A while ago, I started the process of selling my car to a friend in need. I knew this person wouldn’t pay me a penny more than he thought necessary to get what he wanted, but in every way that does not involve money, he’s been a good friend for half a decade. Besides, it was time for me to get a new car, and he needed a way to get to work. My old Accord would be functional for a number of years, so I asked for a down payment that I could live with, agreed on a monthly rate he could handle, told him I’d transfer the title when he had finished paying, and hoped I was just being pessimistic.
That was about seven months ago. In another 2 months, the registration is up. He’s moved out of state (from NC to MD, if that matters), and since I haven’t seen another penny, I haven’t transferred the title.
So with the context out of the way…
I’d rather not pay to renew a car I no longer own, but the state of North Carolina considers it my property. It’s not IN North Carolina, but I do have a car in NC. I’d like to keep my credit score decent and make sure my car isn’t repossessed.
What happens if I just leave the situation be? And what should I do when the registration expires?
Get your name off that car. What if he kills a family driving down the highway. You will be held responsible. If you have already marked it up as lost, what do you care? Un-ass immediately
Just let the registration lapse.
Registration has little to do with ownership - it’s just the state’s way of making you pay for the privilege of driving. If you are not driving the car, there is no need to register it.
The Title is a different story - that shows that you actually own the car. Don’t transfer that until he finishes paying.
Oh, and, I don’t think Beck is correct. If he kills someone, its his fault, not yours. But, you might want to check with your Insurance company and see what they recommend in this situation. I think that removing insurance coverage is OK, too.
Dunno the slightest thing about what would happen in NC; but I know that similar situations have caused a heap of trouble, and in some cases gross expenses, for car “owners” here in Sweden. My advice is to contact authorities and describe the situation, the sooner the better. Good luck!
It happened to me once just as Becks stated it. I gave an old car to the Salvation Army. They fixed it up and gave it to a needy fellow. He proceeded to run it down a street hitting every parked car along the way.
I had informed the DMV that the car was donated, but neither SA nor the new owner had ever registered the vehicle. Even though I had signed the title over, I was the last registered owner, and therefore held legally responsible.
In the end, SA did the right thing. Their lawyer went to court on my behalf, and I wasn’t required to pay anything. But it was six months of hell. Luckily for me, the accident happened in Maryland, because had it been in Virginia I could have lost my license. The car was being driven without insurance, and as the last registered owner I would have been responsible for seeing that it was insured.
To the OP I strongly recommend that you get the license plates off that car, and actively cancel the registration. Then take your friend to his DMV and pay for him to get his plates if you have to. The liability is not worth anything you are going to get back. You may already be in trouble if he hasn’t kept it insured.
If he has an accident and you are the insurance holder you can still be named in a law suit. You don’t need that.
Just letting the registration slide isn’t a good idea either. In many jurisdictions (including mine) an officer can opt to cite the owner of a vehicle rather than the driver of a vehicle with expired tags. I’ve pulled over teens that didn’t realize mom & dad didn’t renew the plates and to cut the kid a break I mailed a citation to their folks. This is legal and it is routinely done. Hell, I’ve even mailed cites to people that had their unregistered car just parked. If it’s not registered it’s not legal to be on a public roadway. Period. You don’t need to be getting out of state tickets because your friend isn’t as good as one as you thought.
Take care of your business with this clod and be done with it. Now!
On a smaller scale, if he gets a parking ticket, you’ll be responsible for that too. You are still the listed owner of the car, with or without an up to date registration.
If the guy has a car wreck and no one’s hurt but the cars are damaged, the owner of the other car can sue you, your insurance coverage ( liability) and the driver. The one with the most to lose will be you. Get your name off of the car, remove your plates and drop any insurance coverage. You’re probably paying personal property taxes on it as well.
Personally I would repo the car.
In the UK there is a clear distinction between the ‘owner’ and the ‘Registered Keeper’. The owner, who might be an individual or a corporation has no responsibility for what happens to the car; that is for the RK (who may often be the same person). It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that the car is roadworthy and insured but if the driver is not identified then it’s down to the RK.
There have been many cases where someone has sold a car and not notified the DVLA. If the new owner causes mayhem somewhere and does a runner, the RK becomes liable.
