Can someone please tell me what to do.....

ccasey612

I bought a new car in November 2 weeks before I moved from PA to VA. I traded in my Oldsmobile for a Ford. I asked the dealer could I switch my registration from my old car to my new car and he said no I would have to get new tags for my new car and give them the old tags so he could turn them in to PA DMV. 2 Weeks later I moved to VA. Sometime between January and now the old tag that I had racked up $1955 in un paid tickets in my name. The entire time I am living in a different state. I find out because I went to PA over the weekend and stoped by to pick up mail from my friends who had been collecting what had not been forwarded on to my new address. I called the Parking violations branch and explained to them that I have not owned that car in 8 months while I am currently living 4 - 5 states away and all the tickets date back 5 months and less. The CSR told me I could write a letter requesting a court date and tell it to the Judge but he will most likely make me pay any way. Do you think this is true? Should I get a lawyer? Thats almost $2000, I can buy alot of guns with that. What should I do?

If you will blame gun makers for every shooting then blame car maker for every car accident.

n/a

It would seem that whoever bought your old car, did not change the registration from your name. Happens a lot, Contact DMV in the state you sold the car and get written proof of when you signed the title over to the person or dealer, send a certified copy to state that is demanding payment on the tickets. ID that dont work Get an attorny.

I dont know about PA but most states the plates stay with the owner, and are transferable to the new car.



"A wise man is a man that realizes just how little he knows"

HiCap

Wow, what a mess!

Here in Georgia, the tag stays with the driver and not with the car. I never understood why that was supposed to be a good idea until now!

I would do two things. First, call the Parking Violations folks again and ask the question again. You might get a different person who actually has a clue.

Second, I would talk with a lawyer. Most will give you a consultation for free just to see what you have gotten yourself into! It's probably not worth the money to actually retain the lawer for $2000, but talk to one anyway.

You can probably get a certified letter from the car dealer stating that you gave up the tag on a specific date. That should help too.

Good luck!

ccasey612

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that the tag was registered to a Oldsmobile and the car that was getting the tickets was a Chevy.

If you will blame gun makers for every shooting then blame car maker for every car accident.

BT99

In pennsylvania the plate stays with the person and is transferrable to the new vehicle. The dealer gave you some bum information. You
are going to have some grief here. My advice would be to retain an attorney now. have him contact the dealer that retained your old
plates to ascertain what he did with them. Make copies of the
sale of the old vehicle and purchase of the new one. Contact
burear of motor vehicles in harrisburg, pa., for copies of salestax
record of the new purchase. have the attorney get nasty with the
dealer that gave the bum information. You will probably have to go to court over the tickets, but take all the paperwork and attorney with you. Then sue the dealer.

Alpine

I guess the right side does things differantly, than the left side.
In Kalif. the plate stays with the vehicle, when you transfer title you fill out a form and you send in the form to DMV. From that day, you are not responsible for any tickets written against that vehicle.

"If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."

whiteclouder

You say someone stole your plates?

Clouder..

RugerNiner

There is a two year Statute of Limitations for parking Tickets in PA.
Trust me I know from Experiance.

Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!

offeror

ccasey --
You have the advantage of sounding very far away when you write them from VA. If I were you I would respond to the address the mail is coming from saying simply that you sold the car with the plates to dealer X and give the details and enclose xerox copies (keep all originals) of the paperwork pertaining to the sale of the car AND the plates. Inform them at the end of the letter that since you are no longer living in the state you hope they will investigate the dealer and determine the current owner of the vehicle and plates. Make it sound like you are being helpful, firm, and that you have no plans to return to the state for any reason, let alone a date in traffic court for somebody else's tickets. See how far that gets you. If you offer yourself up in court in person, they may take you up on it, but it's a lot smarter to deal with them long-distance across the state line and encourage them to look for a resident plate owner to prosecute for the tickets, especially since (you may point out) it appears the "perpetrator" placed the plates illegally on a different vehicle. You may also suggest they ask the dealer who took possession of the plates if he wishes to file a stolen plate report.

End by saying sorry, but that's all the help I can give you on this case, as I no longer have any interest in the vehicle or in the plates apparently confiscated by the dealer and am no longer a resident of PA.

- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

UNIVERSITY50

was the car you turned in leased? if so the plates actually belong to the leasing company and you were listed as the additional owner, in which case the dealer was right, you must turn in plates> but if you owned the car and traded it in; your bill of sale for your new car should listed the make, model, and vin, of your trade, and the dealer should have record of the vehicle being sold to someone else.
the pa. bmv will have a copy of the title with all the reassignments on it. get copies of all paperwork from dealer, a notarized statement from you and one from the dealer, send to all the courts involved, this should clear things up. also if the plates were yours, call the local police dept. where the dealer is located and report them stolen/lost on the date you left car at dealer, and send that along with the other paperwork.

Iconoclast

This is all good advice. Plus, remember what RugerNiner noted about the Stautute of Limitations. In the 1960s & 70s, I ran up something like $1500 of parking tickets in various states all along the Eastern Seaboard. Never paid dime one. I never blocked a hydrant or did anything to warrant being towed, but *SCREW* parking meters!!!! I guess I'm the guy who inspired the use of the Denver boot. The only parking tickets I pay are in my home state. I doubt like heck any court would bother to extradite for parking tickets, even $2K. Write them a nice letter telling them it wasn't you, with supporting evidence, as offeror suggests, and then forget it. Not your problem.

Big Sky Redneck

You was lied to, in PA the plate stays with the car and id trasnferable to another car, it can even be transferred to a family member. It however cannot go from a car to a truck or truck to a car. The only time you are required to turn them in is for insurance cancellation or suspension. The state will contact you on how to turn them in. Never ever trust a notary or a dealer to handle your plates, you found out the hard way.