I guess we just got screwed
 

So my SO bought a 93 Subaru Impreza L for $1000, knowing that the front axels had to be changed for about $600. This is all spelled out in the sales agreement with the previous owner. It turned out that all brakes had to be changed as well, so she had to spend another $800 for that. Ok, fine, at $2400 it was still an alright car. Today I was gonna buy the residential parking permit when I found out that the car had $500 of parking fines on it.

Any good ideas how to deal with this? The way my logic works now is:
* Drag his ass to court. Nope, not worth it. Go pay him a visit with a steel pipe and a ski mask. Tempting..

ps. It turned out our street number was not eligible for residential parking anyway.. And I got a $35 fine since my meter expired during the 45 min wait at the DPT.

THAT sucks. Look at your bill of sale, and see if there are any clauses for transferring parking tickets - if not, stick this guy with the bill.

Ditto. The fines were put there with the previous owner as the driver, so you shouldn't have to pay them.

I don't know where the paperwork is, and my SO is still at work. I just remember seing a written statement from him where he said that the car went for $1000 and that there is about $600 of repairs to do on it. I argued about it at the DPT, but they told me that whoever purchases the car inherits the debts.

that's not right in the least. The only way that would be possible is if you guys transferred plates, and I still don't know if that's right...anyways, good luck!!

That's weird. Around here, we get new plates so the previous owner remains liable for any fines owed.

good luck.

There is no logic in why you would have to pay. Except he would have given you a proof that there are NO fines on the car. I don't know the law in the US, but normally you can cancel the contract just because of the brakes he did not tell you about.

When you purchase a house, you have to make sure there are no liens against it because once you bought it, you are responsible for those liens. Maybe the same logic applies to cars

i would think, your bill of sale should have the date bought on it, the parking tickets will have the date issued on them. as long as there are not parking tickets with dates after the date you bought the car, you are not liable. unless of course the house thing above is true... but i doubt it

Small claims court! No lawyers since it is a small amount and it's cheap to file. It is worth it in my opinion. Sue, sue, sue!

Didn't know there was such a thing. I looked it up on http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/smallclaims. Only $22 to file :) I also learned that I should try mediation first. My SO comes home in an hour, so now I have a solution to go with the bad news.. That lady at the DPT didn't give me much hope at least. Thanks a lot avhg1!

Just out of curiosity, what exactly did the woman at the DPT say? Because parking tickets shouldn't be linked to a car they should be attached to the driver, the car didn't park itself....

Thats true avenger. With the house thing, the debt is on the house because the house is like an insurance to the bank. It's a completely different thing with the tickets. You pay tickets with money not with your exhaust pipe or steering wheel. So, right, the debt is on the guy who owned the car when it got the tickets.

The owner of the car gets the tickets. my dad almost got an arrest warrant when i forgot to pay a stupid parking ticket.

yeah my dad gets my mail about my unpaid parking tickets since they link it to your tag...

and if youre in a state where the plates go with the cars, you could very well be responsible for those tickets. :(

In FL the plates are assigned to an individual owner, and when the owner sells their car, they keep the plates

Here in denmark if you buy a car and there is somthing with the car that the seller dident inform you about you can just throw the car back at him and then he has to give you youer money back...

yep. tell the guy you need the 500 for the tickets. if he refuses to pay, have a lawyer give him a call. Once that fails, take him to small claims court.

Back the truck up. Let me get this straight...you owe $500 in parking fines, that the previous owner of the car, that you just bought, didn't pay? That is the most ridiculous thing that I've ever heard. First....I suppose I should ask where you live? It shouldn't have anything to do with it, but I guess it may. Nice little scam that your municipality has got going.
I assume that DPT=the Department of Motor Vehicles? Or something? You really need to look deeper into this. I smell BS, and it's been several years since I've been down on the farm.

seems to me like you have some bad luck and the previous owner just got you to pay him $1,000 to pay his parking fines. bummer man. best of luck to you though, sounds like you need it.

