Filenews 24 September 2021 - by Vassos Vassiliou
One in ten extrajudicial documents issued to rental vehicles by the Police and 22% of extrajudicial vehicles issued by municipalities are not paid and it is characteristic that in the period 1/1/2015 to 31/12/2019, 11,817 and 7,712 respectively have been issued to tourists who disappeared.
The total number of extrajudicial documents (along with the extrajudicial documents concerning rental vehicles) amounted during this five-year period to 146,894 of which 112,274 were issued by the Police and 34,200 by the municipalities.
Because the situation became uncontrollable and the complaints concerning the rental vehicles became obsolete, the Minister of Transport, Yiannis Karousos, submitted to the Parliament two bills in order to regulate the issue. In a letter to the Speaker of the Parliament, Anita Demetriou, Mr. Karousos says that the rentals of vehicles without a driver are carried out in Cyprus as a rule by tourists and adds that the collection of extrajudicial fines imposed is often not possible because the tenants of the vehicles depart from Cyprus and cannot be located.
As stated by the Minister of Transport, it was deemed necessary to amend the Rental of Vehicles Without Driver Law of 2013 so that the lease agreement signed between the lessee and the lessor includes provisions for the obligations of both the lessee and the lessor for the payment of fines arising during the period of lease from driving and circulating the leased vehicle. Specifically, in the Rental of Vehicles Without Driver Law of 2013, provisions are incorporated in article 11, which ensure the collection of fines.
At the same time, the Extrajudicial Regulation of Offences Law of 1997 incorporates a provision based on which, if the person who rented the vehicle and illegally refused to pay the extrajudicial, the police officer refers the case to the Court on the next day of trial.
In the explanatory memorandum accompanying the two bills and bearing the signature of the Attorney General, Mr. George Savvidis, it is stated that the purpose of the proposed legislation is to regulate the payment of extrajudicial and other fines resulting from traffic violations by the lessors of vehicles leased without a driver.
