Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Nothing going on here

About the only thing going on here, is I have to go in and change the title on a truck I got for free. That's right zero, zip, zilch, nada. This will be the third trip to the DMV to try to get the title to the truck.

It was pulled out of a field. It was last licensed in 1998, and hadn't been used in a quite a while. It is a 1984 Ford F25o with a small block V8. No rustout, and only a little surface rust. And a collection of normal dents and scratches.

A family of mice had taken residence in the glove box, and had chewed up the old registrations into mouse confetti. I did manage to salvage a scrap that had the VIN number on it, which agreed with the number on the vehicle. So trip number one to the DMV. Could they give me the title? Not without a release from the registered owner. I didn't have any idea who that was, so could they provide me with the information? Oh no, you have to fill out for QXZ5678 Public discolsure form to get that information. I did, and the registered owner filed for a lost title, which she signed over to me. DMV visit number two.

I'm sorry, but you have no bill of sale. But I have a notarized statement that the title was lost, signed by the registered owner? Does this not strongly inply that they are releasing their interrest in the vehicle? Besides they gave me the truck for hauling it away! Oh, then you need a gift card.

The lady that was the last registered owner was nice enough to send me a bill of sale for $50.00, since I paid her daughter to bring the truck over to the house.

I now have $150.00 into the truck, have not gotten title to it, it does not run, it is not licensed and has not passed emission inspection.

Maybe free is not always a good thing.

1 comment:

Stacy The Peanut Queen said...

So true!

We had something similar happen with a title to a bass boat the PK and I sold.

We sold it to a "friend" on an installment plan...the boat stayed at our house till he finished paying for it. He paid for it, but he had no place to store it so he asked if he could just leave it at our house until he found a place he could keep it. We said "Sure! Why not?"

Three years later, it's STILL in our yard....we tried and tried AND TRIED to get in touch with said "friend" over this three year period because the boat started literally falling apart in our back yard....and I wanted it OUT. I told The PK "This is a redneck yard personified!!! It's awful!"

We finally found out he did have the title put in his name so, if we couldn't find him, we'd have to file a mechanics lien, blah, blah, blah.

In other words, just a great big pain in the ass.