Car sale contract stated the wrong deadline for eight years: recording the vehicle takes 90 days, not 30

The form filled in by anyone who buys or sells a car in Romania stated, for eight years, a deadline that was no longer in the law. The Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have replaced, through Order No. 772/966/123/2026, Annex No. 2 to Order No. 1.069/1.578/114/2016, that is the standard form contract for the transfer and acquisition of a means of transport, in short the vehicle transfer-of-ownership contract. The old model, approved in 2016, told the buyer that they had a maximum of 30 days to have the vehicle recorded in their own name. Article 11 paragraph (4) of Government Emergency Ordinance No. 195/2002 provides for 90 days, however, in the form that entered into force on 20 May 2018 through Article I point 3 of Government Ordinance No. 14/2017. The correction comes together with other tidying up of vehicle-related procedures carried out this summer.

The three signatures bear different dates, which shows the path a joint order takes through the administration: the minister of development signed on 7 July 2026, the minister of finance on 30 July 2026, and at the Ministry of Internal Affairs the signature was given on 12 August 2026, by a secretary of state, for the deputy prime minister. Publication followed five days later.

The 2026 order is short and does a single thing: it changes Article 2 of the 2016 order, so as to name the new model, and it replaces Annex No. 2 with the new form. The other two forms approved in 2016, the REMTII register model 2016 ITL 053 and the framework cooperation protocol between the local tax authority and the registration authorities, remain untouched.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is the one that matters to anyone changing a car. The text of the form now says that the acquirer takes over all the obligations provided for by law, including those related to having the vehicle recorded in their own name, within a maximum of 90 days from the date on which the contract was concluded. The wording is set in bold and underlined in the form, just as it was in the 2016 model, except that the emphasis now covers the whole phrase, not only the number of days.

The second effect is the appearance of box D. The 2016 form had three local tax authority boxes, marked A, B and C, plus a box with no letter, in which only the surname, the given name, the position and the place of the stamp were entered. In the 2026 model that box becomes box D and receives a text of its own: the buyer’s local tax authority certifies that the buyer has no outstanding tax debts as at the first day of the month following the conclusion of the contract.

The third effect concerns what disappears for the citizen. The footnote to box D states that, by filling it in, compliance with Article 159 paragraph (5²) of the Tax Procedure Code is certified, so that a tax clearance certificate no longer needs to be issued. The same solution had existed since 2016 for the seller, in box B, on the basis of Article 159 paragraph (5). It now applies symmetrically to the buyer as well.

The fourth effect concerns the identity documents accepted. The old form required identification by B.I., C.I., C.I.P. or passport, these being identity card types issued in Romania. The new form adds, in the section for the parties, CEI and CIS, the newer identity card types issued in Romania. The extension was not made everywhere, however: in the section for the representative of a legal person the form has kept the old list.

The fifth effect concerns the legal basis. The preamble of the new order invokes, alongside point 101 paragraph (10) of the implementing rules to the Tax Code, Article 159 paragraph (5²) of the Tax Procedure Code as well, a text that did not appear in the 2016 order. It is precisely the provision that allows the certification given in the form to replace the buyer’s tax clearance certificate.

The sixth effect is a matter of form, but useful to know at the counter: the model is now called 2026 ITL 054, without the hyphen in the old designation 2016 ITL -054. Completed forms are required on the new model.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The substantive difference is the deadline. The form approved in August 2016 was correct on its date: the law required 30 days at that time. The deadline became 90 days on 20 May 2018, through Government Ordinance No. 14/2017, and from that moment on the standard document that the state makes available lagged behind. More than eight years passed before the correction.

The practical consequence of that gap was not a theoretical one. The transfer-of-ownership contract is not a document read only by a lawyer: it is the paper signed in the street, on the bonnet of the car, by two people who often check nothing else. A buyer going by what the contract said could believe that they had missed the deadline, although they still had two months left.

The second substantive change concerns the buyer with no outstanding tax debts. In 2016, certification of this kind existed only for the seller, in box B. The box at the bottom right, the one next to C, contained no statement about tax debts, only the spaces for the name and the stamp. Now, through box D, the certification becomes bilateral.

The third change is smaller, but it says something about how old the paper was: in the old form, the warning about forgery referred to “Law No. 286/2009 on the Criminal Code, as subsequently amended and supplemented”. The new form simply says “the Criminal Code”.

The section on the object of the contract has been touched as well, discreetly. Where the old form asked for “engine capacity”, the new one asks for “engine capacity/kW”, leaving room for engine power too. The rest of the fields are the same: make, type, identification number, engine number, maximum authorised weight for trailers, registration number, the expiry date of the periodic technical inspection (roadworthiness test), the number of the vehicle identity card, the year of manufacture, the Euro emissions standard and the document by which the seller acquired the vehicle.

Three further touch-ups show only if you put the two forms side by side. The “Annexes to the contract” box now has tick boxes for Yes and No, instead of bare words. Box C, the one for the buyer’s local tax authority, has been given the line “Tax roll no.”, which before that only box A had. And the buyer’s declaration has been reworded: in 2016 it said that the buyer had received from the seller “of the means of transport the keys, the registration certificate”, a wording that did not list the vehicle itself, whereas it now says that the buyer received the vehicle, the keys, the registration certificate and the identity card.

What has not changed is worth noting just as much: the declaration that the vehicle is free of encumbrances, the handing over of the keys, of the vehicle registration certificate and of the vehicle identity card, and the rule of the four copies marked “certified true copy”, signed only on the copies.

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