50 Victoria Street
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
New Zealand
T 64 4 894 5400
F 64 4 894 6100
www.nzta.govt.nz
9 May 2023
Clare Churcher
[FYI request #22418 email]
REF: OIA-12399
Dear Clare
Request made under the Official Information Act 1982
Thank you for your email
of 7 April 2023 requesting the information regarding ownership of a 2012
Suzuki Swift, registration plate GKE818, and details around when and why a change of ownership can
be reversed by a dealer under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Before I respond to your request, I wish to provide you with context around the vehicle owner versus
the registered person of a vehicle.
Waka Kotahi does not record legal ownership of vehicles. We note that the definition of an ‘owner’ of a
motor vehicle in the Land Transport Act refers to the person lawful y entitled to possession of the
vehicle. We recognise that even though Waka Kotahi does not record legal ownership, typically, the
registered person does tend to be the owner of a vehicle.
Therefore, I have interpreted your request to be in relation to the registered person of the vehicle in
question and have provided you with details as to when and why a change of registered person can
be reversed by a dealer.
I have responded to each part of your request in turn below.
…all records of the transfer or attempted transfer of the ownership of GKE818 (Suzuki Swift)
after 20th April 2023.
The requested information has been provided to you in
Attachment 1 and
Attachment 2.
Certain information has been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act to protect the privacy of natural
persons.
… all details, notes and discussions pertaining to all correspondence and phone calls on this
matter.
The requested information has been provided to you in
Attachment 3.
Certain information has been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act to protect the privacy of natural
persons.
With respect to the information that has been withheld, I do not consider there are any other factors
which would render it desirable, in the public interest, to make the information available.
… details of when and why a change of ownership can be reversed by a dealer.
Guidance from Waka Kotahi internal systems has been provided to you in
Attachment 4.
However, to provide further context, traders complete a Notice of Trader acquisition (MR13C) reversal
transaction to put a vehicle into the trader’s name, which then places the vehicle in the trader network.
At times, Waka Kotahi needs to reverse the transaction when an error has occurred.
The majority of reversal requests are via the Trademe MotorWeb channel via email.
These requests wil fall into the following categories:
• Bad deal - sale cancel ed and we did not trade the vehicle
• Bad rego - wrong registration number was used/entered
• Bad transfer - new owner already changed ownership
• Bad other - other (they
must specify the reason for reversal in this instance)
Waka Kotahi occasionally receives requests from other traders who won’t use these categories
specifically, but wil give reasons which fal into one of them. Before processing a reversal for any
MR13C, we must ensure we have sufficient reason to determine the error which occurred. If Waka
Kotahi is not confident in the provided reasoning, the trader wil be contacted directly to clarify.
Under section 28 of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision to
withhold some of the information within your request. The contact details for the Ombudsman can be
located at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
If you would like to discuss this reply with Waka Kotahi, please contact Ministerial Services, by email
to [NZTA request email].
Yours sincerely
Emma Bevin
Manager Customer Services
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