I'll try to keep this short. About 2 years ago my son sold his car to a buddy. It was an 08 Ford Focus and had become a money pit. His buddy was some kind of a mechanic or something and had plans to fix it up. The beginning of this month my son received a certified letter from a local towing company. It appears that the car had been abandoned at an apartment complex and the manager had it towed. My son called the towing company and explained the situation to them, that he had sold the car a couple of years ago and is no longer the owner. They told him that he is the last known owner and needed to pay $800 for towing and storage. He told them that wasn't going to happen and that they were free to keep the car as far as he was concerned. As far as I know that's the last he's heard from them. I talked with my son about this and he says that the guy he sold the car to moved to Georgia or Alabama and that he may have sold it to someone else before he left. I've read the certified letter and from what I can understand, if he doesn't show proof of ownership (he can't because he signed over the title) and pay the fees (he won't) within 30 days they keep the vehicle and sell it (which is completely fine). Does anyone here have any experience with this? I'm concerned that it my affect his ability to register a vehicle in the future or his credit. Thanks in advance

send them a copy of the bill of sale they both signed or the 130u form. When I sell a vehicle I print off two copies of the 130u that we both sign and I keep. If you don't have that, I would imagine this gets much more difficult.

I'm pretty sure he just signed the title over. I'm just hoping that he didn't screw himself

It won't affect either.  Just ignore it.  Towing Company gets to file claim to it & sell it off for whatever they can get.

It won't affect your son on either end.  He's out of it.

Always get a Bill of Sale from the party who BOUGHT the car too (for just these sorts of things).

BIGGER_HAMMER

Had the same thing happen years ago. Told the tow company keep it and sell it. I won't be coming to get it. I never heard another word.

When I was over the traffic division as one of my PD stints over the years, one of my duties was to oversee wrecker operations of those companies who were on the city's callout rotation.  The PD had its own yard for city tows like abandoned or illegal vehicles.  We even held our own auction two or three times a year.  There is no regulatory, civil, or criminal problem for the person who's name is on the title to be responsible for the vehicle as far as letting it go up for auction or sale by a city or wrecker service.  Obviously if the vehicle still has a lien, the lien holder such as a bank or car lot may have issues with the purchaser still on the hook, and the lien holder can take possession of the vehicle by paying the tow and storage.

As already suggested it never hurts to have a bill of sale even if it's written on a napkin, but there's no requirement that I'm aware of.  This situation with the OP happens all the time where the buyer tries to avoid the transfer and taxes, so the vehicle still remains in the name of the original owner.  Even where the original owner has a bill of sale, I'll bet the original owner will get an interesting visit if the vehicle got used in say a terrorist attack by the purchaser who did not go to the county for a title transfer.  Just hope they don't shoot your dog.

I've told the story a few times of the old Ford Pick Up that I sold at a garage sale to some "Amigos".

About 6 months later I received a Certified Letter from the Border Patrol letting me know "MY" truck had been aprehended smuggling more "Amigos & Amigas" into Tejas.

I just had to come pay the fines, storage, towing and X, Y, & Z and I could have it back. (They had obviously never changed the title or registration).

The costs for all the above was several times what I originally paid for the truck & much more than I sold it to them, so I just mailed the Border Patrol a letter back that I had sold it and wasn't expecting to see it again.

End of Cool Story...

BIGGER_HAMMER

Well I sold an old Pontiac Catalina some years back to a man for his son to drive. I allowed them to make payments. They paid all but the last 100 bucks on the note.

Four or five months pass and there is a knock at the door. Open it and it is two of the city’s finest.

They ask if I own a Catalina and I tell them I sold it to so n so. Here is their address.

Come to find out the car was used in a bank heist in Brownsville. I am screwed but wait I have the bill of sale and proof that I was at work when the crime took place.

The officers say thank you we will talk to the people you sold the car too.

A detective calls me about a week later and says the man I sold it to denied he bought the car. The detective then says they caught the man’s son who was driving the car at the time of the robbery.

Long story short, the man never change the title so I still owned the car. The detective then brightened my day by telling me that the DA considered the car stollen.

Yes I got the car back with 200 dollar fee and had it brought back to my home with a court paper saying I still owned the car and was no longer wanted in the case.

