Sold a car over a year ago- still getting parking tickets

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Sep 7, 2009
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What good would either of these do? He can't drag the buyer to the DMV and force her to register, he can't remove the plates from the vehicle without possibly getting arrested for theft, (remember, the plates go with the vehicle here), and even the local cops can't do anything except possibly writing her a ticket for failure to transfer the registration...IF you can find one and get them to write the ticket. (most likely, they'll just tell him that it's a civil case and tell him to get a lawyer)

It sounds like she is refusing to transfer the vehicle/plates/registration. Based on that, I would say the plates are still his to take. At least that would be my excuse.
 

Kyle

Diamond Member
Oct 14, 1999
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Are the tickets being transferred to her, based on the information you're providing when you get them taken out of your name? If so, check here to see if she has any outstanding warrants.

Might be a good idea to check there, anyway. If you can find out where she is, you could send the cops in to pick her up.

I'm not sure if they're getting transferred to her or not- I hope they are- her name/address are on the bill of sale that I've been submitting- I'll check for warrants out of curiosity...eh looks like that site wants $30 or a monthly program to see full results.

Hmm, but I did find the official site for her county - seems she's been to court as the defendant quiet a bit- as recent as 10/10/13 - can't really tell for what- but one of the old cases was a default on an auto loan...
 
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Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
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We sold a car earlier this year. As soon as they agreed to buy the car after the test drive, I got my screwdriver out and removed the plates.

If you can track her down, you should steal your plates back. :D
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
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I'm not sure if they're getting transferred to her or not- I hope they are- her name/address are on the bill of sale that I've been submitting- I'll check for warrants out of curiosity...eh looks like that site wants $30 or a monthly program to see full results.

Hmm, but I did find the official site for her county - seems she's been to court as the defendant quiet a bit- as recent as 10/10/13 - can't really tell for what- but one of the old cases was a default on an auto loan...

I sure hope you got payment in full from her then. She sounds like a class act. I'd just get ready to be mailing the tickets until the car either gets impounded or she gets put in jail.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
167
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www.slatebrookfarm.com
In addition to everything else, why not document these things for your local congressman (State, not Federal) & point out how efficient the system is in other states. NY: surrender your plates to the DMV when you sell the car. NY: insurance companies must *immediately* notify the state of any lapses in auto insurance. 1st lapse, you can pay a fine. 2nd lapse, you must turn in the plates for the number of days that you had gone without insurance, else you lose your license. Police cars: can read license plates while driving by & check them against the database automatically. Result: the vast vast majority of people on the road have their cars properly registered & have insurance. Makes it a lot better for the rest of us law abiding citizens to not be in a state where 20% (or more) of the drivers don't have insurance. It's virtually impossible to get away with that (for very long) in NY. Get pulled over for no insurance, and your car is being towed away; it's treated almost as severely as a DWI.


Advice: seeing that you know who it is and where she lives, try contacting her local police agency. Give them the information that you've given us in the thread - how she's being a deadbeat about registering the vehicle and is accumulating a lot of parking tickets with absolutely no way for the state to enforce them against her. Perhaps they'll do something. (Well, unless you have useless police as seems to be the case in many ATOTers areas.)
 

sixone

Lifer
May 3, 2004
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I'm not sure if they're getting transferred to her or not- I hope they are- her name/address are on the bill of sale that I've been submitting- I'll check for warrants out of curiosity...eh looks like that site wants $30 or a monthly program to see full results.

Hmm, but I did find the official site for her county - seems she's been to court as the defendant quiet a bit- as recent as 10/10/13 - can't really tell for what- but one of the old cases was a default on an auto loan...

You should ask, next time you call to get one of her tickets out of your name.

Sorry about the site, it looked legit. :(
 

MrPickins

Diamond Member
May 24, 2003
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This thread is a great example of why you don't ask for legal advice from a bunch of random people on an internet forum...
 

MrPickins

Diamond Member
May 24, 2003
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Why's that? Seems most of the bad advice was corrected.
He cannot report the vehicle as stolen.
He cannot report the plates as stolen.

Corrected eventually, but the corrections are easily drowned out by the people giving the same bad advice over and over.

It may be ok for those with the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, but a lot of people don't have that skill, unfortunately.
 

dud

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2001
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Hmm, guess it's lesson learned- remove plates before selling a car- I've never done that w/ any other car I've sold- I figured it didn't matter once I filled out the paperwork w/ the DMV.



What ever gave you the idea that giving your plates away (with the sale of the car) was a good thing? This is insane.

you always sell the car and put the responsibility on the buyer to get their rear end to the DMV to get a set of temp tags ... or bring their own tags to the sale.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
167
111
www.slatebrookfarm.com
What ever gave you the idea that giving your plates away (with the sale of the car) was a good thing? This is insane.

you always sell the car and put the responsibility on the buyer to get their rear end to the DMV to get a set of temp tags ... or bring their own tags to the sale.
This is true in states with well thought out DMV regulations. For the 10th time in the thread though, it's not true of all states. In some idiotic states, the plates stay with the vehicle. Why??! In those states, you can purchase a used vehicle from a 2nd party, never register it, and never get car insurance on it, and probably get away with it.
 

Kyle

Diamond Member
Oct 14, 1999
4,147
22
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What ever gave you the idea that giving your plates away (with the sale of the car) was a good thing? This is insane.

you always sell the car and put the responsibility on the buyer to get their rear end to the DMV to get a set of temp tags ... or bring their own tags to the sale.

What ever gave me that idea? The fact that it was how the DMV instructed to sell a car- again, if you've not been reading the thread, in WA state the plates stay w/ the vehicle unless I paid I fee to xfer them to my new car (which already had plates...)

So, not insane...just different than where you're from.
 

Kyle

Diamond Member
Oct 14, 1999
4,147
22
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Why??! In those states, you can purchase a used vehicle from a 2nd party, never register it, and never get car insurance on it, and probably get away with it.

Yep...broken system...what was also depressing was when I was asking about the processing time the lady said they get hundreds of these bill of sale ticket challenges per week....hundreds....seriously...what a waste of time for everyone.

I will say though when I went through this the first time they were very accommodating about pushing back the collections date so I had time to submit the report of sale - they also did process it pretty quick and sent me a letter saying the tickets were off of my name- it was a pretty good experience overall until this week when I realized it really did nothing beyond help w/ those tickets that were pending at the time.
 
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MrPickins

Diamond Member
May 24, 2003
9,125
792
126
This is true in states with well thought out DMV regulations. For the 10th time in the thread though, it's not true of all states. In some idiotic states, the plates stay with the vehicle. Why??! In those states, you can purchase a used vehicle from a 2nd party, never register it, and never get car insurance on it, and probably get away with it.

See what I mean?