UCDA Members do the right things when they sell vehicles remotely. They
send bills of sale and other documents electronically, by fax or email, get
them back signed and paid remotely. They deliver to the customer’s house.
They practice personal distancing.
Members also know, when they take vehicle registrations into their Service
Ontario licence office, they need original signatures for transfers or the
office will reject them. This flies in the face of the need for people to
keep apart.
At the same time, consumers and dealers want the vehicle to be registered to
the new owner and the plates properly registered for a variety of good reasons.
Members have been asking us for a solution.
We reached out to Service Ontario and the MTO and they have confirmed the
following:
1. A faxed or emailed letter of authorization from a customer to a dealer
will allow the dealer to sign the vehicle application for transfer on the
permit on the consumer’s behalf:
The vehicle buyer is required to type in the box what transaction they
require, i.e. vehicle transfer, and “I authorize the dealer to sign the
application for transfer as buyer on my behalf” sign and send back by fax or
email to the dealer.
2. If an authorized representative of a dealership wants to replace a permit
with an emailed/scanned copy of a bill of sale, the original does not need
to be presented to the ServiceOntario centre. Electronic signatures may be
accepted on a bill of sale for dealer transactions, including authorized
dealer auctions.
3. When attending a new licence office, your OMVIC Certificate and Dealer
Authorization Letter will now be accepted by fax or scanned from email, and
a credit authorization can be done over the phone instead of by submission
of a form.
Details on these measures can be seen here.
For Service Ontario offices throughout the Province that are still open,
please check: https://www.ontario.ca/page/serviceontario-centre-closures
or call 416-235-2999 or 1-800-387-3445 for locations offering dealer
services only.
