Vehicle Owners in Costa Rica Need to Register with COSEVI by June 26, 2013
 Get it in on Time” |
Update: April 24, 2013:
Haven’t quite got around to submitting your email address and other details to COSAVI? It looks like you’re not alone! For this reason, the deadline has been put back until the 26th June of this year.
Do remember that if you don’t hand over the required information, then any traffic infringements you commit will be published in La Gaceta newspaper.
March 30, 2013:
Own a car in Costa Rica? COSEVI wants to know you better…
Costa Rica’s Road Safety Council (COSEVI) are keeping tabs on drivers by insisting that all vehicle owners submit an email address for the institution to officially inform them when they have committed a traffic offense and/or received a ticket.
The new requirement is legally enforceable as it was part of the new traffic law passed last October, so cries of irritation will fall on deaf ears.
The form is simple and brief at least, but it will have to be resubmitted annually to ensure that the data held in your file is up-to-date. If you do change address, telephone number or email address, then you are supposed to notify COSEVI of these changes within ten (10) days. You may find the form on this governmental website.
Illustrational Purposes Only: Use the Official Form
You have until the 26th of April to do one of three (3) things:
- print the downloadable form, complete it, scan it and email it to “[email protected]”
- download it, digitally sign it and email it to the previous email address above
- submit it in person to one of the following:
- The main COSEVI offices
- License Department
- Traffic Ticket Appeals Offices
- Detained License Plate Offices
- any Riteve Inspection Station
- any Transit Police station or their central administration
A copy of your ID — cedula or passport — is also required with the submission of the form. Although it may be more time-consuming, COSEVI recommends that papers are submitted in person, or by a third person with authorization, to receive dated confirmation of the submission.
Should the vehicle be registered by a co-operation, then the form must be completed with the details of the legal representative (Persona Juridica) and a copy of their ID. A list of vehicles held by the organization, if there are more than one, should be attached to the form. As before, the form can be submitted electronically or to the COSEVI central offices in La Uruca.
Yes, Big Brother is watching you! What happens if you don’t submit the magic form? One assumes, it could go unnoticed quite easily, after all, the idea of cross-checking each form against the 1.1 million license holders seems overwhelming. But if you don’t provide an email address, apparently your fine will be published in La Gaceta as legal notification. A minor inconvenience of the new law will be remembering to update every year. Another date to add to the diary!
It is more worrying for those who will feel uncomfortable about providing personal information to a government office: What are they going to do with your phone number? Who will have access to your email address? Where will all this information be stored? All these questions remain unanswered. Although, if you’ve had previous experience with governmental offices; however, you’ll know that it is highly unlikely that your information will be entered correctly into the files anyway, so the chance of an outside source accessing your personal data is almost zero!
Reporting by Sara Ford 
• Freelance writer for Vamos Rent-A-Car