[ | mood |
| | annoyed | ] |
[ | music |
| | random radio jazz | ] | Yesterday, I dropped the truck at a local mechanic who specializes in tuning vehicles to pass emissions. When they were done, they told me that they were pretty sure it would pass, and it did! That's the good news. I was in a pretty good mood when I drove over to the DMV, which is when I learned the bad news.
The bad news is that there is a major problem with the title. My cousin never got a title in his name for the truck. It turns out that my cousin didn't legally buy it, and therefore isn't allowed to give it to me. Neither did the guy who sold it to him. The title that I have is from Washington, in fact. Guy A sold it to guy B, who took it to California but never registered it. Guy B gave it to my cousin C. My cousin gave it to me D (for dumbass). So now I'm 3 steps removed from the original seller, and the Boulder DMV just laughed at me when I tried to register it. She told me that my supporting documents were "worthless". Nice. The title has a "sell" date of November 2002. The plates expired in 2003, and I definitely can't drive it legally.
So tomorrow morning I'm picking up a rental car for the rest of my trip here in Boulder. Since the title is actually from Washington state, I'm going to see if I have better luck with the DMV there. It looks like my best option is to contact the original seller of the truck. After 3 years, they'll be pretty surprised to find out that they still hold the title on it.
I suspect that the original buyer guy is the one who is legally on the hook for completing the transaction. The seller sold it to him in good faith, after all, but the dude never got a new title. Now it's MY problem. But if I push it off a cliff, or put the truck on the side of the road with the keys in it and a sign saying "free truck", I think it's guy B's problem, since he's theoretically the owner. I'll find out if he's actually a friend of the family before going that far.
So, I'm done worrying about it for a while. I'll park the truck and see what I can do when I get back to Seattle. |