Actual Problems of Normative Legal Regulation of State Registration of Vehicles (Self-Propelled Vehicles) in the Russian Federation

Lomov Ivan Sergeevich Postgraduate Student, Department of Financial Law, Constitutional, Standing and Administrative Litigation, Southwestern State Universityy 305040, Russia, Kursk region, Kursk, ul. 50 Let Oktyabrya, 94 m9sowow@mail.ru Other publications by this author

State registration from the point of view of the domestic administrative and legal literature is nothing more than one of the methods of public administration. The legislator defines state registration as a function of a federal or regional control and supervisory authority in the relevant field of its activity.

At the same time, registration makes it possible, by checking the legality of certain facts, actions, the emergence and termination of the rights and obligations of specific subjects, to protect the interests of society and the state, as well as to ensure recognition, the possibility of realizing and protecting the rights of citizens of their associations and organizations ^[1].

In turn, registration proceedings act as a procedural form of state registration, the purpose of which is to protect the personal property and non-property rights of individuals, individual entrepreneurs and other business entities, as well as monitoring compliance by these persons with the mandatory requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Registration proceedings from the point of view of scientific literature and analysis of the current legislation are based on the following principles:

- legality;

- voluntary and (or) mandatory state registration;

- openness and publicity of registration proceedings;

- public availability of information contained in state registers (except for cases established by the legislation of the Russian Federation);

- guarantee of reliability of information on state registration;

- continuity of accounting of information on state registration.

It should be noted that the procedural outcome of the registration proceedings in all cases is the adoption of a legal act by the relevant state authority.

This act has a legal value, since it acts as proof of the existence of specific rights or legal status of the subject. A striking example can be the state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, whose legal capacity arises from the moment of state registration.

The subject of our research is the state registration of movable property, specifically vehicles and self-propelled vehicles. It is carried out on the basis of the following regulatory legal acts:

- Federal Law No. 297-FZ dated 02.07.2021 "On self-propelled vehicles and other types of equipment" ^[2];

- Federal Law No. 283-FZ of 03.08.2018 "On State Registration of Vehicles in the Russian Federation and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" ^[3].

These federal laws define the legal and organizational basis, the objectives of the state registration of vehicles (self-propelled vehicles), the rights and obligations of participants in relations arising in connection with the state registration of vehicles (self-propelled vehicles).

A more detailed procedure for state registration is specified in the following subordinate regulatory legal acts:

- Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 21.12.2019 No. 1764 "On the State registration of vehicles in the Registration Units of the State Road Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation" ^[4];

- Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 09/21/2020 No. 1507 "On approval of the Rules for state registration of self-propelled vehicles and other types of equipment" ^[5].

In accordance with the above documents, the bodies carrying out state registration of vehicles (self–propelled vehicles) are the State Road Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (hereinafter – the traffic police authorities) and the state inspections for supervision of the technical condition of self-propelled vehicles and other types of equipment of the relevant subject of the Russian Federation (hereinafter - the State Technical Supervision authorities).

It should be noted that the traffic police bodies are federal executive bodies of state power, and the State Technical Supervision bodies are the executive bodies of the relevant subject of the Russian Federation. In this regard, the former carry out federal supervision (control) in the field of road safety, and the latter regional supervision (control) in the field of technical condition and operation of self-propelled vehicles and other types of equipment.

State registration of vehicles (self-propelled vehicles) is carried out for the purpose of their state registration and their admission to operation in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Currently, the following procedure for state registration has been determined.

The owner (owner) of a vehicle or self–propelled vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the equipment) is obliged within ten calendar days from the date of occurrence of a certain event (transfer of ownership of the equipment, temporary importation into the territory of the Russian Federation for a certain period, release of equipment into free circulation, etc.)  apply to the registration authority with an application for state registration. The application must be accompanied by the entire list of required documents established by law.

Thus, the performance of legally significant actions on state registration is the responsibility of the owner (owner) of the equipment. At the same time, in essence, state registration is declarative in nature and is subject to legislation on the organization of the provision of state and municipal services ^[6].

Any obligation established for the subject of legal relations must be supported by responsibility for its non-compliance. Indeed, part 1 of Article 19.22 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation ^[7] contains liability for violation of the rules of state registration of vehicles of all types.

However, bringing the offender to responsibility under this article is possible only within two months after the date on which the registration actions should have been performed. The administrative offense provided for in part 1 of Article 19.22 is not lasting (paragraph 14 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 5 dated 03/24/2005 "On certain issues arising from courts when applying the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation" ^[8]). The legislation of the Russian Federation does not contain any other liability for non-compliance with the obligation to register equipment.

The owner (owner) of the equipment after the expiration of the limitation period for bringing to responsibility has the unpunished opportunity not to apply to the registration authority at all, which is a particularly frequent case in practice of accounting for equipment, especially self-propelled.

Authorized persons of the registering body (inspectors), after receiving the application and the necessary packages of documents (subject to its completeness and reliability), carry out state registration of equipment. The result of state registration is the receipt by the owner (owner) of the equipment of a certificate of state registration of a vehicle (self-propelled vehicle) and a state registration mark of the established sample.  The inspector himself enters the registration data into the accounting system (database).

The procedure for termination of registration of equipment, its removal from the register, change of registration data, etc. is similar.

Having most succinctly defined the procedure for state registration of equipment, we propose to dwell in more detail on the documents – grounds for state registration.

