Hello from British Columbia

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Re: Hello from British Columbia

Postby jpsmit » Thu Nov 19, 2020 2:34 pm

caribougone wrote:Application submitted. Didn't find any more numbers behind the alternator bracket... but it is pretty rusty there.
I liov
Nice to hear from a fellow Canadian! I like how you're keeping track of the others here. I have a similar list of the half a dozen other Austin 1800's I'm aware of in Canada.


Oooo Austin 1800. In my fantasy car world I want so badly to do up a Landcrab rally car!

keep in touch if you need help with manuals etc - Most of my parts are GT related but I have a few things and likewise most of the manuals are readily and cheaply available but...

BTW Quadra Island looks a gorgeous spot! I love Victoria and in another life did basic training (reserves) at Esquimalt and Comox.
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Re: Hello from British Columbia

Postby caribougone » Fri Feb 26, 2021 7:22 am

At last, as of today, I LEGALLY OWN the Epic!

Nobody was sure whose car it really was and there were no papers in the car. The family who own the barn did a thorough search but the registration was not to be found. The only possible clue was something found on the back seat with 'plate BRP769 turned in Nov 18/82' scribbled on it. That's probably when it last broke down, a brake problem I would guess as the drum innards were all disassembled in the trunk. The last owner would have had to return the licence plates to get a refund on their remaining insurance. All licencing and basic car insurance here is done by ICBC, a branch of the provincial gov't.

Chatting with local oldtimers led me to a sweet old lady who had lived on Quadra Island back then and had owned the car around 1980. She couldn't actually remember selling it and was kind enough to go into an ICBC agency and ask if it was still in her name. It was not. Had she given it to her daughter? (who now lives in New something state in the USA) The ICBC agent said no, the daughter's name was not the one on file either, and added that they are not allowed to tell who the mystery person was. Privacy regulations and all that... But some important information WAS gleaned from this! They could apparently see who the owner was, so the car was in their system and still registered in this province. So all I would need to do was transfer ownership, not register the car anew. This was good news.

To pry the owner's name from their database, I was advised to mail a letter (a notarized statutory declaration no less, on a form MV1484) detailing my failed efforts to find the owner, along with a cheque to a special ICBC department and wait eight weeks for a reply. I think this government department must be frozen in the last century. Anyway, a letter duly arrived stating the last known owner and his address. I vaguely remembered him - the old man with the cows who passed away some years ago. Well I must prove to the gov't that I have tried and failed to contact him. The grumpy old lady who has run the Quadra Island post office for years was very suspicious as I insisted that I wanted to send a registered letter to someone we both knew would not receive it. With the rejected returned letter as proof I had attempted to contact the owner, ICBC finally transferred the car into my name this afternoon, graciously charging tax only on the scrap metal value of its weight.

Up to this point I've been hesitant to spend much on the car, never being sure if I'd ever be able to legally drive it. I did buy new brake cylinders and such. (Herald/Spitfire parts actually) Otherwise it's been mostly been a lot of taking things apart, cleaning, painting, lubricating, and putting them back together. Now I can better concentrate on making it roadworthy, looking forward to taking it for a spin around the island, hopefully in the not too distant future.
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Re: Hello from British Columbia

Postby droopsnoot » Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:59 am

caribougone wrote:ICBC finally transferred the car into my name this afternoon, graciously charging tax only on the scrap metal value of its weight.


Is it normal then to pay some kind of tax on transferring the vehicle to a different owner, and is that different to the kind of "road tax" that we pay over here in the UK? VED (formerly known as "Road tax") is paid here at varying rates on a car you want to run on the road, varying from £2000+ per year for new high-emission vehicles, down to zero for vehicles of historic interest. It's recently changed so that it is cancelled on change of ownership so the new owner has to apply for their own VED (which they can't easily do without insurance, so it's as much a check that they're insured), but other than that there is no actual cost of changing owner of a vehicle, other than the cost of buying it from the previous owner.
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Re: Hello from British Columbia

Postby jpsmit » Fri Feb 26, 2021 1:34 pm

First of all congratulations on getting the car in your name! that is huge. In Ontario it is a little easier (it sounds) because you can get a list of previous owners with the VIN number. you then present a notarized document - with any other paperwork (appraisal etc.) and Bob's you uncle. We did my Envoy and two Honda CT90's (my daughters) - the Honda's had never been registered which made it easier. Once the world returns to normalish I will get the Austin 7 done.

Mike, in Ontario at least, when you transfer a car you pay HST (VAT) on the appraised value of the car. (13% in Ontario). The reason for the appraisal is that for years people would undervalue the car for transfer purposes (typically 2 receipts) especially classic cars but even modern cars. So the government clamped down and have a grid for modern cars and the aforementioned appraisal for classic. Of course if you know the appraiser.... AND most crucially it is CRITICAL to get the car appraised in unrestored state when it is worth less than in restored and pristine.

well done! start spending money
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Re: Hello from British Columbia

Postby droopsnoot » Fri Feb 26, 2021 2:03 pm

Thanks for the explanation. Puts things in perspective - people were up in arms when the DVLA decided to start cancelling VED on transfer of ownership, because they only refund full months so if you sell the car on the 2nd of the month you lose a month of value. Nothing, compared to paying 13% of the value of it.
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Re: Hello from British Columbia

Postby caribougone » Sat Feb 27, 2021 4:30 am

In BC we pay 12% tax on the value of the car. It's double taxation really, a dirty trick on the part of the gov't if you ask me, as they already charged tax on the purchase of the car when new - why should we pay that tax again every time it's resold?

I don't think we have a VED/road tax as you have. There is an "licence fee" to pay whenever you buy insurance but I've no idea how it's calculated. With the provincial government's monopoly on basic car insurance in BC, it's kind of blurry what's tax and what's insurance here - it all goes to the same gov't.

They haven't clamped down yet like JP says they have in Ontario, seems we just have to be able to convince the agent handling the transfer that the value is reasonable here. Perhaps they would ask for an appraisal here if they suspected something. For this car I showed her some pictures from my phone, (of it as found in the barn, looking filthy and unloved) told her no one else would bother saving it, (it's not exactly a Hemi Cuda or an Aston Martin) she looked at the vehicle weight on the registration, and we agreed to $100 of scrap metal value. (which is more than you'd get at today's scrap prices, but I was eager to get on with it) So $12 tax... and a $28 transfer of ownership fee.
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