The most expensive mistake when buying a car is to check only what the seller shows you. An attachment imposed by an enforcement officer; a car pledged against a loan; a vehicle on the stolen list; altered VIN numbers — all of it surfaces after the paperwork, when the money has already been paid.
A car sale contract is executed at a service centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, before a notary, or through a business licensed to trade in vehicles. None of them checks the seller’s debts, their insolvency or third-party rights to the car: that is not their job. So a car sale starts with checking the vehicle and the seller, and drafting the contract is the last step.
What to check before buying
Encumbrances
The car may be pledged against a loan: that shows in the State Register of Encumbrances over Movable Property. Buy it, and the bank can enforce against your car even if you acted in good faith.
Attachments
Imposed by an enforcement officer or by a court as interim relief. Such a car cannot be re-registered: the service centre will simply refuse.
Stolen vehicle lists
Whether the car is listed as stolen is a separate check against police databases. A stolen car is seized, and nobody refunds your money.
The real owner
The person selling is not always the owner. A sale under a power of attorney is a risk of its own: a power can be revoked at any time, and it ends on the principal’s death.
The spouse’s consent
A car bought during a marriage is jointly owned (Art. 60 of the Family Code). Notarised consent from the other spouse is not required to sell a car, but the deal can be challenged if the buyer knew or ought to have known of the co-owner’s objection. So we record the seller’s statement about their marital status in the contract.
Identification numbers
Altered or re-stamped body numbers are grounds for seizing the car and for criminal proceedings under Art. 290 of the Criminal Code.
Real mileage and condition
This check is technical rather than legal, yet it is the one most often skipped — and the one that shows whether the price matches the car.
The seller’s debts
If enforcement proceedings or insolvency have been opened against them, the sale can be set aside as harmful to creditors. We check the Unified Register of Debtors, the enforcement system and the court decisions register.
Tax on selling a car
The seller’s tax depends on which sale of the calendar year it is:
| Situation | Income tax | Military levy | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| First sale of a passenger car in the calendar year | 0 % | 0 % | 0 % |
| Second sale in the same year | 5 % | 5 % | 10 % |
| Third and each further sale in the year | 18 % | 5 % | 23 % |
The buyer pays the compulsory state pension insurance levy on the first registration of a passenger car in Ukraine. The rate depends on the value — 3 %, 4 % or 5 %: the dearer the car, the higher the rate. For a car already registered in Ukraine the levy is not charged again, so on the secondary market people forget about it, while on a freshly imported car it is a significant sum.
The year counted is the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December. A sale in December and one in January are two different years, not two sales in a row. If you are selling several cars, that can save tax lawfully.
The tax base is the average market value or an appraisal, at the taxpayer’s choice (para. 173.1 of the Tax Code). Understating the price in the contract will not reduce the tax: the authorities calculate from the average market value anyway, while the risks of a low stated price fall on the buyer.
The risks in the schemes sellers suggest
“Let’s do it by general power of attorney — it’s cheaper”
You do not become the owner. The principal can revoke the power at any time, and on their death it ends and the car forms part of their estate along with everything else.
“We’ll write in a lower figure to cut the tax”
If the deal is set aside, you get back exactly the sum written in the contract. The difference has to be proved by transfers and witnesses, and more often it is simply lost.
“I’ll sell it as a gift”
For a recipient who is not a close relative, a gift costs 10 % (5 % income tax and 5 % military levy) against 0 % on a first sale in the year. The saving in that scheme goes to the seller, and the buyer pays.
“I’ll register it in someone else’s name”
Registering the car to a third party creates the risk that this person turns out to be the owner in a dispute: in their divorce, in enforcement against their debts, or in their estate.
What the contract must contain
Essential terms
- the parties’ details and the car’s full particulars (VIN, body number, year, model);
- the price — the real one, not an understated figure;
- the payment arrangements and the moment of payment;
- the moment the car and the documents are handed over;
- the seller’s warranties: the car is not pledged, attached, listed as stolen, encumbered or subject to third-party rights;
- liability if those warranties prove untrue.
That last point is absent from standard forms, and it is exactly what gives you the right to demand your money back. The wording we insert runs roughly: “Should any encumbrance, attachment, third-party right or discrepancy in the identification numbers come to light, the seller shall return to the buyer the full price of the vehicle within 10 days of receiving a written demand and compensate any losses caused.” One sentence that decides whether there is anything to take to court.
