temporary vehicle decommissioning: process, benefits, and considerations.
Valid MOT at the time of delivery. Selling a car with an expired MOT is not only a legal problem for the buyer: it is a direct cause for complaints and reports. Keeping track of the MOT status of each vehicle in stock is a basic task that, with many cars in the showroom, can be lost sight of if not managed systematically.
If you want to go deeper into the specific obligations related to the MOT, you have all the details in our article on MOT obligations for car dealerships.
How to respond to a DGT complaint or inspection
If you receive a notification of a complaint or a communication from the DGT regarding an irregularity, these are the steps you should follow.
Do not ignore the deadline for appeals. Every administrative penalty includes a period to submit appeals, normally between 10 and 15 business days from notification. If you have documentation proving that you complied with your obligations (signed contract, registered notification of sale, DGT report prior to the sale), this is the time to submit it. A well-documented appeal can reduce or cancel the penalty.
Gather the transaction documentation. The purchase contract signed by both parties, proof of the notification of sale, the DGT report queried before the transaction, and any communication with the customer are the evidence you need to defend your position. If you do not have any of these, it is time to reinforce the process so it does not happen again.
Review which documents cannot be missing from each transaction in our article on mandatory documentation for dealerships during a sale.
Consider legal advice in serious cases. For minor penalties resulting from administrative delays, direct appeals are usually sufficient. When the complaint involves allegations of fraud, falsification of documentation, or serious irregularities, having a lawyer specialised in administrative or consumer law is the most sensible decision.
Establish a protocol to prevent it from happening again. A complaint or penalty is a sign that a process is not working properly. Reviewing the flow of each transaction, from the purchase of the vehicle to delivery to the customer, and identifying which step was skipped, is more valuable than managing the penalty itself.
The relationship between a professional dealership and the DGT is not complex, but it does require order. Most complaints and penalties received by dealers stem from administrative oversights that accumulate as the business grows and processes do not scale with it. Being clear about which procedures are mandatory, within what timeframe, and with what documentation, is the difference between operating smoothly and spending time and money resolving problems that should never have occurred.
More than 750 dealerships already use Dealcar to manage their daily operations
From querying the DGT report to generating contracts and monitoring the status of each vehicle in stock, everything is recorded in one single place. With each transaction correctly documented, responding to any DGT request is a matter of opening the vehicle's record.
If you want to see how it works, you can book a free demo at dealcar.io.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a customer report a dealership to the DGT for not making the change of ownership?
Yes. If the dealership undertook to manage the change of ownership and did not do so within 30 days from signing the contract, the customer can report them to the DGT and to consumer protection bodies. The 30-day period is legally mandatory, and failure to comply generates liabilities for the party responsible for managing it.
What happens if I sell a car and do not notify the DGT of the sale?
Until the notification of sale or the change of ownership is registered, the dealership continues to appear as the owner of the vehicle. Any fine, offence, or MOT issue generated by the new owner will continue to arrive in the dealer's name until the situation is regularised. Notifying the sale immediately after signing the contract is the easiest way to avoid this.
Can I sell a car with an expired MOT?
Technically the sale can be carried out, but the vehicle cannot be driven with an expired MOT. Delivering a car in these conditions to the customer is a direct cause for complaint and can lead to a formal report. The recommendation is to pass the MOT before delivery or expressly agree to it in the contract, making it clear who bears the cost and handles the process.
What documentation do I need to respond to a DGT sanction?
The purchase contract signed by both parties, proof of the notification of sale registered with the DGT, the DGT report queried before the transaction, and any written communication with the customer. The more documentation you have in order, the stronger your appeals will be in the event of a penalty.
Can the DGT penalise a dealership for selling a car with hidden charges?
The DGT can block the transfer if the vehicle has uncancelled charges, which generates a direct conflict with the customer. If the dealership knew about the charges and did not declare them, liability can lead to a civil or consumer claim in addition to administrative issues with the DGT. Checking the vehicle's status before each sale is the only way to avoid this situation.
