Gwangju Nam-gu Promotes Simplification of Deregistration for Long-Term Unowned Vehicles

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Nam-gu, Gwangju (District Mayor Kim Byung-nae) announced on the 28th, "It has become possible to deregister long-term non-owned vehicles (recognized as destroyed) even if seizures and other restrictions are not lifted," and added, "Owners of presumed destroyed vehicles registered in the vehicle register within the district are urged to promptly obtain destruction recognition and apply for deregistration."

According to Nam-gu and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, a partial amendment to the Automobile Registration Decree, which simplifies the deregistration procedure for vehicles recognized as destroyed, has been in effect since November 16.

The vehicle destruction recognition system was implemented in 2005 to address the unreasonable situation where vehicles that no longer exist are still registered in the vehicle register, resulting in continuous imposition of automobile taxes and fines.

However, until now, owners of vehicles recognized as destroyed had to obtain consent letters from lienholders registered on the vehicle register to apply for deregistration. In practice, if the vehicle seizure issue was not resolved, the deregistration application itself was impossible.

In particular, vulnerable residents such as basic livelihood security recipients often faced unfair situations during income assessment when applying for various welfare services because they could not deregister the vehicles. Additionally, when the owner of a destroyed vehicle passed away, heirs found it difficult to handle the vehicle, leading to various civil complaints.

Currently, as of the end of this year, among 95,616 registered vehicles in the district, 579 are recognized as destroyed, and 2,329 vehicles are presumed destroyed due to being over 21 years old.

A Nam-gu official stated, "We urge owners of vehicles recognized as destroyed or presumed destroyed to utilize the newly revised system and apply for the deregistration procedure," adding, "This will significantly alleviate difficulties caused by long-term non-owned vehicles."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.