Used cars in Pakistan routinely change hands on an open letter — a signed but undated, unaddressed transfer document handed over with the keys, leaving the registration in the seller's name.
It is convenient, it saves the transfer fee, and it is one of the more reckless things you can do with a significant asset.
What an open letter actually leaves you with
Registration in someone else's name means:
You are not the recorded owner. Your claim rests on possession and a piece of paper that anyone could complete.
The seller can report the vehicle stolen, and you are then explaining yourself.
Liability follows the registered owner for challans, taxes and — more seriously — for what happens if the vehicle is used in an offence or an accident.
The seller may die, in which case the vehicle forms part of their estate and you are dealing with heirs who know nothing about you.
You cannot sell cleanly, so the problem is passed down a chain until it reaches someone who cannot resolve it.
Cars circulating for years on open letters through several holders are common, and untangling one afterwards is far more expensive than the transfer fee everybody was avoiding.
Transfer the registration. It is the entire point.
Before you pay
Check, in this order:
The registration book or card, and that the seller is the recorded owner. If they are not, ask why — and treat "I bought it on open letter" as a reason to walk away or to insist the chain is regularised first.
Chassis and engine numbers against the document, physically. Tampering is the clearest indicator of a stolen or rebuilt vehicle.
Verification through the Excise and Taxation record for the province, and the police verification facilities available. Do this before money moves.
Outstanding dues — token tax, challans, and any provincial transfer liabilities.
Finance. Whether the vehicle is subject to a bank lease or hypothecation. A vehicle under finance cannot be transferred cleanly until the charge is discharged, and buyers who overlook this find the bank has a better claim than they do. See banking and finance.
Accident and flood history, so far as it can be established. Rebuilt write-offs are frequently sold as clean.
The seller's identity, against the CNIC, matching the registration.
Do it properly
Pay through banking channels, not cash. It evidences what you paid and to whom.
Take a written sale agreement identifying the vehicle, the price, the date, and the parties, signed by both, with CNIC copies attached.
Complete the transfer at the Excise and Taxation office, and obtain confirmation that the record now shows your name. Do not rely on the seller saying it has been done.
Collect the original documents — registration, and any file the seller holds.
If you are buying through a dealer, note that a dealer who is merely "facilitating" between two private parties is not standing behind the vehicle. Establish whether the dealer is actually the seller before you rely on anything they say.
If the seller won't complete the transfer
This is common where the seller has moved city, gone abroad, or simply stopped answering.
Write, promptly, requiring completion within a stated period. See sending a legal notice in Pakistan.
Where the seller is abroad, transfer can generally be completed under a properly attested power of attorney, and it is worth asking for one at the point of sale if the seller is likely to leave. See giving a power of attorney from abroad.
Where they simply refuse, a civil suit is available — for specific performance of the sale agreement, or for a declaration of ownership and a direction to effect transfer. The strength of the claim depends almost entirely on whether you have a written agreement and a banking trail.
Where the facts disclose fraud — the vehicle was never the seller's to sell, or the documents are forged — a criminal complaint may also be appropriate. See how to get an FIR registered.
If you sold on an open letter
You are still the registered owner, with the exposure that carries.
Write to the buyer requiring them to complete the transfer, keep the record of having done so, and notify the registering authority of the sale where the procedure allows. Keep your copy of the sale documentation indefinitely — it is what you will produce if a challan, an accident or an offence involving the vehicle reaches you.
If you are buying from abroad
Overseas Pakistanis buying vehicles through relatives face the familiar problem: the vehicle ends up registered in the relative's name, and years later that is whose asset it is.
Register it in your own name, using a power of attorney for the formalities if you cannot attend. The same principle applies as with property — see investing in Pakistan from abroad.
How the firm can help
We advise on vehicle sale documentation and verification before purchase, and act where a transfer has not been completed — legal notices, suits for specific performance and declaration, and criminal complaints where documents or the chain of ownership are forged.
We also act for sellers left exposed by an incomplete transfer.
If you have bought a vehicle on an open letter and cannot get it transferred, contact the firm with whatever documentation exists.