A case from our practice
In 2025 a man came to us who a year earlier had bought a crossover under a general power of attorney: the seller had convinced him it was “cheaper and quicker”. A year later the principal died, the heirs took the estate and demanded the car, since on the documents the deceased was still the owner. There was no sale contract at all, and the payment was evidenced only by a handwritten receipt. We recovered the sum paid from the heirs within the value of the estate, but the client lost the car itself, and the case with the appeal ran about a year. A proper contract with the checks would have cost him around 10,000 UAH instead of a year in court. (details changed)
If the problem surfaced after the purchase
Record the moment of discovery
The service centre’s refusal to register, the encumbrance register extract, the attachment order — these are the documents from whose dates the deadlines run.
Send the seller a written demand
By registered post with a list of contents to the address in the contract. Without that step the court will not see an attempt to settle, and you lose the basis for claiming 3 % per annum and inflation losses.
Do not repair or resell the car
While the dispute is live, anything done with the car makes recovery harder, and reselling a problem car transfers the conflict to you.
Choose the claim
Rescission with return of the money, a declaration that the contract is invalid, or damages — the options have different consequences and different court fees, and the choice follows from the documents.
Calculate the deadline
The general limitation period is three years (Art. 257 of the Civil Code), but claims about defects have shorter ones, so delay costs more here than in an ordinary dispute.
How we work
- We check the car against the registers of encumbrances, attachments and stolen vehicles, and its registration history.
- We check the seller: enforcement proceedings, litigation, insolvency, marital status.
- We calculate the tax and show how to save lawfully.
- We draft the contract with real warranties and real liability for the seller.
- We attend the registration at the service centre or the notary.
- We run the dispute if the car turns out to be a problem: recovery of the money, rescission, damages.
Cost of services
Court fees in 2026: a claim to recover the price or damages is a monetary one and costs an individual 1 % of its value, but not less than 1,331.20 and not more than 16,640 UAH. A claim to declare the contract invalid without recovering money is non-monetary: 1,331.20 UAH for an individual and 3,328 UAH for a company. Filing through the Electronic Court reduces the rate by 20 %.
Calculate the court fee for recovering the price
A claim to declare the contract invalid without recovering money is non-monetary: 1,331.20 UAH.
Questions and answers (Car sale contract)
I am buying a car imported from abroad. What else should I check?
First the customs documents: whether the car has been finally cleared, or is under temporary import or transit. Then the VIN history in foreign databases: accidents, insurance write-offs, odometer changes. If the car has no Ukrainian registration yet, the buyer pays the pension levy on first registration, and that sum belongs in the purchase budget.
The seller is abroad or has been mobilised. Can the deal be done without them?
Yes, through an advocate under a notarised power; abroad it is certified by a Ukrainian consul or a local notary with an apostille and a translation. Before the deal we check in the Unified Register of Powers of Attorney that it has not been revoked and that it covers the right to sell and to receive the money. A serviceman’s power of attorney can be certified by the unit commander.
The seller took the money and vanished before re-registration. What now?
Record the payment and the evasion: the transfer, the receipt, the correspondence, a summons to attend the service centre on a specific date. Then file a claim to establish title or to compel performance, and in parallel report the matter to the police if there are signs of fraud. At the same time it is worth asking the court to attach the car so it cannot be resold.
How long is there to challenge the contract?
The general limitation period is three years from the day you learned of the breach — for example the day registration was refused because of an attachment. Remember that limitation, suspended from 2 April 2020, resumed on 4 September 2025, so old disputes have “unfrozen” and time runs out faster than it seems.
The owner has died. Can the car be bought from the heirs?
Only once the estate has been settled: until the certificate of inheritance is issued the heir is not the owner and cannot sell. We check the certificate, how many heirs there are and whether they are in dispute, and whether the estate has been attached for the deceased’s debts. Buying “under a power of attorney from the deceased” is impossible: that power ended on the day of death.
Contact a Svarog lawyer about a car sale contract
Send us the VIN and the seller’s details before you hand over any money: we will check attachments, pledges, stolen vehicle lists and the seller’s debts, calculate the tax and prepare a contract with warranties. The check costs several times less than litigating over a car that turned out to belong to someone else.