An ‘old-school’ VTC licence transfer is like a relay race where no one has agreed who’s holding the baton. The seller sends photos of the licence via WhatsApp. The buyer asks for a deposit ‘to reserve’ it, without a deposit agreement. In week four, the agency discovers there’s a seizure order on the licence. The application is submitted to the regional government incomplete and is returned twice for rectification. Typical outcome: between 4 and 8 weeks, with a not inconsiderable percentage of transactions falling through along the way — and deposits that aren’t always returned.
None of this is inevitable. It is, quite simply, chaos. VTC360’s supervised transaction process tackles this chaos with six stages that are always the same.
The six stages
- 1 · Dossier. Before any talk of money, the buyer receives verified information: ownership, encumbrances, planning permission, penalties, and the income certificate, if applicable. Everything that in a traditional property sale tends to appear ‘out of the blue’ in week four is laid out on the table here on day one.
- 2 · Deposit. The reservation is formalised with a contract and the deposit is paid into escrow — it is not transferred to the seller, but held in escrow. If the transaction falls through for a documented, attributable reason, there are clear rules governing the refund.
- 3 · Due diligence. Comprehensive legal and administrative review: status of authorisation with the transport authority, associated debts, current contracts (if there is a lease, subrogation is arranged at this stage).
- 4 · Escrow. The full purchase price is held in escrow. The seller knows the money is there; the buyer knows it will not be released until the contract is signed. This stage eliminates the risk of ‘what if I pay and then they don’t transfer the vehicle to me?’.
- 5 · Signing. With legal support, the transfer is signed and the file — complete, in one go — is submitted to the relevant authority.
- 6 · Transferred. Ownership is transferred, the funds are released, and the transaction is registered. On the marketplace, we publish the closing price: the entire market learns from every transaction.
Where the saved weeks come from
The aim of the escrow process is 7–15 days from the deposit. The difference compared to the traditional 4–8 weeks is not down to administrative magic — the regional government takes as long as it takes — but rather the elimination of the three bottlenecks where time is genuinely wasted:
- Early verification. Encumbrances, penalties or visa issues are detected before the signal, not afterwards. Surprises that would normally crop up in week four are now filtered out on day one.
- A complete application first time round. Most of the traditional administrative delay stems from having to rectify issues: missing documents, powers of attorney drawn up incorrectly. An application prepared by a team that does this every week is submitted once and comes through approved.
- No one waits for anyone. With the money in escrow and the contract signed, there’s no ‘when you confirm, I’ll transfer’ limbo in which traditional transactions stall and fall through.
How escrow protects each party
For the buyer: they cannot lose their money without receiving the licence. For the seller: they cannot lose the licence without receiving the money. It is a simultaneous exchange stretched out over just enough time for the administration to do its part — and nothing more.
Completed transactions, with their price range and days on the market, are published in the transaction history. The full process, including fees, is set out in how it works. No small print: small print is the enemy of closing a deal within fifteen days.