Posted on 11/05/2007 11:17:58 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
HARLINGEN — When Janice Paris traded in her 1988 Dodge Caravan three years ago to a local dealership, she never thought she’d see or hear of the minivan again, she said.
So when the Harlingen resident received a letter from the Sullivan City Police Department last month informing her that the department impounded the Caravan and that she was the last registered owner, Paris was in disbelief.
“I was shocked when I heard the title was in my name and I thought, ‘How could that be?’” Paris said.
Because of current Texas laws that regulate vehicle title transfers, Paris said she and her husband, Richard, have been dealing with court hearings and stress because she remains the registered owner three years after she traded in her car.
Paris’ experience could be a cautionary lesson to anyone who trades or sells a car and assumes their name is removed from the vehicle’s title.
According to Texas law, car dealerships are not responsible for transferring the car title until the car is sold to another person, which could take months or years, according to the Texas Department of Transportation Web site.
The buyer is required by law to transfer and register the vehicle in their name within 20 working days, according to the Web site.
“If the buyer does not transfer the title, the vehicle will remain in your name, and you could be charged for parking tickets or toll road bills issued to that vehicle,” the Web site states.
Harlingen Police Department spokesman David Osborne emphasized the point: registered vehicle owners could be held responsible for traffic violations or other incidents, including hit and run accidents.
“The best case scenario is to make sure that vehicle is taken out of your name to ensure that there will be no criminal or civil ramifications against you,” Osborne said.
A Sullivan City police officer made a traffic stop on the Caravan Oct. 7 and found an illegal immigrant was driving it, according to the letter Janice Paris received from the department.
U.S. Border Patrol agents took the driver into custody and the police department impounded the vehicle, the letter states.
Paris says her troubles began when she traded in her Dodge Caravan Dec. 8, 2004. After she traded it to a local dealership, it was sold to a Rio Grande Valley vehicle wholesale dealer, according to the vehicle title.
The car dealership and the wholesale dealership are not required to register the vehicle in their business’ names, according to the TxDOT Web site.
The auto wholesaler co-owner said he could not disclose who purchased the minivan.
He did say that sometimes vehicles are sold to Mexican residents who are required to surrender the vehicle title at the port of entry, but that doesn’t always happen, he said.
“That’s how it ends up with somebody else’s name on it,” he said. “It happens all the time — just constantly.”
The man driving the vehicle told the Sullivan City police that he did not know who owned the vehicle, according to the letter Paris received from the Sullivan City Police Department.
No charges will be filed against Paris, Sullivan City Police Chief Hernan Guerra said.
Guerra said the department was required by law to contact her because she is the last registered owner and it must give her the opportunity to claim the impounded vehicle.
The department sent a second letter to Paris on Oct. 22 informing her that a hearing on the disposition of the vehicle was scheduled Nov. 1 in Mission, according to the letter.Paris said she did not plan to claim the vehicle because she no longer considers it hers.
“If they don’t pick up the vehicle in 20 days it will be auctioned,” Guerra said. “By law, there is no problem.”
The retail buyer is responsible for transferring ownership of the vehicle, according to the TxDOT Web site.
Signing the back of the title does not transfer ownership and the buyer must submit a vehicle title application to the county tax office, according to the Web site.
Janice Paris’ signature is on the title, and a representative from a local dealership also signed the title when the vehicle was sold to the wholesaler, according to the title.
The TxDOT Web site states that if the buyer is unwilling to go to the Cameron County tax office, the seller can submit a vehicle transfer notification, which is based on state law to help protect the seller.
Paris and her husband drove to a justice of the peace court in Mission Thursday for a court date that was scheduled at 9 a.m., according to a second letter they received from the Sullivan City Police Department, When they arrived, there were no judges or any scheduled hearings, she said.
Now, she and her husband plan to drive to the same court Monday to attempt to speak to a judge to make sure she is not held responsible for anything having to do with the Caravan, she said.
Paris is also worried that if the Sullivan City Police Department does not sell the minivan for enough money to pay for impoundment fees, that the police department will charge her, she said.
We are so screwed!
Just do what my grandma always did, just keep ignoring everything they send until they stop bugging you. If this was to get in front of a judge there is no way she would have to pay, and I think the cops know this also. They can threaten and bluff, but in the long run they will lose if they truly try to recoup the money from people on this.
The illegal invasion...the gift that just keeps on giving.
There is a case here in Florida which says that this is an incorrect interpretation of the law. The UCC governs, and the UCC states that title transfers upon delivery pursuant to a sale contract, and that the most title you can reserve is a security interest. Of course, the authorities don’t know that title has transferred since no one recorded it, but in Florida, at least, you should be able to show them that you sold the car, and that should be the end of it.
Same thing happened to me with a car I sold.........Police called and said “my” car had been involved in a crime. I had sold the car a year earlier and the buyer never changed the title, just put on a tag from another car they had that didn’t run...........
This is an hellacious loophole in vehicle title transfer law.
I’ve been nabbed in times past for parking tickets on a car I sold many moons earlier. Lucky it wasn’t something more serious.
I’m astounded that a 19-year-old Caravan was still on the road!!!
TEXAS.....PING!!
Much ado about a little poo.
that’s what they all drive in VA too! With about 12 of them piled in.
Fortunately, here in CA, we have a ‘release of liability’ form that the seller submits directly to the DMV. The buyer’s name and address are on the form. I don’t know how that’s handled on a trade-in, though.
So the only way to be sure that your old car won’t be used against you for someone else’s wrongdoing, you have to take it to a junkyard and watch it being crushed.
The man driving the vehicle told the Sullivan City police that he did not know who owned the vehicle, according to the letter Paris received from the Sullivan City Police Department.So he's an illegal driving a stolen vehicle.
Baloney! One call to the dealer to fax information to the authorities about the car being traded in is enough. Had the same thing happen to me a few years ago. I traded in a car at the end of ‘02 and a few months later got a notice of failure to appear for a collision in a neighboring town that I had not been to in years. I asked the dealer to send information to the authorities and that was that ... end of story.
This is in the Rio Grand Valley, therefore any laws are just a suggestion. Outside of New Orleans this area gets my vote as most corrupt place in the US.
Sullivan City is so small that if you blinked twice you would miss it. The only reason I could ever remember even being there is that I had to look for a road in Sullivan City for a unique border crossing:
http://hometown.aol.com/blueapache5/page2.html
Last time I was at the DMV, someone was in exactly the same position, but with $1500.00 in unpaid parking tickets.
As the last "legal owner", they were having their driver's license suspended and credit rating ruined because the tickets were unpaid, and, after showing the DMV the paperwork from the sale, they were told, "tough s--t, pay up if you want your DL and credit rating back; or, hire a lawyer and sue the state in court."
It's nice to see our our gov gives criminal aliens more rights than we have. To the gov, "citizen" is synonomous with "sheep to be sheared."
This is a disgraceful law.So disgraceful,in fact,that it’s a law that one would expect to see on the books in Massachusetts,Vermont or the District of Columbia rather than in Texas.
I returned a vehicle at the end of its lease to a very reputable dealer — Tustin Lexus — and then got a Toll Road violation ticket in the mail 6 months later.
I sent the Toll Road authority a copy of the release form from the Dealer showing they had taken posession of the vehicle, along with the notice from the leasing company showing the Dealer had informed them of the return, and that was the end of it.
Had me worried, though, because the ticket was $400.
AMANDA HARRIS is the reporter-ette. This is chick-news.
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