In the OP’s situation, I would have made the new owner the RK and written up some kind of financial agreement based on a low expectation of ever seeing my money, but freeing me from any legal responsibility.
Just to clarify, in the United States, two parties can’t enter into an agreement to deprive a third party of their rights (without the consent of the third party).
Let’s say A and B agree that if B causes an injury, A will not be responsible. So B takes A’s car and uses it to injure a third party “C.” The agreement between A and B cannot be used to prevent C from trying to recover damages from A or to absolve A from his obligations to C, if A is found to be liable.
I’d probably just let the registration lapse, but I’d also go to the DMV and fill out a form stating that you sold the car. It’ll give you option to put in the buyers info, but at least where I live, you don’t have to put that in.
This paperwork is available, at least in part, to deal with this exact situation. That is, you sell your car and the other person never registers it. This way, if that person gets into an accident with it, there’s at least some evidence that it wasn’t you driving.
I believe in Wisconsin the form is called a Seller Notification. I’d go to the DMV fill that out and let the registration lapse. Then call/email/text your friend and tell him the registration is lapsing and you just want to ‘remind’ him to transfer it into his name.
And, if you have insurance on it, drop that as well.
Report it as stolen. If he gets stopped, the title is in YOUR name, the registration is in YOUR name, the insurance is in YOUR name, so the handcuffs will be wrapped around HIS wrists. :mad:
By your own admission you don’t ‘own’ the car anymore *(“I’d rather not pay to renew a car I no longer own”). However what you do have is possible liability issues. As you could be liable for certain misdeeds on your friends part. There really is only 1 solution… ensure the vehicle and title are both in the same persons possession. IOW sign the car over to your friend, or get the car back from him. It sounds to me like the easiest solution is to just sign the title over and be done with it.
IANAL but I don’t think that’s a good idea. It would mean that somewhere out there, there’s a unregistered vehicle being driven around that is on record as belonging to the OP. Same problem is the friend doesn’t keep the inspection up to date. As far as the law is concerned, it’s still the OP’s vehicle, he just loaned it to his friend, and the OP is responsible for any legal lapses that occur.
You want the DMV to have it on record that you no longer have any legal connection with this vehicle.
Welcome to the Straight Dope, theMycon! I hope you hang around so I can deliver some better news.
Unfortunately, for most legal purposes, it seems to me that the car is still yours. The title and registration are in your name. You say in your OP that you did not plan to transfer the title until he fully paid for the car. He hasn’t paid for it fully and you haven’t given him the title. I don’t know exactly what you agreed to or what your rights are to repossess the car but it could be complicated.
The car is your responsibility while you still own it. You have to insure it, you have to keep it registered, and you are responsible for parking tickets, red light camera tickets, and accidents. It looks like in North Carolina, you can’t cancel the registration until you return the license plates. There is likely a process to cancel the plates if they are lost or stolen but that’s more work you have to do.
If your car insurance company finds out you tried to sell the car without cancelling the registration and insurance, they will also be unhappy and could cancel that policy and your policies for other cars.
All the consequences of this arrangement are bad for you. By keeping the title in your name, the only disadvantage to your friend is that he can’t trade your car to a dealer. He can still drive it and cause trouble for you. As you have learned, people are perfectly willing to buy and use a car even without the title, so your friend could probably even “sell” the car to someone else similarly minded.
The car wasn’t stolen so I wouldn’t report it stolen. You could be held liable for making a false police report. Some states have a statute for something like “unauthorized use of a motor vehicle” which might apply in this case. You may be able to make a report for such a crime. I don’t know North Carolina law on point. I’m not sure what your responsibility would be for failing to de-register the car and effect the transfer of title. This really is just a mess.
Well, the first thing is - there’s no way that his friend should be driving the car. Even letting him take it was a mistake. I would tell him that he needs to take it off the road until he pays up, or report the car as stolen. If he is driving it, does he have insurance on it? I doubt it.
Since you seem to be willing to let him drive the car around while owing you money for it, and just write off the financial considerations, even if he never pays, sign the title over to him now, and notify the DMV of change of ownership before the registration lapses. And inform your insurance company that you sold the car. Then, expired registrations, lack of insurance, responsibility for accidents, are his concern, not yours. If you made out a bill of sale on it, even an informal one, that’s a record that he owes you the money. You need to keep that a separate issue from responsibility for the vehicle.