Department of Parking and Traffic in San Francisco. I argued with the lady there for a bit, but she was very certain. And to me it sounded fair enough since they do boot your car if you have too many unpaid tickets. In that way the car is their security that you will pay.

We haven't contacted dickhead yet, so we'll see.. Maybe he just "forgot" the tickets.

I still don't see how this is possible. They don't copy the VIN number onto tickets, so they never know what tickets are attached to what car, only to what registration/plate. If you have a bill of sale showing a transfer ownership, then I don't know how they could hold you responsible, because you would be placing your "clean" plates onto the car. Well, between my sister in SF and my g/f in the DMV, perhaps I will be able to get to the bottom of this.

The plates follow the car. The bill of sale does show the date though, so I don't think we will get any trouble if it goes to court.

Make sure you document everything. Write down phone calls and send registered letters. You are allowed to record phone conversations, as long as it is stated before you begin talking (of course record that part too). Give them a specific time frame to get the money to you or handle the fines. If they do pay you, make sure it is certified check or money order, so you don’t get extra fines for a personal check bouncing. Stay organized and make sure they know that you intend to take them to court if they don't fix the problem. There are lots of sample legal documents on the net that you can modify to suit your purpose.

I had some problems with home contractors installing a dishwasher wrong. Basically, it damaged my kitchen floor. They gave me the run around and I went through a month of calls and letters. I documented everything and made sure they knew I did. The date that I had given them as the date that I was going to file, they called me and settled. I got a new Pergo floor in my kitchen out of the deal. Stick to your guns and it will work out.

Plates don't follow the car. Plates stay with the owner. Every car I have sold over the last 20 years, i have kept the plates for. The new owner gets temporary plates when they register the car in their name.

Depends on the state, Minnesota for example is a state where the plates stay with the car. If someone from Wisconsin buys a Minnesota car he gets the plates. Jeez sounds like a nightmare the way the pin parking tickets onto people like that. They better be tagging by name instead of by plates....

Well clearly you've never sold a car registered in California. :)

PS I would advise gal to search/ask about this on the Craigslist auto forum since there's probably a ton of people in SF there who have experience with this. (Assuming you live in SF from the DPT/residential permit references.)

Well, I cannot say for absolute certain how CA handles plate transactions (sis hasn't gotten back to me) I would find it dubious that CA would handle things vastly differently than everyone else. In the four states i've had cars registered in (MA, VA, NY and MD) the plates are registered to a person. If that person sells the car, he/she turns the plates in. If the new buyer gets the vehicle he/she may place the plates they are currently using and re-register them onto the new car, or simply apply for new plates and put them on. Right this second I can think of two examples of why this CA thing seems wierd-- 1) if the vehicle comes from out of state, it will not have CA tags to transfer to the new person, and 2) if the selling owner has put custom (vanity) tags on the vehicle it seems logical that they would get them back to place on his/her new vehicle. BTW my Mass DMV resource informs me that the tickets follow the registration (plates) here, not the vehicle.

I personally would take the matter to small claims court.

Forget about trying to get $500 so you can pay the parking tickets on the car, get the judge to say that you are not responsible for the fines. Unfortunately getting someone to pay a judgement imposed upon them in small claims court is VERY DIFFICULT. If you asked the judge to rule you were not responsible for the fines you wouldn't even have to have the other guy in court.

People on craigslist say the same as the DPT lady.. Anyway this is beyond the DPT since I paid the tickets to get the residential parking.
Well that sucks.. it would at least affect his credit, right?

We finally got in touch with the guy and he said he thought he took care of this. I call bullshit..

It might be easier to get the person to pay in other states but I know from personal experience it's very difficult in Utah (I never collected a penny from him).

I'm not sure how one would go about reporting it to a credit agency but it's a good thought! In my case it wouldn't have been any good because he ended up declaring bankruptcy!

I say bullshit too! Someone doesn't forget whether or not they paid several hundred dollars worth of parking tickets. :crazy: