Not Quite On the Road Again

The next step in getting on the road again with my new to me moto was to get the title transferred to my name and a license plate. To do so, we went to the Oficina Recaudadora, which my husband calls Rentas for some reason. 

Nothing is ever as easy as it may sound in Mexico and this was no exception. First off, I noticed before we even got to the office that my name was wrong on the back of the original documentation for the motorcycle. That really annoyed me since I’ve been married to my husband for nearly twenty years and you’d think he’d know my name by now. 

Instead of asking me for my ID, he used a property certificate from La Yacata, for the old owner to copy from. As I’m still nominally the treasurer of La Yacata, the certificate has my name, but it’s in the Mexican style, maiden name de Flores (married name). So that’s what the guy copied. 

My driver’s license has my official legal name here in Mexico, which lists my first name, my middle name and my married name because that’s how my US passport is. So my husband tried to squeeze my middle name in after my first name and discreetly cross off the extra last name. I TOLD him they wouldn’t take the document like that and they didn’t. The previous owner will need to ceder a los derechos (transfer ownership) again on the back of the form in order for it to be valid. 

In addition to that issue, there was a problem with my newly renewed driver’s license. Since the address we used, which is my sister-in-law’s, hadn’t changed, I didn’t have them change the address on the renewal. Why would I? It’s the same house. 

But when I turned over the comprobante de domicilio (proof of residency) in the form of the most recent electric bill, that address was different than my license. It seems that when CFE redid their billing system, they dropped the letter A after the house number 1 (1A) on the bill because there was only one meter at that address. My driver’s license has 1A because that’s how the old electric system bill listed it. Since the most recent bill and the driver’s license didn’t match, even though I explained that it’s the SAME HOUSE, I’ll need to get a new driver’s license before I try to register the moto in my name.