The biggest reason is I typed in big caps "NO TEXTING" on the add.

lol @ ever paying a towing company instead of calling the police and having them escort you to get your property back.

It's precisely this easy. Actually it's easier in that you're never going to pay them ****. Towing companies have no rights to your property. It usually goes down like this:

owner: Gimme my car.

towing goon: You owe me $xxx.xx.

owner: HA!

towing goon: Sign this agreement to pay me $xxx.xx.

owner: *pull out phone and begin to dial local police*

towing goon: *concedes defeat*

Isn't this the dude that was pissed that his mother charged $100 to babysit his kid so he could donk up a live tourney for the weekend?

All,

OP: "I still plan on going to his address tomorrow and just explaining to him what I have to do in order to cover my ass."

Me: "I don't believe you are gonna go confront this black dude where he lives."

CALLED IT!

That wasn't exactly going out on a limb.

Quad,

Go puke on some Oreos.

lol @ the conversation about disclaimers and people being qualified to give advice. The OP is a total muppet, and there's a carrot in my fridge that would be perfectly qualified to give this guy life advice.

That's your takeaway from this situation? Contacting him was the biggest mistake? Seriously?

I am trying to go backwards now but my takeaway so far is the OP did end up stealing the guy's car, and stealing all his stuff?

Nice job OP.

Good job documenting it here and on facebook too.

You give in on a collection dispute, which is a civil dispute, and one you could likely deal with, because regardless of what the DMV says (they are not a court), you could still have probably managed this situation and got out of it all, you instead steal the car and all the belongings.

Seems like you figured this out perfectly for yourself. I see with these sorts of problem solving and analytical skills the sky will be the limit for you.

Yeah that is actually not how it works. Him not registering the car does not invalidate the sale, unless that was part of their agreement.

The reality is nothing will happen criminally because of this, because neither of these idiots have any sort of proper documentation for any of this. But I do think if the owner of the car chose to sue the OP for $800 his chances of winning would be good. So I suggest the car owner do that, sue the OP for the $800 since he stole his car.


The DMV told him he is still legally liable because he did not file the proper paperwork. That does not necessarily mean he also legally owns the car. Those are two completely different things.

Looking forward to the bump in 6 months when his court date is set.

copying this thread and sending it to your nearest police office. brb.

I'm not sure why you're giving OP such a hard time on the matter of ownership. Certainly you must understand that this is a more complicated situation.

And do you really think anyone can just go to the DMV and say, "Hey, guess what? That car with all the tickets/fees/whatever, I don't own it anymore! I sold it to Joe Blow! No, I have no evidence of anything, but I super duper promise that I sold it to him. Really. Cross my heart and hope to die!" DMW: "Oh, Okay! You no longer have any responsiblity! Sorry!!!"

Seriously, you think that's how our society works?

For the record, OP has proven himself a dumbass repeatedly itt, but the ownership question is obviously a tricky issue in this particular case.

OP has managed to obtain all the costs of owning the car (paying the tickets and impound fee) without all the benefits of actually owning the car (because the other guy has a fair and reasonable claim to the thing). Well played sir.

As a lawyer, I can confidently say that there is almost a 0% chance that the OP legally owns the car (as a disclaimer, I am not licensed in Florida and have don't have experience with auto ownership).

When the OP sold the car, legal ownership transferred to the buyer. Ownership clearly is not based on title, because in that scenario, anyone could sell a car and then go and reclaim it the next day since the buyer would not yet have had a chance to register the title.

Unless there is some law that says that ownership reverts to the person with title if a buyer doesn't register title after x number of days then OP still doesn't own the car, regardless of whether he still has the title. I have not researched this issue, but the fact that the law states that the OP was also responsible for registering the sale, strongly indicates that the ownership doesn't revert to the seller.

Suppose now that the buyer were to go to the DMV with his signed transfer of title (or whatever he got from OP), I am fairly certain they would still give him the current title. Again I have not researched this, but there are tons of situations where someone buys a car from a dealer and the dealer forgets to transfer title - I have never heard of this causing the buyer to forfeit ownership of the car, even if they wait months to realize this mistake and rectify it.

I will agree that it is unlikely the cops will do anything - they will most likely just say ownership is complicated and this is a civil matter. That said, to repeat, OP almost certainly does not own the car, and thus taking it is technically theft (please note that if he had taken it and offered to give it back the buyer for the fees that would not be theft since theft requires the intent to permanently deprive another of their property).

Let's not forget the hookah

Seriously, though, how does he legally prove he sold the car? If the other guys denies ownership so as to avoid the fees of getting out a car that leaks oil and there is no cashed check or written agreement, how does OP prove he does not own a car that is entirely in his name? Every legal entity is telling him he is the owner and responsible for it. We know that he did sell it, but what does that mean if everyone claims he is the owner and he can't prove otherwise? Does he hire an attorney to take this guy to court and subpoena witnesses, etc? That seems a bit much for an $800 car.

I'm not trying to steal his car or anything in the car. He has my phone number, home address, and FB. He can contact me and pay me back my money and I would be more than happy to give him back the car.

Another thing that I mentioned earlier that I will repeat again is that whenever I go and get a new title on Monday it completely voids the previous title I signed over to the buyer.

lol, a fake AK-47 and a Halloween mask. I suspect he won't be coming back for the car.

Thread delivered. Entertaining. I'd give B+.

Anyway idk why the hell op is complaining. Sure it took up some time but let me get this straight...

Op sells car for $800.
Idiot kid doesn't register new title.
Idiot kid gets car impounded.
Op gets car out of impound for $420.
Op made $380 on the car.
Op still has the car
???
Profit

You file paperwork with the DMV that says you sold the car. That negates your title. The other person then has the responsibility to file paperwork to claim title - if they don't, they are not allowed to drive the car.

In this situation, if the OP had filed the paperwork, he could show that to the impound lot and wouldn't owe the fee. I am not sure what exactly would happen to the car, but I suspect the impound lot could either go after the buyer, or more likely would just get to sell the car. If the buyer refutes that he actually purchased the car, then it would be more complicated, but it would be a civil matter between the impound lot, the OP, and the buyer.

To get a second title, most states would require a reason on the paperwork. Are you going to lie and say you lost it? If you say you signed it over to someone else they are not going to give you a new one.

Cliffs: you've not no ****ing clue but you give a long winded opinion anyway.

Sounds like every lawyer I know.

i gotta go hit my niece's 2nd birthday party, but it's gotta be trivially easy to figure out where OP is and probably even who he is. maybe i'll look into that later.

and the hookah, shoes, gun and mask?

also, when he tells you that you threw away $150 worth of clothes, are you gonna pay him that too? or will you be able to justify doing that in your head with some other random 'law'?

the fact that you think you're in the right here makes me want to find the kid and explain to him his options.

OP knows that he sold his car, so he knows the car isn't his anymore. He comes here for advice, and instead of taking the steps necessary to make sure the car is officially not his as advised, he goes along with his original plan of stealing the car back instead. I don't think that taking possession of a car you know you sold is good, and I don't think that ignoring the advice of OOT when you seek it out is good, so I think OP is not good.

And if he doesn't want to pay you back, you plan on just keeping the car you already sold him? I don't think you can do that.

Wiper and gangsta and others who think OP stole the car: What would you estimate are the chances the buyer would have gotten the car out of the impound and paid the fees at some point had OP not done so?