My understanding is this. I sell you a car. I sign the title, you take the signed title to the DMV and have it transferred to your name. So far so good?
So how do I, the seller, make sure you actually do your part? This has always confused me.
This happened to us a few years ago. We sold someone a car, he never had the title transfered and we started getting letters from the police about unpaid parking tickets. We called them, explained the situation, gave the police the new owners name and last known address. A few weeks later we got a letter stating they had impounded the vehicle for unpaid parking tickets and it was scheduled to be destroyed on such and such a date unless we paid the ticket. We let them keep it, it was past it’s prime…way past it’s prime.
In the end it turned out not to be a real big deal.
But what if a car I sell gets involved in a bank robbery or a hit and run. Am I on the hook for that? It seems too easy for a ‘bad guy’ to buy a car and not have the title transferred. He’s effectively got a car that’s not connected to him in any way.
The only way I’ve been able to see it work well would be for both people to go to the DMV at the same time and sign the vehicle over in front of the clerk. I suppose both people could also sign the title in front of a notary public as well and then the seller could take the notorized signed title to the DMV.
At the very least it seems like there should be something saying that if the buyer doesn’t have the title transferred within X days, the original owner can legally take the car back.
So, do I understand this correctly. Is there really no protection for the seller?
You’ll have to check the WI DMV but here in California there are two important parts when selling a car.
Part #1 is the “Notice of transfer and release of liability” form and this is what protects the seller from the scenarios you are envisioning. The seller must complete it and file it with the DMV within 5 days of the sale. The NRL form is what keeps you from being responsible for tickets and other stuff after the date of sale.
The form specifies the date of sale and I suppose that if you’re really worried you could write the time on there as well.
Part #2 is the transfer of title and that’s what the buyer has to submit, that puts everything in his name. But it’s not part of the transfer of liability - if the buyer waits a week to do this part (in CA he’s got 10 days) and racks up a whole mess of parking tickets in the meantime, you have protected yourself with the NRL form which you of course filled out perfectly and immediately upon completing the sale and then submitted to the DMV asap while keeping copies in your fireproof safe, right?
I sold my car at a push, pull, or drag sale. Over a year later I got a notice in the mail that it had been abandoned on the side of the road and impounded. I called the impound yard and explained that I had sold it. He said it happens a lot, no big deal, they will dispose of it if I didn’t want it. I think as long as you take your plates off the vehicle you should be ok. If there is any question whether or not the other person ever transferred the title you can always call the DMV and ask them how many cars you have currently titled in your name. That will let you know. I’m sure you can have them make a note if you’ve sold the vehicle. I imagine it would work in about any state. Personally, I’m in Colorado.
Now based on some of these replies, couldn’t I, the seller, fill out an NRL or call the DMV and say “Hey, I sold that car” and then do bad stuff with it? (By the way, according to the link, I can put down ‘unknown’ as the buyer).
It still seems like the best, safest way would be to require both seller and buyer to make the transfer, in person, at the same time.
And even more than plates staying with the car, the VIN stays eternally with the car.
Some years ago, I’d sold a car and dutifully filed the NRL with the DMV. About a month later, a CHP officer visits me at home and asks about my Subaru and why I’d driven it off the road, crashed into a building and left it there. I told the officer that I’d sold the car, and that if they could wait a moment, I’d be happy to give them photocopies of the bill of sale and the NRL. Never heard from them again.
Speaking of plates staying with a car in California, it’s a pain in the butt to have personalized plates and want to keep them to put on the new car. The current forms have improved the situation, but ten years ago, it involved multiple forms and a conference of DMV agents to figure out what order things had to be done in so the personalized plates didn’t fall into some bureaucratic limbo.
And that’s my point, unless there’s some other info you didn’t mention (or the CHP didn’t mention to you), there’s no reason why you couldn’t have been the driver.
You don’t want to mess with the DMV. You’ll also need to be prepared to explain to a judge how you sold a car to someone and have absolutely no idea of their name when they fail to materialize and register the car in their name.
Yes, the safest route would be for both parties to figure out the current DMV office schedule, make an appointment and go there together to file everything.
The buyer’s drivers license number was part of the paperwork that I gave to the officer. I don’t remember if I’d photocopied their license when I made the sale, or if I’d just written the number down. I had all of my ducks in carefully-spaced rows - being able to produce documents works a lot better than saying “Uh, well, I ahh, sold it. Yeah, I sold it to a guy. He was a friend of a coworker’s neighbor’s gardener, I think. I’m pretty sure it was the gardener and not their mother’s plumber.”
Based on their description of the incident, it was probably obvious that I wasn’t in the car at the time as I had no bruises, cuts or broken bones.
Frankly, I don’t care what they did after they left my house. I did feel sorry for the car though. It was a good car that deserved a better fate than being crashed and abandoned.