How do you remove a car from the register that you no longer own?

You sell a vehicle as part of a business transfer, the buyer takes possession, but refuses to register the transfer of ownership. And then for years, you pay road tax for a car that doesn't belong to you. This exact scenario was addressed by the insolvency administrator of HEAVY MACHINERY SERVICES before the Supreme Administrative Court – and her case revealed fundamental errors by authorities when handling seemingly routine administrative requests.

The case has dragged on since 2020, when a business was sold, including a 1992 LIAZ truck. The buyer company registered all other vehicles, but this one truck remained registered to the original debtor. The reason? The buyer claimed the vehicle was never physically handed over to them. The seller, on the other hand, had a handover protocol for the entire business. The result? A stalemate, where the tax office merrily assessed road tax to someone who demonstrably did not own the vehicle.

Authorities halted the proceedings without justification

When the insolvency administrator requested the debtor's removal from the vehicle register, the Třeboň Municipal Office halted the proceedings under Section 66, paragraph 1, letter c) of the Administrative Procedure Code – claiming that the applicant had allegedly failed to rectify deficiencies in the application within the specified deadline. The catch was that the office had never asked the applicant to rectify any deficiencies. It had only requested the buyer company, which was not even a party to the proceedings.

The South Bohemian Regional Office overlooked this error and upheld the decision. It cited case law from the Supreme Administrative Court, which emphasizes the seller's responsibility to secure all necessary documents before transferring a vehicle. However, this case law pertained to different legal regulations – effective until February 2023 – whereas the authorities should have proceeded according to regulations valid in 2024.

The Regional Court in České Budějovice dismissed the lawsuit and also relied on an outdated version of the law. Furthermore, it suggested that if the administrator wished to seek redress, she would first need to obtain a civil court judgment stating that the debtor is not the owner of the vehicle. This requirement was based on case law concerning the protection of personal data of natural persons – which, however, does not apply to legal entities at all.

What the Supreme Administrative Court Decided

The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the entire case and overturned the decisions of all previous instances. The reasons were simple, but crucial:

• No request to rectify deficiencies was issued. An administrative body cannot halt proceedings due to unrectified deficiencies if it never requested the applicant to rectify them and did not set a deadline.
• Authorities applied invalid legal regulations. The requirements for application attachments had changed, but both authorities and courts operated with regulations effective before 2023.
• The argument based on a civil judgment did not hold up. The case law regarding the necessity of providing a declaratory judgment concerned the protection of personal data of natural persons, not legal entities as in this case.

The court also emphasized that, according to the current wording of the Act on Vehicle Operation Conditions, it is no longer necessary to submit even the so-called green card, which was another condition insisted upon by the authorities.

This offers several practical takeaways for businesses. When selling vehicles as part of business transactions, it is critical to ensure simultaneous registration of the transfer – ideally before or concurrently with the payment of the purchase price. If the other party does not cooperate, there is an option to submit a unilateral application under Section 8a of the Act on Vehicle Operation Conditions, but even that has its pitfalls. And finally – administrative bodies are not infallible, and their decisions must be thoroughly checked, including whether they are even applying the correct version of legal regulations.

The case now returns to the authorities for reconsideration, where they will have to assess the application according to the truly valid legal regulations. The debtor could thus finally be relieved of the registration of a vehicle that has not belonged to them for five years – and with it, the unjustly assessed tax.

Source: Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court dated May 7, 2026, file no. 5 As 46/2025-24