Has anyone else noticed the ridiculous amount of temporary paper plates on vehicles lately? (Houston: home, neighborhood)

[kreeyax]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

Unless you're a dealer, you don't.

Just sign (and have the buyer sign) a dated notarized Bill of Sale, and leave your plates on the car. The Bill of Sale will protect you in case the buyer gets into trouble w/the car.

Don't forget to peel off your EZTag / TxTag.

You also need to file a Vehicle Transfer Notification with TX DMV in case the buyer doesn't register the vehicle. You can do it online:

https://webdealer.txdmv.gov/title/pu...cleTransfer.do

[Mr. Clutch]

Meh, get Texas to do a better job with registration. Bought a newish (2019) car in late May in another state. Drove it back, got it inspected and while the plates arrived a month ago, the registration on the car isn't complete and so they can't issue a registration sticker, nor can I use the plates I already have. Its now September 13th - 3.5 months after I bought the car. The temp plates from the other state are expired. Pathetic.

And the tax office is no help, I have called them multiple times with zero answer whatsoever. Went up there and was told everything you do there had to have an appointment. Can't get any information online.

Compare this with my previous state of Virginia where this was all done online and promptly with no drama. It's easy to blame people driving around with blatantly illegal paper plates (and there are plenty out there) but if others are having anything close to the same experience as I am, a lot of the reason you're seeing all these cars with paper plates is because the entire vehicle registration system is screwed.

Texas antiquated and backwards method of vehicle registration is biting them in the ass imo. Blame the state for this one.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

Unless you're a dealer, you don't.

Just sign (and have the buyer sign) a dated notarized Bill of Sale, and leave your plates on the car. The Bill of Sale will protect you in case the buyer gets into trouble w/the car.

Don't forget to peel off your EZTag / TxTag.

Regarding this - I personally wouldn't ever sell a vehicle to a person with the plates on there again. I once sold a car to a buyer in Washington, DC in 2012 and left the tags on there, though I did get the notarized bill of sale before doing so. However, the guy never reregistered the vehicle and spent months getting speed camera and parking tickets in DC that kept coming to me (and DC kept trying to enforce). Took two years to resolve all of it, despite the fact I had the correct paperwork in the first place.

[gwarnecke]

So how would you sell a used car? Without the plates?

I would never buy a used car with no plates on it, especially assuming that I'd have to wait weeks-months for permanent plates to arrive.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

So how would you sell a used car? Without the plates?

I would never buy a used car with no plates on it, especially assuming that I'd have to wait weeks-months for permanent plates to arrive.

Yep, without the plates. Make the buyer procure their own temp plates from the DMV of whatever state they live in. The seller can even cover the fee (I think in Texas its like $30) if desired.

I thought there would be no harm to leaving the plates on there for the new buyer but people can do all kinds of crazy things in the gray period between when you give them the vehicle and when the state is informed of the sale and switches the registration over (or deactivates it, in the case of an out-of-state sale).

[resonator]

paper plates? all year ? they probably bought from Carvana.
a current scandal

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

Unless you're a dealer, you don't.

Just sign (and have the buyer sign) a dated notarized Bill of Sale, and leave your plates on the car. The Bill of Sale will protect you in case the buyer gets into trouble w/the car.

Don't forget to peel off your EZTag / TxTag.

Incorrect NEVER give them your plates,
I already had an issue with that
Even if you go to the State of Texas website and say that the car is not on your name
The system doesn’t work correctly and you might still get letters if the car gets towed

It happened to me and I’m never again leaving the plates in the car

[Westpark Village]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Regarding this - I personally wouldn't ever sell a vehicle to a person with the plates on there again. I once sold a car to a buyer in Washington, DC in 2012 and left the tags on there, though I did get the notarized bill of sale before doing so. However, the guy never reregistered the vehicle and spent months getting speed camera and parking tickets in DC that kept coming to me (and DC kept trying to enforce). Took two years to resolve all of it, despite the fact I had the correct paperwork in the first place.

This.

I once sold my car with the plates on it even though I tore off the ez tag I was still receiving tons of toll road violations in the mail with pictures of my old car taken.

If you’re selling your car to another person, especially a buyer off craigslist, make sure you take everything off the vehicle and sign a bill of sale. Let them worry about procuring new plates (which is very easy to get)

You can be held liable for any actions those idiots do driving around in a car you sold to them..

[Westpark Village]

Originally Posted by Ghost Town

Interesting thread.
I agree, huge amount of junk cars with paper tags lately. But I remember even years ago when buying used car you would get temporary tags.
These days it's probably a combination of factors: 1) overall economy and workers affected by covid in 2020-2021; 2) semiconductor shortage and vehicle price increase -> more junk cars because of the higher prices; 3) more criminals released

The criminals part should be more at 1 or 2, probably 1).

I doubt those who were riding the METRO before covid suddenly found a way to afford a vehicle, note I say afford a vehicle - not buy a vehicle. Buying a car is easy, you also need to be able to afford paying the monthly insurance payments and maintaining/repairing the car.

Most of those trashy paper plate cars look way to shady to be driven by “normal” citizens.

[Oskar_Z28]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

So how would you sell a used car? Without the plates?

I would never buy a used car with no plates on it, especially assuming that I'd have to wait weeks-months for permanent plates to arrive.

I always them off and sell the car. Plates belong to me not the car. They are proof of registration in my name. I always take the plates off for reasons mentioned above. It's onto buyer to register vehicle or get some paper plates for it.