DMT Says Stop Selling Cars on 'Open Papers' — Who's Actually Going to Listen?

Early this month DMT's Commissioner General publicly warned the public to stop selling vehicles on "open papers," saying both buyer and seller must sign the MTA 6 transfer form and file it with the Department, not just hand over keys and a signed blank. It's a decades-old habit here: a car can pass through three or four owners while the book still carries the first one's name, because nobody wants to pay the transfer cost or deal with the queue. The case for always transferring: if the book is still in your name, every fine, court case, or accident involving that car can land on your doorstep years after you sold it — you have zero control over who's driving it or how. The case for open papers: transfer fees and paperwork add real cost on every resale, and in a market where plenty of buyers flip a car within months, people don't see the point of registering something they won't keep. Has an "open papers" sale ever actually bitten you — a fine, a case, a buyer who vanished? Would a DMT warning alone change what you do at your next sale? ඔයාගේ නම යටතේ තියෙන කාරයක් open papers වලින් විකුණලා, පස්සේ පාඩුවක් වුණාද? කියන්න.