Turned around and sold it a month later to another man who wanted to restore it. We went to the dmv and changed the title before he took the car.

Double my money.

I was hoping it would be something like that. Just trying to keep the kid out of trouble. Thanks for the reply

I told my insurance story about my daughter getting into a fender bender with her little car and no one willing to step up and claim responsibility. I had to claim it as uninsured motorist and eat the deductible. I took it to the body shop shop last week to have the estimates done and the insurance company finally sent out their own adjuster. The adjuster was worried about potential damage to the front axle and drive train.

So our little fender bender has led to my daughter's car being totaled.

I stopped by the shop yesterday morning to get my daughter's school parking sticker off the windshield and told them the insurance company was totaling the car. They went out to the car with me, I got the sticker, then they peeled off the registration tag and pulled both plates. They said you don't want it going to some salvage yard or auction with your tags on it because of shit like this.

Her car is still drive-able. I'm sure someone will buy it at auction, replace the front fender, bondo the door and reattach the front bumper and put it back up for sale somewhere.

Gave a rust buck ‘77 Corolla to my nephew. He sold it several years later when the floor pans rusted through.

He got a call a couple of years later from a fire department wanting to chop it up for the jaws of life training. Last buyer had never gotten the title changed over.

Just ignore it. This happens all the time with used car sales.

I sold a little homebuilt utility trailer to some chucklehead from Garland, and got a similar call a couple years later. The fee was worth more than the trailer, or I'd have gone and picked the damn thing up. I told them I had sold it, gave a name, etc. About a year later a collection agency went after me for it. I called them up, told 'em the same story, and they weren't very friendly... causing me to tell 'em to go pee up a rope. It stayed as a ding on my credit report for a few years, but it's gone now.

Now that's a weird one as far as the alleged collection agency is concerned.  There is generally no requirement for any person in TX to go pay a wrecker or storage fee on an abandoned vehicle.  This is why the wrecker and storage companies have the ability to absorb the vehicle legally and retain the money when it's sold or at a minimum collect their fees for the pickup and storage from the sale.  And of course there are cases where the vehicle is a piece of junk, and the tow/storage isn't worth the stated charges.  It still doesn't give the wrecker/storage entity the right to charge the last registered owner.  It's one of the pitfalls of a wrecker/storage business, but don't cry crocodile tears too much for them because they generally come out way ahead in the bulk of their business...unless they're idiots.

Like I mentioned before, if the vehicle has a lien, other issues come into the mix.  When my division was in charge of the city's impound lot, I got see the paperwork and regulatory issues over abandoned, impounded, and seized vehicles.  The department and city even got to keep a few decent vehicles over the years when owners didn't respond, and the city made profit on those auction sales we carried out two to three times a year.  The owners weren't required to respond, but the downside was that they lost the vehicle.

I think some cheesy, crooked wrecker service or collection outfit...I know, a real shocker there...was trying to screw you, and how they got a black mark on your credit score is an odd one for sure.

This.  LOTS of shady wreckers & storage yards send out bogus bills hoping someone will pay it. Low cost to high gain.  They use the threat that "It will wreck your credit" to get people to pay up, when they have no obligation to do so.

You should have challenged it to the credit bureau on your credit report & do so in writing (costs you three stamps & envelopes).  

The Credit Bureau contacts the party with the claim who must respond back as to whom is the party claiming the loss & verify the legitimacy of the bill within 30 days or it drops off.

BIGGER_HAMMER

In retrospect, my theory is either the wrecking company or the impound yard sold the "debt" to a collector for pennies on the dollar.

Went and found the demand letter in my file. "Lien Enforcement, Inc. dba Lien Enforcement CA, Inc." "Creditor: Abandoned Vehicle Enforcement"... Phone call I received when it was initially towed they wanted about $850 (on a $250 trailer), the letter that came much later they were trying for $1,450.30


In 2011, I did challenge it, in writing, certified mail etc but ignored them after that so not sure of its final disposition.

It fell off my credit report sometime between 2011 and when I got a 3-bureau report done in 2016 for work.


I have a morbid curiosity about the little trailer. Is it still impounded? Is it worth a million dollars by now?