MH03 Registration? Repaid the Vehicle Loan? What Next?

Many, if not all, buy a car or a bike on loan from a bank or a lending institution. Typically, the paper work is done by the car dealer and there is usually no need for the buyer to visit the RTO (regional transport office) in person. Unless you want to!

However, one of the things that happens when you take a loan is that the vehicle is (hypothecation of the vehicle, namely endorsement of the hire-purchase agreement) in the name of the loan provider, obviously because he has lent you the money. 

You get to own the car once you have paid the loan. There is a certain joy of paying off your loan. But how do you get the ownership back? Simple, you need to "terminate of  hire purchase agreement".

My vehicle has a registration MH03. I recently paid off my loan and this is what I did. Hopefully this will help someone who wants to terminate the hire purchase agreement and has a vehicle with registration number starting MH03. I am not sure if the steps are different for different RTOs but more of less they should be following similar patterns if not exactly the same steps!

1. Once I had paid off my loan, I received two copies of Form 35 (Notice of Termination of an Agreement of Hire Purchase /Lease /Hypothecation) at my old address (we had changed our address after buying and before repaying the loan) duly signed by the lender which was valid for 90 days.
• Note: If you are not able to go to the RTO within this 90 days, you will have to get the Form 35 revalidated by the financial institute before you visit the RTO. A visit to the financial institute might be required. So best is to try and finish of the termination of the hire purchase agreement within 90 days!
• A visit with an invalid Form 35 to the RTO if not useful anyway!
2. Though there is information on the web, since there are two RTO's applicable for MH03 (see link) I emailed  RTO to find out where I should submit my form (Worli or Wadala) and what are their working hours. I received two helpful answers
1. "We do not work on 2nd 4th Saturdays. Office time for public attendance 0945 hrs to 1730 hrs."
2. "You can submit Form no 35 in Duplicate sign by financier and reg owner along with valid insurance, PUC certificate and registration certificate along with Fees at RTO Mumbai east office located at Sir Pochkhanwala Rd Worli. On any working Day  between 10 am to 2.30 pm preferably in first hr to avoid Queue."
3. Got the papers ready as per the details at link
1. Two copies of the Form 35 sent by the loaner (came with the seal and signature of the financial institute and I had to sign them too)
2. One copy of Self attested Photocopy of the valid PUC of the car
3. One copy of Self attested Photocopy of the Tax certificate (if you dig through the car papers you will find this receipt)
4. One copy of Self attested copy of the valid insurance papers
5. One copy of Self attested copy of my Registration Certificate (in my case it was a smart card)
6. Original RC.
4. I reached the RTO office in Worli at exactly 10 am. It was an effort trying to find the place because the office did not have a sign board! I had to ask folks standing around to check if I was at the right place.
• Thanks to the recent drive on agents in RTO, I spotted only the actual owner of the vehicles come for their work.
5. As you wait for the gates to open (yes the gate is closed and you can not enter the campus before 10 am - this looks alright when agents were allowed - by with actual owners coming for the work it looked unfriendly!) you need to sign on a piece of paper kept at the entrance to mark your token number (mine was 9 and I learnt later that there was not much crowd that day - I figured out that some people were there since 0830 am.) 
• BTW, you are not allowed to enter the premises until 10 am, you have to wait on the road - luckily there are plenty of trees and it is quite cool (my visit in May 2015).
6. Once inside
1. You stand in one queue and tell the officer what is the purpose of your visit. He will ask you to enter your details in a register and give you additional two forms and ask you to paste your photograph (this is where several of them get hit - because no where it is mentioned that you need to carry a passport photograph of yourself!) on one of them. And direct you to another queue for  paper verification.
2. The two additional forms are (a) details of the vehicle entered again by you - guess for the quick reference of the office that will process your form and (b) to ascertain who is submitting the Form 35.
3. You enter the next queue. The second officer diligently checks all the papers. Mainly looking for the validity of the Form 35, validity of the insurance papers, validity of the PUC and the tax certificate. He signs the paper and make a note of the charges to be paid on your papers + he nicely staples all the papers together. It was INR 100 + 50 for postage. He will direct you to go to Window 13, then Window 7 and then Window 8.
4. At the first window - the gentleman checks in his huge bound volumes (books) and  (I guess he has the list of vehicles that are under loan?) initials your papers and asks you to pay the fees in the next window.
5. You queue at the second window and you pay the designated fees to a lady; who  issues you a computer printed receipt and asks you to visit the third window.
6. You take you paper bunch with the fee receipt to the third window. He tears off a part of the receipt and attaches to the paper and gives the other part to you (this acts like an RC book until you get back a new RC book from the RTO) and he asks for your RC card which he puts in a plastic pouch and attaches to the forms.
7. At the third counter you are told that you will receive the RC (smart card) after about a month.
8. Done.

All of this took me about 45 minutes. I understand that I was lucky because there were not many people that day at the RTO.