Bureaucrats strike again

When we bought our caravan we were given a registration paper and told we needed to take this to the RTA (Road Transport Association) and for the payment of a fee it would be changed into our name. We duly fronted up at the RTA office where Al filled in a form then took a ticket to wait for the number to be called. After about 10 minutes the number came up and we went to the counter, with smiles on our faces, saying we wanted to transfer the caravan to Al’s name. Al handed over the form, a NZ drivers licence and the caravan sales agreement to be told he didn’t have enough identification. We were handed a brochure detailing what was required. On looking at the brochure it appeared that all that was missing was a passport. No problem we thought, as I happened to have mine with me, so back to the counter to fill in a new form this time in my name. We got another ticket and waited another 10 minutes for the number to come up. This time at the counter we were told we still didn’t have enough identification. What we needed was mail addressed to us at a NSW address but this had to be specific mail such as a phone or power account or bank statement, or in the absence of this we needed a reference from a NSW full drivers licence holder who had known us for at least 12 months. Fortunately Steve satisfied these conditions so we took the form home for Steve to complete that evening. The next day we fronted up at the RTA again with forms, reference, passport, NZ drivers licence and all mail that had been sent to us at Steve’s address. After taking a ticket and waiting for our number to come up we duly went to the counter. This time we were successful after handing over the registration transfer form, passport, reference, bank eftpos card and a letter from the bank addressed to us at Steve’s address. With that documentation all that was needed was the payment of stamp duty, a considerable sum by NZ standards, and a piece of paper was printed out confirming the caravan was now in Jill’s name.