cradduck

I officially began being car-free on February 5th of this year. I had sold my Jeep in November and then sold my old gas-hog (15mpg) 66' Dodge Pickup in February. When I sold my Dodge I went through the normal process of canceling the insurance, mailing out the top portion of the pink slip to the DMV, and giving the bottom portion of the pink slip to the new owner so he could register the vehicle with the DMV.

Today I received three tickets in the mail for the pickup totaling $370 from the University of Southern California Transportation Services. For some reason my name is somehow still associated with this vehicle and they are trying to collect money from me. I have never been to USC before nor have driven anywhere around that campus.

I emailed the department that issued the tickets stating that I no longer owned the vehicle and gave them the address of the new owner and the date the truck was sold (I don't have his drivers license number).

I have never run into anything like this before in my life (and I have owned and sold close to a dozen vehicles). Is there anything else I should be aware of or any other action I may have to take to get this corrected?

Any help/ideas would be appreciated.

bragi

The same thing happened to me after I gave my car to charity. The new owner got the car towed and impounded, and I was sent a bill from the city of Mt. Vernon for $800. Did you submit a bill of sale or transfer of title to the state after you sold the car? If you can provide some documentation that the ownership of the car was officially transferred before the violation, you should be OK. If not, you may be legally responsible for the fine. (In my case, I hadn't done the proper paperwork and, as far as the court was concerned, I was liable for the bill. Fortunately, the current owner was an honorable guy and paid the fine himself.)

East Hill

The new owner failed to mail in his portion to DMV. As far as the DMV is concerned, you aren't the legal owner, but you're still the last owner of record.

I hope you do not have problems with USC selling their uncollectable debt to a debt collection agency. That is what happened to me.

I would send a certified, notarized statement to the Transportion Services telling them that you don't own the vehicle, haven't owned the vehicle since February, that you filed the necessary paperwork with the DMV, that you are not responsible for the tickets, and give them the address of the new owner.

Make it clear that you expect them to clear this up, and you do not wish to hear from them again unless it is to acknowledge that they received your statement.

East Hill

Platy

From a California DMV web page:

How does the notice of transfer and release of liability protect me?

When properly completed, and the information is recorded by DMV, liability for parking and/or traffic violations and civil litigation, resulting from operation after the date of sale, becomes the responsibility of the subsequent purchaser (Vehicle Code §5602). Additionally, when the NRL information is received by DMV, and the vehicle record is marked, no further vehicle registration renewal notices will be mailed to you for the reported vehicle.


https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/reg/nrl.htm

This would seem to protect you in some ultimate legal sense. What I would probably try to do in your situation is to get some kind of proof from the DMV that the notice of transfer was filed on such and such a date, and send a copy to the USC folks.

Artkansas 

I empathize. When I sold my Nova, the new owner failed to register it for a couple of years. I ended up having to go to the DMV office and fill out a number of forms before it was cleared up.