Gah! People who don't take care of their shit.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Almost pit-worthy but I guess falls a little short.

I’m getting seriously PO’d at dumbasses who don’t follow through.

Backstory. Sold my boat several months ago, and bought another. I decided to check the Texas Parks & Wildlife website to make sure everything was hunky-dory title wise (you can look up ownership records via TPWD via a boat’s reg number. Huge privacy issues I know, but that’s for another rant).

I looked up my old boat to make sure everything transferred OK, and to my surprise, I’m still the owner of record 4 months later. After contacting my buyer I discover he never got around to retitling it, and his girlfriend ran off with all the documents (title, bill-of-sale). They’re having a big fight and he thinks she threw them away. This means dinglefritz (his first name) is hurtling all over the lake in an insanely overpowered, uninsured boat of which I’m the official owner. :eek: Apparently shit-for-brains (his last name) hasn’t really thought about what he should do next and is just sitting around awaiting the title fairy to drop in and fix things.

I’ve contacted our attorney and suits are confabbing as we speak to see if steps are needed to remove any legal liability for me. I’ll let them figure this out, but I’m a little pissed that I’m having to spend my $$ and time to cover for asswipe’s (middle name) inability to take care of his shit.

I’ve got half a mind to call my insurance company, re-insure it, and then report it as stolen. D.A. Shitforbrains gave me cash. There are now no records extant that I ever sold it to him. (No, I wouldn’t actually do this, but it might be fun to teach a lesson, ya know?).

Thanks. I just needed to vent.

2

I thought this was going to be about people who haven’t figured out yet how to flush a toilet. :slight_smile:

Now that I think about it, that bugs me too! Flush the damned toilet!

And register your vehicles when you buy them!

3

And you have no documents on your end to prove you sold it? Seems to me I would have drawn up a simple Bill of Sale that the both of you signed and each had a copy. But that’s just me, when it comes to selling large, valuable, trackable things, like cars, trucks, boats, houses …

Good luck.

4

I once donated a car to the Savation Army. It didn’t work at the time, but they apparrently fixed it up and sold it.

Two years later, some drunken dinglefritz drove it around a small town in Maryland, ramming it into things and basically wreaking havoc.

As the last titled owner, the State of Maryland tried to hold me accountable for the damage. Thank Goodness I had reported the sale to the Virginia DMV, the one and only time they have ever done anything useful for me.

Short version: Send a note to the titling agency with the date of sale and all the information you have about the new owner.

5

In my state we are required to send in a release of liability notification when we sell a vehicle. Does your state not require that? (In fact my state includes the form on the bottom of our titles so it’s easy to tear it off at the perforation and send it in.) This protects people from just such idiots as you are dealing with now.

I think your first phone call should be to the DMV in your state to do what you can on your end so it doesn’t come back to bite you later.

6

What Miss Woodhouse said. In my state, you can do it online.

7

I’m funny that way, too. :slight_smile:

8

The really amazing thing is that this guy handed over all that cash without requesting any sort of receipt? Lunacy!

I would be concerned about what he is using it for, and whether his reluctance to register it might have more to do with outstanding warrants, etc.

9

This is why I never transfer control of a vehicle that I am selling anywhere but the title agency.

Bring me cash, we’ll walk inside and transfer the title, and I’ll hand you the keys.

ETA: I will note that I don’t tend to have very pricey vehicles, so the cash thing is no big deal.

10

Thanks everyone, and sorry about the rant. I was just PO’d.

I do have docs proving the sale. I meant no one else has any. In TX, the trailer and the boat are handled differently. The DMV handles the trailer titles and Parks/Wildlife handles boat titles. The DMV has an “it ain’t mine anymore and I ain’t responsible” form that I filled out the day of the sale for the trailer. This is similar to the release of liability mentioned by Miss Woodhouse. Unfortunately, no such official form exists for boats. I’ve told the TPWD via phone what happened, and I’m sending them a letter detailing such. It will also include the purchase price (in case SFB tries to register the sale for a lower amount to avoid taxes). The suits called me back and assured me there’s enough of a paper trail that any attempt to hold me liable wouldn’t gain any traction. I’ve started the re-titling process also, and the records will show that I’m asking for re-issued title to document a sale (not because it’s my boat). Unfortunately, I have to do the initial legwork the way things are set up here.

The interesting part is that SFB will now have to pay double the tax in order to title it. There’s a 20 day limit for title transfers, and they charge the tax amount again as a penalty. Karma bites. Heh heh.

In the future, I’m taking redtail23’s advice. Any future sales like this will take place at the TPWD. (It’s not like I do this every week, but I’ll remember this rule).