HOW TO PROTECT YOUR CAR AND YOURSELF AS OWNER

Hi! Everyone, In today's world working environment, car is almost a necessity for everyone rather than a luxury as in the past. It usually becomes one’s first asset for most working adults in view of their nature of work and the surrounding factors especially the availability of public transport and its reliability.  In my country, you have to fork out RM 40,000 for a locally produced car with 0.6 - 1.3 litres.  For a university graduate with a starting pay of slightly less than RM 2,000, it is very taxing to own a car here. Moreover, the cost of living is not low either, you need at least of RM 10.00 to get a simple meal and a drink despite our official inflation index is in the usual range of 2-3 % for more than two decades.   As such, this valuable asset is worthwhile to take care of. To enhance your asset's value, you are encouraged to have your car regularly maintained according to the manufacturer's recommendation, usually you can find at its service booklet. By doing so, you can prolong the life span of the vehicle. You are also reducing the risk of breakdown and the time you saved can be use for more productive purpose. See you can kill two birds with one stone. We will cover in our forthcoming article on how to use the fuel for maximum advantage of your vehicle. Another crucial area we need to address is in regard to transfer of legal title when you dispose off your vehicle to another person. If not, you may be exposed to unnecessary risk should something bad happened arising from the use of the car of which you remain the legal owner. However, if you have other evidence to prove that you have disposed your car to the other party, then you may get yourself released from the liability. Here, you must be able to distinguish these two key terms as follow:-  Legal owner is the registered owner of the asset, may not necessary be the beneficial owner. In certain circumstances, he may not have possession of the asset. Like the above case, he has no possession of the vehicle since he has disposed off the asset to another person. However, because the subsequent owner has not effect the change of ownership, then he is still legal owner. As such, any wrong doing arising from the use of the vehicle, he will receive the ticket, compound and so on as a result of being the legal owner. This is commonly practice here especially when the seller just pass the pre-signed transfer form and other necessary documents to buyer, believing that the purchaser will transfer ownership, soonest practicable. However, thing may happen during the interim period, prior to the transfer. Alternatively, he may use the vehicle until he finds another purchaser in the hope of making some money out of the trade.  Beneficial owner is the owner who has financial interests. In the above case, the purchaser who pays the consideration in full, to the seller will be the beneficial owner, who has all the possession right and has absolute rights to use the vehicle within his possession.  However, pending the effective transfer of the legal ownership to the purchaser, the seller will be the person; authorities look for should there be any offence. As a result, the legal owner has the burden of proof to convince the courts that he is not liable for all the liabilities arising from that vehicle.  He has to take all reasonable measures to ensure that the ownership transfer is effected. We hope the above discussions have given you a good insight of how to protect your car and yourself as owner. If it is of any help to you, please be more generous and direct your circle of contacts to read this blog as well. This is important to us because we want more people to get these benefits as you do, as Valued Readers. As usual, your feedback, both good and bad, is always welcome.

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