Oct 13, 2009 10:35 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: No Car Title
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
Car dealerships selling vehicles without pink slips: It's a problem Call Kurtis exposed in an investigation earlier this year. Tonight, we have one couple's update.
Soon after Moriah and John Plato bought a used car from Warren Motors on Auburn Boulevard in Sacramento in 2007, they realized there were problems.
"The dealer that sold us the car wasn't even licensed to sell or even registered to sell cars in California at all," Moriah said.
The dealer never paid off a previous loan tied to the car. That meant they never got a pink slip and the Platos couldn't register their car.
Althought they were paying their $400 monthly car payment to their lender, Fireside Bank, they started getting tickets for it not being registered.
They realized the car could be repossessed any time because of the prior owner's unpaid loan.
"As soon as we found out that Fireside didn't have the pink slip we stopped paying because they didn't own the car and they weren't doing anything to correct it," Moriah said.
Last March we exposed the growing problem of cars being sold without the title, and the fact that dealers have 30 days to produce that pink slip.
Rosemary Shahan is the president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety and has been working hard to get tighter restrictions and laws to protect consumers like Moriah. With her help, Moriah was put in touch with attorney Mark Anderson.
"We went and filed suit against Fireside for the damages," she said.
The dealership was long gone. Fireside, the financing company they provided, collected money for a car they didn't own and couldn't get the title to. Moriah wanted them to buy back the car and reimburse them for all their expenses and the tickets they received for not having their vehicle registered.
"All total, it's like $11,600 and they came back and said, okay, we'll sign it," she said.
Moriah says they're going to use some of the money to buy another car.
"I'm really glad that it's been resolved this way because it's been a long, frustrating fight. It was very much a shock to learn that the man we trusted to purchase the car from did this to us."
A bill was just signed into state law. Starting J
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