Vietnam’s regulations on revocation of license plate and vehicle registration

1. Cases where the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration shall be revoked

According to Article 19 of Circular No. 15/2014/TT-BCA and Clause 4 Article 1 of Circular No. 64/2017/TT-BCA of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration shall be revoked in the event of:

- Any vehicle that is out of order, unusable and damaged due to objective reasons.

- Vehicles that are disassembled to use their engine and chassis as spare parts for other vehicles.

- Temporarily imported vehicles of foreign agencies, organizations and individuals for the purpose of re-exportation and transfer in Vietnam.

- Vehicles that are exempted from the import duty and are currently transferred to serve other purposes.

- Vehicles that are registered at special economic and commercial zones or international border gate economic zones as promulgated by the Government when they are re-exported and transferred into Vietnam.

- Vehicles that have been lost, stolen or illegally possessed and the legal owner asking for the revocation of their vehicle registration certificate.

- End-of-life vehicles; those that are not allowed to operate as stipulated by laws; any vehicle of which both or either of the engine number and chassis number are/is falsified according to the conclusion of a competent authority.

2. Responsibilities held by competent authorities for revoking the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration

* Responsibilities held by vehicle registration and administration authorities

- Issue a permit to revoke the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration in the above-mentioned cases.

- Based on a list of end-of-life automobiles and vehicles that are not allowed to operate on roads as stipulated by laws, provided by a register department, check and revoke the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration.

- Closely work with the Police Department of a commune, ward and town (hereinafter briefly referred to as the Police of a commune), where the legal owner is residing, in order to inform and request organizations and individuals to carry out the revocation of license plate and vehicle registration certificate for their end-of-life vehicles, farm vehicles, self-built vehicles built with 3 and 4 wheels at a Traffic Police agency. Within a period of 15 days from the receipt of a written notification, if the legal owners do not voluntarily follow this request, continue to work with the Police of a commune to revoke the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration.

- Dispense a list of end-of-life vehicles to the local Police units, who are responsible for ensuring the traffic order and safety, in order for them to detect and deal with these cases in accordance with statutory regulations.

* Responsibilities held by the local Police units and competent forces in charge of ensuring traffic order and safety

- In the process of maintaining traffic order and safety, when coming across end-of-life automobiles, farm vehicles, 3-wheeled or 4-wheeled self-built vehicles at their responsible areas, these local Police units and other competent forces in charge of maintaining traffic order and safety must make a written report, suspend the operation of the law-breaking vehicle and the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration as well as deal with violations in accordance with statutory regulations; simultaneously, send a written notice to a Traffic Police unit where those vehicles have been registered to revoke the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration.  

- In the event of vehicles that have been totally destroyed due to traffic accidents, the competent agency where these accidents are handled shall suspend the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration and send a written notice to another competent agency where these vehicles have been registered in order to revoke their certificate of license plate and vehicle registration.

3. Procedures for revoking the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration

According to Article 21 of Circular No. 15/2014/TT-BCA, procedures for revoking the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration are specified as follows:

- Fill in a declaration of revoked license plate and vehicle registration (the form 05 attached to this Circular); send back the existing certificate of license plate and vehicle registration. The legal owners do not need to drive their vehicles to the competent registries.

In the event that the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration has been lost, send a written notification along with a commitment to take full legal responsibility (applied to individuals), and a written request (applied to organizations). 

- Procedures for revoking the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration in the following specific cases:

+ As for vehicles that have been totally damaged due to traffic accidents; end-of-life vehicles; or those that are not allowed to operate on roads according to statutory regulations and temporarily suspended by competent authorities, a written notification from competent authorities along with the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration must be submitted. 

+ As for any vehicle of which both or either of the engine number and chassis number are/is falsified, the conclusion in writing from a competent authority must be submitted.

+ As for vehicles of diplomatic missions, consular posts, representative offices of international organizations in Vietnam and foreigners working for these ones, when applying for the revocation of the certificate of license plate and vehicle registration, a letter of accreditation from the Directorate of State Protocol (applied to diplomatic missions and representative offices of international organizations) or the Department of Foreign Affairs (applied to consular posts).

Nguyen Trinh

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