Towing Issues: Car stolen by tow lot!!, storage fees, lien holder

Question
I live in KY and bought a used 97 Taurus in June 2005. In July 2005 I had driven to NC and had the vehicle stolen. It was recovered in August. The lien holder got a letter from the police. I told the lien holder I didn't want it (the transmission was slipping already) and keep all my money I put down. The repo men stopped my parents house and said they were on the way to NC to retrieve the vehicle.


2 1/2 years later...3 days ago I inquired about registering my current vehicle...I owe taxes for this Taurus still!! Turns out the repo men never went to get it!! It's still in my name! The place I bought it from is out of business but they still have a lien against me. I owe the balance of over $5000 still!!

I contact the police in Durham, NC and they give me to tow lot info. The tow lot says they sold it...IN AUGUST 2005!! the same month it was towed there!! They refused to fax me the bill of sale they had for my car.
What the heck is this about!!
How can they sell a car that is in my name!?
Is this common?!
What am I supposed to do??

Answer
Well first of all just saying that you do not want the vehicle is not enough to clear you of responsibility... The registration with the state is something which you have to deal with by transferring the title to the finance company or making sure that they do repo it..

Now I have to say that if you owed more than it was worth they would normally pick it up, but at times when vehicles are towed to impound lots, the towing and storage fees are more than the lender wants to pay.. As a result the vehicle is "abandoned or dumped" on the tow company who has to follow state laws in obtaining a "LIEN TITLE" in order to either sell or send to the scrapyard and hopefully try to recover its expenses..

Now in reading all of your question, I can see that this is a big credit headache and also is affecting your licenses... That is very common now so that fees are collected...
It does allow a business to collect the owed money at any point in time (there might be a time limit in some states).


Since this happened in 2005, and you are dealing with it now, I think the best answer would be to see if you can find a lawyer who will try to resolve this issue... Closed businesses make things much harder to clear up and as such they get into other areas of laws which I am not familiar with.