In California if I Smog My Car and Then Sell Iit 5 Months Later Do I Have to Smog It Again

If you lot're shopping for a used car in California, something you lot might be wondering almost — and if you're non wondering most it, you should for the reasons I'll describe — is whether or not a smog cheque needs to exist done. If you lot're looking on a website like Craigslist where anyone can post a vehicle for auction, for example, you might see a lot of ads where the seller says:

• The smog test is the buyer's responsibility,
• The vehicle passed smog "vi months agone", or
• The vehicle is "smog ready"

I've always causeless that "smog set" means the vehicle tin pass a smog test which, if yous think nearly it, could accept two possible meanings: (1) the vehicle will pass smog and the seller agrees to do that as a condition of the sale, or (2) the vehicle volition allegedly laissez passer smog, just the buyer has to purchase the car outset and comport the take chances of it not actually passing smog.

Then the question for this web log post is this: what is the dominion nearly smog tests when y'all're ownership a new car in California?

Two things earlier we dive in to the respond:

• First, if you're not in California and don't know what a smog test is, it's an emissions test that your machine has to pass in order to get registered in California. Smog tests are, thus, an air pollution control mensurate. If your machine can't laissez passer a smog test and you can't fix it, and so you cannot register it in California. Depending on your situation, you may be able to sell your car to your local air quality management district. The rules for what vehicles have to be smogged are very involved so there's no way for me to go over all of them in this post. To whet your appetite, though, two very common rules are: (1) motorcycles are exempt from smog testing, and (b) vehicles from earlier 1975 are also exempt from smog testing. If you buy a new vehicle in California, it is mostly exempt from a smog examination for the starting time six years of ownership, although it may be four years in some cases. Once again, there are many different possible permutations for when a smog examination is and is not required so you'll need to check what particular rules apply to your situation.
• 2nd, buying and selling vehicles falls in to many unlike categories that, again, I cannot perhaps go over in this postal service. Some examples are: (1) vehicles that are sold for fleck or dismantling, (2) machine dealers selling to one another, (iii) vehicles being sold betwixt family members, (4) vehicles that were leased, and (five) vehicles meant for off-route employ. Special rules may utilise in those situations as to whether a smog exam is required when those vehicles are sold as used.

In my opinion — which, every bit always, is not comprehensive or necessarily representative of your life — the most common "used car purchasing" state of affairs is where a private individual buys a used car (eastward.g. off their local Craigslist) from another individual individual for the heir-apparent's ain personal use. This post will answer the question: is the seller in such a situation required to do a smog check prior to finalizing the sale? Phrased alternatively, is the buyer in such a situation entitled to a passing smog test as part of the sale?

The Answer:
To both questions: Yes, assuming that a passing smog test was not performed in the 90 calendar days before the sale.

The Explanation:
I read statutes all the time and even I acknowledge that California could make the constabulary here less confusing. To understand where the general dominion of "seller of a used machine must provide a passing smog test event as part of the sale" comes from, a good identify to kickoff would be California Vehicle Lawmaking department 24007(b)(1) and (b)(ii) which state:

(b)(1) Except every bit provided inDepartment 24007.5, no person shall sell, or offer or deliver for sale, to the ultimate purchaser, or to any subsequent purchaser a new or used motor vehicle, as those terms are defined in Chapter 2 (commencing withSection 39010) ofOffice 1 of Division 26 of the Health and Safety Lawmaking, subject area to Part v (commencing with Section 43000) of that Division 26 which is not in compliance with that office and the rules and regulations of the Land Air Resources Board, unless the vehicle is sold to a dealer or sold for the purpose of being legally wrecked or dismantled.

(2) Prior to or at the time of delivery for auction, the seller shall provide the purchaser a valid certificate of compliance or certificate of noncompliance, as advisable, issued in accord withSection 44015 of the Wellness and Safety Code.

The part I've bolded and underlined above about certificates of compliance and noncompliance basically refer to smog tests. If you lot want to delve in to that, you lot tin can await up California Health and Safety Code department 44015. If you do, the dominion that smog tests on used cars are simply good for xc days is in department 44015(e). Y'all can also take a look at California Vehicle Code section 4000.1(d)(ane) to see that a passing smog certificate is just skilful for 90 days.

If you're looking for the police that says y'all take to have a passing smog test in order to register your car in California, that's as well in Vehicle Lawmaking department 4000.1, although this fourth dimension it's subsection (a).

What Does All of This Mean?
The confusing aspect I described earlier is that you accept to read all three of these statutes together. If you practise, you lot get:

• Vehicle Lawmaking 24007(b) for the requirement that, in near cases, the seller has to provide a passing smog test with the sale,
• Health and Safety Code section 44015 for the requirement of how the smog test has to be done and that it has to be from within the xc days preceding the auction, and
• Vehicle Code section 4000.1(a) for the requirement that a passing smog examination within the last 90 days is required in order to register the vehicle in California.

As you lot can probably judge, the idea behind requiring the seller to produce a valid smog test is so that the buyer isn't stuck in the situation of having paid a bunch of money for a auto that they can't register.

If you're in a situation where yous bought a car in California and can't register it, there are a few things you could do:

• Plainly, if you lot bought the car and knowingly waived the right to receive a smog test from the seller, then I would say it'south your own mistake that you can't register the car now. You took the gamble and you lot lost.
• If you had no thought it was your correct to get the seller to provide a smog examination, you have at to the lowest degree 2 paths I can think of: (1) sue the seller and demand he or she refund your coin and take the car back, or (two) deem it a lesson learned and just allow it go. (2) is probably non real palatable for virtually people. (1), even so, may not be realistic for most people either.

The all-time way, I think, to avert this dilemma is to nip it in the proverbial bud earlier it e'er arises: if you're ownership a used car from an private, check to meet if the seller is required to provide you a valid smog test and, if so, then insist on getting it. If you buy the car without the smog test, then you lot run the adventure of not being able to register the motorcar in California.

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Andy I. Chen is a lawyer licensed to exercise police force in California and New York. Andy maintains offices in Los Altos, California and Modesto, California. Nether the New York Court of Appeals' 2015 decision in Schoenefeld v. Country of New York, Andy does not accept cases from those in New York country. He does, nonetheless, know many lawyers in New York state and would exist happy to make a referral.

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