I think I mixed up the countdown days a little bit at some point, but I checked the calendar again. Today is the 29th of November, so in exactly 1 month (30 days) from now I will kick start the engine of my little car, for the road-trip of my life, with Milan written to the GPS. Sounds pinky-pink? I bet it does. This, IF I still have a car at that point.
Long story short:
For all expats living in Italy and complaining around in the blogosphere of "oh my God this is SUCH a bureaucratic and slooooow country!!!", I repeat: try living in Romania for 1 month and see how it feels. I do love my country by the way, but my trouble with the car registration on my name after the expiry of my leasing contract is driving me crazy. And no, I cannot take my car out of the country without doing that.
Last week I made endless phone calls to figure out what are the steps for re-registering my car on my name. It sounded simple in the beginning, BUUUT.... actually it's a hell. And not because of the registration itself, that one takes like 2 hours until you get your new plates and registration certificate. But what I have to do BEFORE this is a total mess.
So: in Romania, like in any other country, you have to pay an annual tax to the state for owning a car. I took my car in leasing in 2006, when my residence was in another city. So I was paying tax for my car in that city. I changed my residence to Bucharest in 2007, BUT I continued to pay the tax for my car in my hometown, and not in Bucharest, like I was supposed to, considering that I moved my residence to Bucharest. I did this for 4 years, without knowing that I was doing it wrong. The right thing to do was to move the car to Bucharest when I moved my residence to Bucharest.
Now, in order to re-register my car on my name, I have to get a stamp from the local tax office in Bucharest, to prove that I paid tax for the car. Of course, at this point this is impossible, as my car is registered in the tax office of the other city. SO what I need to do first, is to move my car from that city to Bucharest (in terms of tax offices). Ok, let's do this. Last week I sent all the documents for this to my mom, to do the moving request on my behalf. She went to the tax office in my hometown, with the documents, and made the request. Now get ready: the request will take UP TO 30 DAYS to be solved. Which means, the car will be moved to the tax office in Bucharest on 25TH DECEMBER the latest. And yes, 25th of December is Christmas. So is 26th, and 27th. And then, after the car is moved, I have to pay again all the tax for 4 years, in Bucharest, and then the tax office of Constanta (my hometown) will give me back the tax that I paid for 4 years in Constanta although I was not supposed to.
And only AFTER, I will be actually able to re-register my car on my name, get the new number plates, and get the new registration certificate. So now all I can do is PRAY that it doesn't actually take 30 days for my tax file to get to Bucharest, because otherwise, I am D O O M E D. No car, no road-trip.
Aaaaand... last but not least, the service guy has just come now to bring my car from the technical revision. I got my oil, filters and plugs changed, and got new winter tires. And a wash :).
EPILOGUE: the service guy was kind enough to show me that my car registration certificate expires TOMORROW. Which means that tomorrow is the last day I can actually drive my car legally, before I re-register it on my name. Otherwise, if the police busts me, it's penal file and confiscation of plates and license. Great. I have to call the leasing company in the morning to see if there's any way of getting a document to allow me to drive legally until I re-register it, otherwise... 1 month of Bucharest Metro, here I come!
POST-EPILOGUE: Did I mention that I HATE this car now? It's good, though, to know, that I still have my valid plane ticket to Milan on 28th of December, I can use it as a back-up way of getting there in case things don't work out with this stupid car. But in this case I should purchase another 3 pieces of luggage of 32 kilos each, as the 1 I purchased will definitely not be enough.
Being a grown-up really sucks sometimes, yes.
Love,
La Reina Rana
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