Towing Issues: Towing Charge, license registrations, bad debts

Question
QUESTION: If I sold a vehicle and the new owner did not register the vehicle in his or her name, the vehicle gets towed the tow company sees my name as last registered owner, can the tow company seek collections from me? what do I need to do to prove I have not been the owner for over a year?

ANSWER: Well I would love to provide a "correct and legal answer" here for you, but several things kind of come into play with this issue.

First of all as a "GENERAL ANSWER" yes the last registered owner is responsible for the towing and storage charges on any vehicle.

Now in some states (you did not provide me info to give specific info) the tow company can have the State DMV suspended your drivers license and any vehicle license - registrations you have, in order to collect the owed fees.. Now some States which allow this practice, it had to be ordered towed under the request of law enforcement, others any ordered tow is good enough to do that.

However as a general rule any business which does not try to collect bad debts or owed money will not stay in business long. So a lot of tow companies use collection agencies to recover owed money, since they are private businesses not tax payer supported like the Police and Fire Departments...

Now as to proving who owns the vehicle or that you "legally" followed the state rules on ownership of a vehicle, that also does depend on the state you are in..

I do know that several states really drop the ball as to releasing the ownership liability upon sale of the vehicle, especially when the releases are mailed in...


Hope this "GENERAL INFORMATION" helps but its the best I can do with the limited info I have.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I live in Oregon,can you be a bit more specific with my state information?
Thank you very much!

Answer
here is a link to the Oregon DMV website which will help explain what needed or needs to be done...

http://www.dmv.org/or-oregon/title-transfers.php



also a very long (35 page) deal explaining liens and how Oregon processes them ...


www.odot.state.or.us/forms/dmv/6828.pdf


and another source dealing with vehicle registrations


egov.oregon.gov/ODOT/CS/RULES/docs/20071130/735-020-0075text.pdf


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I know that I really did not answer your question as there are so many deals which affect it... I would check with Oregon DMV and see what proof and requirements need to be done to get your name off the registration and title if you did sell the vehicle... BUT remember that if the new owner did not follow the rules and register the vehicle then it does create problems like this.. It can be cleared up but it might take a bit of time to do it. I do not think it is an overnight cure.