Re: Re: 1955 Traction 11B “Barn Find” Project

[Anonymous]

When I got the car it did not have a Carte Gris. It was lost and the car was in the name of his Dad, who had died 5 years ago.

So the first thing to do was to get the paperwork correct. André, the previous owner (although Carte Gris was in his Dad’s name) gave me the ID card of his Dad. I filled out the loss of Carte Gris form and took all the other paperwork to the prefecture. All went fine until they asked for a copy of the reverse side of the ID card. This would show that is was out of date by 3 years – of course you need an up to date ID. So I had to tell them the owner had died.

I then had to go to the Mayor (Marie) and get the legal document that showed the children were the legal owners of the car due to inheritance. I received this and then got the 2 sisters to sign a transfer document to give the car to André. With this in hand I went back to the Prefecture and obtained the new Carte Gris in the name of André (it was easier to do this than try and transfer it directly into my name although I would have to pay twice (€240 each time).

Once I received the Carte Gris (or actually André received it at his house) I got him to sign the sale document to sell the car to me and then off to the prefecture again, pay another €240 and the car was officially in my name. Took about 2 months and this was due to the car being too old to be on the modern computer systems and the cars file was located in Toulouse, so it had to be manually input into the system in St Gaudens

I have a very good relationship with the prefecture now after registering, 5 Velosolex bikes (since 2011 these are required by law to register) quite a few voiture de collection (7 so far) and more recently (last week) a 1952 Massey Pony Tractor (which my wife registered in her name). The prefecture loves us as we always have the paper work totally correct and it takes less than 5 mins to register (although waiting hours in the que).

So, yes, he officially sold me the car and in return I bought him a bike and maintain it for him as he cycles everyday now after 50 years of being a dairy farmer. 😀 Small French villages are great.