Vic
VCA Venom Member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2000
- Posts
- 6,765
- Reaction score
- 1
I was composing this reply, but when I hit post, the thread had been closed. It's a caution about letting people know your VIN number.
I had a bad experience once, when I sold a car to my wife's friend's husband. (Keep in mind that this is California, and each State's DMV may not be the same.)
I gave him the keys, but not the pink slip. I thought that would protect me from getting screwed. He didn't pay me, so after a year, I went to take the car back. OK so far, car starts, and I drive it home without incident.
When I tried to renew the registration, the DMV said I had to get that **** to sign off his "rights" to the vehicle! When I asked how come I had to get him to release interest, they said it was because he had made an application for title at the DMV, but it was incomplete, because he didn't have the pink slip.
Even though his application was incomplete, it stayed in the computer, and could not be ignored. And I could not renew the registration in my name, until the matter was settled!
The DMV said that as far as they knew, he might have given me the money, and I repossesed the car anyway! So as far as they were concerned, he still had a valid claim to the title until he officially released interest in the vehicle, by signing a certain form from the DMV.
All he had to make application was the VIN number! And then we had to bribe him with $200 (ostensively for tires he put on it) to sign off his interest in a car that he didn't even pay for, plus got to use for free for a year!
Lesson is- Don't let your VIN number get stolen. I could walk up to any car, write down the VIN, and encumber the title, just to mess with someone! Most people in California don't realize how easy this is. I didn't either, until that incident.
I had a bad experience once, when I sold a car to my wife's friend's husband. (Keep in mind that this is California, and each State's DMV may not be the same.)
I gave him the keys, but not the pink slip. I thought that would protect me from getting screwed. He didn't pay me, so after a year, I went to take the car back. OK so far, car starts, and I drive it home without incident.
When I tried to renew the registration, the DMV said I had to get that **** to sign off his "rights" to the vehicle! When I asked how come I had to get him to release interest, they said it was because he had made an application for title at the DMV, but it was incomplete, because he didn't have the pink slip.
Even though his application was incomplete, it stayed in the computer, and could not be ignored. And I could not renew the registration in my name, until the matter was settled!
The DMV said that as far as they knew, he might have given me the money, and I repossesed the car anyway! So as far as they were concerned, he still had a valid claim to the title until he officially released interest in the vehicle, by signing a certain form from the DMV.
All he had to make application was the VIN number! And then we had to bribe him with $200 (ostensively for tires he put on it) to sign off his interest in a car that he didn't even pay for, plus got to use for free for a year!
Lesson is- Don't let your VIN number get stolen. I could walk up to any car, write down the VIN, and encumber the title, just to mess with someone! Most people in California don't realize how easy this is. I didn't either, until that incident.