Sold a car months ago and received a bill from a tow yard

[brittzy]

My question is, I had two of my granddaughters in a car accident recently and one died at the scene and the owner of the car was injured and the car was towed away. She recently received the bill for the impound. My son and the owner of the car, my granddaughter, went over to look at the car and they told him I thought you said when someone dies that there would be no charges. And the lot owner said that normally this is true but we thought maybe we could get some money from you but I guess after all this you wouldn't have any. So they sold the car to Pick and Pull a wrecking yard and told my son he doesn't owe anything. My worry is that does anything have to be done with DMV to make sure it's shows a change of ownership? Or does the impound lot or the wrecking yard have to do something when they take title?
Should my granddaughter have gotten a receipt or something. They live in California. We are already dealing with a tragedy and I want to make sure that the impound lot can not try to come back on them again for the bill they originally sent.

[J Baustian]

Originally Posted by M3 Mitch

Is this car so damn bad that you won't pay the impound charges to get it back? You could sell it to someone outside Skynet's zone of influence and they could drive it. If a car runs and drives it's got to be worth a few hundred bucks.

In California, it can take only a few days in storage for the towing and storage bill to exceed $500. When I lived in California, there were stories in the news almost daily about drivers trying to outrun the cops. The reason, I figured, was that they had no insurance. If they stopped for the police, their car would be towed. If they didn't have money for insurance, towing and storage, they couldn't get the car back. Without a car, they couldn't get to work, and without work they would become homeless.

[J Baustian]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

This is all part of the lien process. They have to bill you. When not paid the state gives them clear title.

All I would do is call the tow company and ask if they need anything else for the lien process to complete. Do not pay unless you want the vehicle back.

This sounds like very good advice -- and a good explanation of why tow companies always go after whoever they think will pay.

I know a couple guys who run repair shops. Sometimes an owners has his car towed to a shop, but when he finds out what it will cost to fix he just abandons the vehicle. After a certain length of time -- 90 days? 180 days? the shop owner can get a title for the vehicle if he wants to fix it up for sale. Otherwise he just strips off useable parts and scraps the rest.

[SoCalCpl2]

As people have said California is a different animal.. This happened to me after I sold a car to a friend and he didn't smog so he could not register it.. I kept getting the registration bill in the mail and when I did not pay they took it from my state tax.. TWICE!!!!

[shortel]

In texas they have an online form. Also you can keep the plates and registration sticker.