In accordance with the rules of state registration of vehicles and self-propelled vehicles, the owner (owner) provides two main documents to the registration authority:

- document - the basis of the right of ownership (possession) of the equipment;

- equipment passport (in the form of a paper document or an extract from the electronic passport system).

The first position may be any document drawn up by the participants of the civil turnover in accordance with the civil legislation of the Russian Federation (contract of sale, donation, leasing, certificate of inheritance, decision of the authorized body, etc.).

The passport of the same equipment is a document issued by the manufacturer, customs authority, registration authority, or other authorized body containing information:

- about the name and brand of equipment;

- its main technical characteristics and numbered components subject to mandatory accounting;

- about the owners (owners) of equipment that have rights to it in the past and present.

All the above information is mandatory for the registration authority to keep records.

It should be noted that since 2020, by the decision of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission No. 122 dated September 22, 2015 "On Approval of the Procedure for the Functioning of electronic Vehicle Passport systems (electronic vehicle chassis passports) and electronic passports of self-propelled vehicles and other types of equipment" ^[9] for vehicles, and from 2022 for self-propelled vehicles an electronic passport was introduced.

The main idea of introducing an electronic passport was to be able to track the complete chain of owners (owners) of equipment from the date of its release (import) to its disposal (export). To do this, the legislator has provided a special mechanism, the essence of which is the independent exchange of property rights (ownership) by transferring them by the owners themselves (owners) through a personal account in the system of JSC "Electronic Passport".

However, the operation of this mechanism quickly experienced frequent failures, primarily due to the fact that a large number of owners (owners) of vehicles and self-propelled vehicles either never applied to the authority for state registration, or applied after a time when the equipment and ownership (ownership) of it was transferred through a number of persons, which does not allow the final owner (owner) to carry out its state registration, since it is impossible to restore communication with the person last indicated by the owner (owner) in the electronic passport system.

Thus, we see an obvious contradiction between the aspirations of the state in the comprehensive accounting and control of technology and the implementation of these innovations.

Before suggesting possible ways to eliminate these contradictions, we suggest referring to Article 219 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation ^[10], according to which the right of ownership of immovable property arises as a general rule from the moment of registration of this right.

In the case we are considering, the ownership of equipment (movable property) arises from the moment of its acquisition, transfer, donation and other legally important actions recognized by the civil legislation of the Russian Federation.

The owner (owner) of the equipment submits to the registration authority a document – the basis for the emergence of the right. In the absence of information about the other, the registering authority treats this fact as presumptive. The result of providing a state service for state registration is a certificate of registration of equipment, but not a certificate of state registration of the right to equipment.

The state registration of movable property, specifically vehicles and self-propelled vehicles, which is the subject of our study, does not have any legal value for the owners of this movable property.

The practice of the traffic police and Gostekhnadzor bodies shows that vehicles or self-propelled vehicles registered for a specific owner may not belong to this owner for several years and be transferred by civil law to other owners. In this regard, other competent state authorities (courts, prosecutor's office, investigation, inquiry, etc.) are forced to be skeptical about the information provided within the framework of interdepartmental interaction.

Thus, the State does not have the right in this case to act as a guarantor of the reliability of the information contained in their registers, which is a violation of the fundamental principle of registration proceedings and registration activities in general.

In the case of significant changes in the legislation on state registration of equipment, the owners (owners) of equipment will have an undeniable incentive to apply to the registering authority, since awareness of the fact that they do not have any legal rights and grounds for movable property, most often expensive, will become a catalyst for treatment.

It seems that a radical change in the approach to the state registration of equipment as movable property will lead to the following positive consequences:

1.                 Improving the quality of performance by registration and tax authorities of the duty assigned to them to form the taxable base. Indeed, the basis of the activities of the traffic police and Gostekhnadzor bodies is to keep records of equipment in order to submit relevant information to the Tax Authorities. We believe that such measures will lead to a decrease in the number of owners (owners) of equipment who evade payment of established taxes and fees in accordance with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, and, as a result, will increase the amount of money coming into the state budget.

2.                 Increasing the effectiveness of the control and supervisory activities of authorized bodies. The increase in the number of registered supervised equipment simplifies the activities of authorized bodies to check its technical safety, simplifies the disclosure of criminal offenses and administrative offenses related to this equipment.

3.                 The ability to track the complete chain of transfer of ownership (ownership) of equipment simplifies the activities of judicial authorities to resolve various property, commercial disputes related to this equipment.

4.                 In the conditions of a special military operation, a comprehensive accounting of vehicles and self-propelled vehicles is vital, since in order to solve the task of the operation, the state is forced to have complete information about the quantity, quality of equipment, its technical condition for the subsequent use of this equipment in military needs.

Summing up the above, I would like to draw attention to the economic criterion of the need for an early change in the approach to state registration of equipment. As an example, the market value of a beet harvester manufactured in 2022 can reach up to 100 million rubles. Such a cost is not typical for 90% of all real estate located on the territory of the Russian Federation. In particular, that is why the state is obliged to protect the owners of such equipment from various property disputes.

Changing the approach to the state registration of equipment from the registration of "the equipment itself" to the registration of "the right to this equipment" by analogy with the registration of rights to real estate, from our point of view, is a difficult process that requires a radical change and revision of legislation in this area, as well as a radical restructuring of the work of the registering authorities themselves.