ok I'll try to keep this short and precise as possible.

i bought an ek for a fairly cheap price. 3500 to be exact. never met the seller(it was through third party). i jumped on the offer and purchased the ls vtec ek. now im almost done swapping out the ls motor and putting in the b20 motor.(block was gone). so now that im nearly done with the swap and my project. i will be needing to register this vehicle. i just thought about when i need to register this car, what if he had his car required to see a ref for whatever it is he had gotten caught for? will i have to send my car to the ref if this is the case? another problem is he had expired tags on the car i know about the late registration fees but will i be held accountable for it??? and the previous owner has been receiving the bills for it but has not been paying it off. i know this because they have tried contacting me through the third party. i bought the car in Nov.

basically i want to know what is in the process of registering the car. if previous charges will be turned over to me. i already know of a place who will smog my car but i don't know about the one other than the test only center. please help.
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mods please fix title

 

You bought a car for 3500 and did not get a title??

From your post, sounds like your kinda screwed, gonna have to get the title to register the car, meaning pay off the title holder/bank that financed the car. Once you have the title, get it registered. You bought the car not running--reason for the expired tags---no penality. Be sure to tell them that.

 

Go by AAA and have them do a search on the VIN number. (If you are not currently a member, join!) They can tell you the current legal status of the car and tell you what fees you will have to pay.

I doubt that the original owner will be willing to pay the back fees!!!

You will have to pay back registration. If the title release, from a credit union or bank, wasn't documented with DMV then there will ba an additional charge. In California, you can NOT "back-date" a non-op" status!!

I passed on a clean 89 CRX due to the owner wanting me to clean up his past DMV mistakes. It adds to the cost and just put it over the top.

It's too late, but what you should have done would be to have the seller clean up the registration and title at his expense, then transfer title to your name and "non-op" the car until you are ready to put it back on the road.

Good Luck!!

Wes Vann

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Wes V &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Go by AAA and have them do a search on the VIN number. (If you are not currently a member, join!) They can tell you the current legal status of the car and tell you what fees you will have to pay.

I doubt that the original owner will be willing to pay the back fees!!!

You will have to pay back registration. If the title release, from a credit union or bank, wasn't documented with DMV then there will ba an additional charge. In California, you can NOT "back-date" a non-op" status!!

I passed on a clean 89 CRX due to the owner wanting me to clean up his past DMV mistakes. It adds to the cost and just put it over the top.

It's too late, but what you should have done would be to have the seller clean up the registration and title at his expense, then transfer title to your name and "non-op" the car until you are ready to put it back on the road.

Good Luck!!

Wes Vann</TD></TR></TABLE>

It sure must SUCK to live in Cali. Texas, take title to title/registration office, pay sales tax, transfer title into you name. Done. It doesnt matter if everything is current. And if your registering a car 21 days after the sale, all you really have to do is TELL them the car was DOA when you bought it.

 

i did get the title have it in hand, thanks for everyones input. and i wish i had known some of those points before i purchased the car on me.


guess im gonna take the title to a insurance office and have them walk me through it. as far as fee's im willing to pay them off. and for whatever past charges from dmv by previous owner i guess i will have to deal with.