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No, it's Moorika. No need to notarize. You can have a hand written bill of sale, with buyer and seller names, car VIN and date. Signatures. Of course, police may decide to call buyer for confirmation, so phone numbers come handy. State Patrol did this once for me.
This happens when you sell car cash and do not report sale right away on DMV site or drop it in mail, the portion of title.
I had a kid who bought our RX to lag on registering it, while I received two bills in the meantime, one for parking violation and one for toll lane. Fortunately, I had bill of sale with sigs and date. That resolved it.
Every car I have sold was done at the notary. TItle transfer was handled right in front of me. Never sold to a guy in the driveway and walked back in the house.
I sold a car 6 months ago signed the title over and can't find my bills of sales at the moment. It ended up breaking down and the police came to my house saying it was coming up registered in my name still and it will be towed tomorrow if I don't come get it and that I would have to pay the bill. It's not mine too tow, I don't want it, and I also don't want the guy driving it registered in my name. What would be the best thing to do?
Contact your state DMV. There's usually a release of liability form you should complete effective on the date of sale. You missed that step it sounds like. Will have to ask them if you can backdate to the sale date to get out of this problem.
As the saying goes, "50 states, 51 different ways of handling title transfers!" I guess that is a slight exaggeration.
But, only slightly.
Here in Montana, it is very simple. The seller enters the buyers name and address on the title, then signs it in front of a Notary Public. Once the Notary has signed the title, the seller gives it to the buyer, along with the keys, removes his license plates, and if he is smart has a Bill Of Sale written up (the form is on the State DMV website, easy to download and print), makes a copy of the BOS for himself, and says goodbye to the buyer. The seller has no obligation to notify the state of the sale, and has no form to fill out and send in. The buyer has 40 days to drive the car with just the BOS and signed title as "temporary registration". The buyer must go to the DMV office in the County Courthouse to transfer the title and register the vehicle. Nobody else can handle the paperwork; no AAA office, no branch office, nothing. It must be done at the DMV (County Treasurer's office) at the Courthouse.
It is a beautifully simple system.
CA, however, is strange. I bought a truck from a dealer in CA years ago. I promptly registered it at home, in MT. Almost a year later I got a rather uppity letter from CA DMV stating that my registration was about to expire, and I had to either renew it or put the truck in "Non-Op" status. I mailed them a copy of my MT registration, and apparently that made them happy. I bought two other vehicles in CA, one from a dealer and one from a private party, and never heard a word about the registration after transferring title in MT.
My son, who lived in Ca at the time, sold a vehicle, sent in the tear-off tab to advise DMV of the sale, and a few months later got a nastygram from the Sheriff in a neighboring county that "his" vehicle had been impounded and he needed to come get it from the storage lot. Luckily, he had kept a copy of the tear-off tag and the BOS, so he was able to tell the Sheriff that they now owned a vehicle, he sold it and did not want it back. Apparently, the State had "lost" the tear-off tag!
Every car I have sold was done at the notary. TItle transfer was handled right in front of me. Never sold to a guy in the driveway and walked back in the house.
Another thing is to take the license plate off the car. I sold a guy a car once and didn't do this. It cost me a phone call from the cops one morning at 3am. I told them the situation and didn't hear anymore about it, but it could have ended differently. It turned out the guy I sold the car to had gotten drunk and abandoned his car on a rural airport runway used by spray pilots.
Another thing is to take the license plate off the car. I sold a guy a car once and didn't do this. It cost me a phone call from the cops one morning at 3am. I told them the situation and didn't hear anymore about it, but it could have ended differently. It turned out the guy I sold the car to had gotten drunk and abandoned his car on a rural airport runway used by spray pilots.
That varies by state. Here in WA, the license plate stays with the car, not the previous owner. Mostly it's in the East where the plate stays with the previous owner.
If your friend signed the title over to the new owner, I don't see how he could be held liable. I would write the police a note back and say that the vehicle was sold and the title signed over and give them the name and address of the new owner so they can send the bill there.
50 states, 51 different sets of rules. In Florida when you sell a car you keep the license plate. Same in Arizona and some other states. The buyer gets his own plate and you are out of the picture.
I live in San Antonio, TX. I had a car that my son drove. It ended up catching on fire, and was towed to the impound lot. I got a letter saying I either need to come pay the fees and get the car, or they would keep it and sell it off. Since the car was destroyed anyway, I just chose the second option. I don't know if it was different because the car was junk at that point anyway, but if I sold a car, then later got a letter saying it was at the impound lot, I would just tell them to keep it for what is owed.
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