Transfer Ownership serye: LTO wants shorter wait times for MV verification

Back in August, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) issued an order requiring a new owner of a used vehicle or motorcycle to immediately transfer ownership or face up to a PHP 40,000 penalty. Administrative Order AO-VDM-2024-046 outlines that a new owner only has 20 days upon the completion of the sale, transfer, or donation of the used motor vehicle or motorcycle to complete the transfer of ownership process. Failure to do so may result in the vehicle being put under alarm and a fine of up to PHP 40,000.

Of course, this did not sit well with motorists, because in reality, just starting the change of ownership process with an LTO to LTO branch confirmation (verifying that the documents submitted match the mother file records and confirming with the other LTO branch via e-mail) already takes more than 20 days. And then, there are still other steps that require manual (and redundant) processes that need to be completed as part of the requirements – which are done before submitting the documents to the LTO to begin the change of ownership process.

On October 23, 2024, the LTO issued a memo suspending AO-VDM-2024-046.

Since the LTO held a public consultation today, December 2, 2024, about the AO-VDM-2024-046, Autoindustriya.com took the opportunity to discuss the LTO to LTO branch confirmation issue with the agency’s Executive Director (ED), Atty. Greg Pua, Jr.

According to ED Pua, when an LTO District or Extension Office sends a confirmation request to another LTO District or Extension Office, the latter is required to process and reply within 24 hours of the request. A previous memo dated February 3, 2023, outlines this process (full text here). Unfortunately, this is not being followed for a number of reasons that we will discuss in a later story.

To serve its clients better, according to Pua, the LTO will soon issue an order or memo that will allow a requesting LTO District or Extension Office to proceed as “records confirmed” if the LTO District or Extension Office that holds the vehicle or motorcycle’s mother file did not process or respond on the request within 24 hours.

This is good news because, in theory, this meant that a confirmation request could be done and completed within 48 hours upon submission of the e-mail and the new owner of the used vehicle/motorcycle can now proceed with the other steps related to the transfer of ownership process.

We hope that the LTO will make this new order/memo a reality because as motorists, we are more than happy to comply with their requirements – as long as they are 1) not complicated and 2) not very time-consuming.