Impounded for past due registration? (CA)

so, why did he park it on a Public Street?

 

Another thing people don't realize. If you have a home out of state and register your cars to that state to avoid paying fees to California, if you and your cars spend 51% of your time in California, you must have a California license and California registration. Matter of fact, if you peruse the CHP web-site, there's a form you fill out on line, if you think your neighbor is a registration cheat. Also, if you pay income taxes to the State of California, your considered a resident of California.

 

Man, California sucks.

 

And they're still broke....

 

You guys actually want to live in a State that is like that ????????????

Don

 

That WAS constructive and I already gave a good response. So there.

 

Just as an fyi....youre not even supposed to tow dolly or transport a car that is 6 months and a day out of registration ot it will get towed....an unregistered cars tire cannot touch the street in California! Its been that way for YEARS....

 

There is no battle against the system. It's not rocket science. Keep your registration current, they leave you alone. I've lived in California all my life and driven rusty old cars, keep your shit current, no problems. Dave

 

I hear this all the time. its simple, register the car non op. I know someone who has 8 cars, 6 he never non oped, he owes hundreds on each and he is bitching " the state of CA is screwing me"

No, I told him, you are screwing you! I non op all my projects....simple

 

Did the car have plates on it? Without plates it can be towed regardless of how long it has been out of registration - even 1 day

 

Try having the state garnish your check for past due registration.....

I never knew that was a possibility for registration, but in CA it sure is. Non-op is the way to go. On a side note though, if you non op the car then try to bring it current before the registration would be due, you have to pay 2 years registration (current year and the next year). Learned that through DMV too.

 

I do it all the time. You only have to pay current year.
If it was due in January and you op it in June, you pay the current year. If the registration was due in January and you register it in December you will pay the current year and next year

 

How much is Cal registration? Paying those 2 years has got to be cheaper than a tow and storage hassles. Still sounds like the way to go.

 

It is based on the value of the car - so My 66 VW is like $100 a year and the Wifes 2013 Flex is about $400

 

Man, I'm REALLY out of touch. That's crazy!

 

Ha Ha, you don't want to know what it was on my Lamborghini! between registration and insurance it was NUTS!

 

One other thing- a non registered car is not allowed to legally park on the street- one of my
drivers had our box truck skid on ice and hit a parked car- police came- saw the hit car was
unregistered and told my driver to leave- that the person who owned the car could not even
go after us for repairs since the car was not legal. Then the cop gave the damaged car a ticket
and ordered it towed when the owner got in his face. So if you park an unregistered car on the
street you are accepting all the risk- at least in CT and there seems to be very little difference
in CT's laws and California's.

 

Well, that's not right, registered or not you hit it, you're responsible. Glad I don't live out there.

 

Yeah, on all our cars, it always shows non op as a option, cost seems to range from $18 to $20. Once non op the car, no fees till you go to use it again, but unless you time it well, you could end up paying two years reg.

For example our 58 TBird in on non op right now, it's registration cycles each July, so if I start to use it now, June... I have to pay 2012 and 2013 fees, but if I wait till July or August then I am only going to pay the 2013.

For me, the minimum CA DMV fee is $80.

The next problem is you can't just pay the fee, they won't take it without proof of insurance has been my experience. Well, I should say, they will take it and then tell you it's invalid if you don't get insurance on the car by x days... and then cancel the registration.

CA will also take your tax refund for unpaid DMV fees, that happened to me. Pretty ironic, since I do taxes for a living.... but when I moved didn't realize I forgot to change the address on one of our 8 registered cars at the time (again that pesky 58 Tibrd). I had to call the DMV and FTB to figure out which car it was...

There is bad to every place, you just have to pick what bad you can live with. I can live with this kind of junk way more than lots of snow or rain....

Just Saying...

Cheers
RustyNCA

 

Same thing happened to my former boss - he didn't non-op a couple of his cars that he wasn't driving, and the DMV attached the monthly payments from the coin-op laundry company that serviced his buildings.

And even after the amounts were paid up, they still attached the funds.

It took a long time to straighten the mess out, and I never found out if they refunded him anything.

 

Fixing anything the state messes up is an exercise of fortitude. Seems that everything disappears into a mail room from hell created due to work furloughs. God forbid the state just run under a balanced budget.

 

What a bunch of bullshit! Having to pay to have your vehicle wether your car is on public or private property,makes the dickheads that run wa. State look smart.

 

I'm on duty at the fire station right now in the city I work in, we have the pd on the other side of the building so I just went and posed the question to an officer. He said it is legal to tow out of reg. or after 72 hrs of non movement...on a city street but he laughed at it actually being done because he said they don't have the time, manpower, or will to follow up on chicken sh!t complaints like that. Where your buddy got towed from they must not have much going on and are bored or something...

 

Here in San Mateo they usually have old guys who volunteer to answer "Abandoned Car" reports. They drive around in old cop cars and tag cars called in or cars that just look like they haven't moved in a while. Tagged my truck once. Right in front of my house. Current registration and all. After 3 days they come back and if the car is still there they call the tow yard and it's gone. Real cops don't get involved that I can see.

 

My buddy had the same situation here in Redondo. Registration was only out 2 months, but parked in front of his house. Got impounded and unfortunately to get the car back had to pay the outstanding 2 parking tickets. Was right around $1000 after fees, registration, impound crap, and tickets. A week later the truck got totalled by a drunk driver hit and run parked in the same spot and the police didnt give two shits

 

I have an OT Impala SS that I had unregistered (title in my name) in my garage from 1986 to 2009. I went to DMV to get it current. It was out of the DMV system. I ended up paying $80-ish in fees and was able to keep the original black plates. The car still needs to be restored, so I non-op'd it, which cost a 1 time fee of $10 or $20 , I can't remember. Every year they send me a registration notice asking me if I want to register it for the year. If I don't, DMV says to ignore the notice and it will remail non-op'd.

 

I got a ticket once for no seat belt. It was only $22 at the time. So I went down to the courthouse to take care of it. They told me that they had no record of it and to try back in a few weeks. About three weeks later I go back down there only to be told they still had no record of it and that it must have been lost. I gave up on it. About two years later I went to register my truck and they told me that it was going to be $82 plus the $250 that I owed the state. I was ???? clueless. After about a week of phone calls I found out that the seat belt ticket had caught up to me.
A lot of the cities here are now getting a cut of the tow bills when your car gets hooked. The last city I lived in they were getting $100 off the top of every tow/impound bill. Crooked? Oh yeah

 

Bingo we have a winner!! most cops will not screw with it till at least 6 mo or more unless he is a prick or you piss them off.

 

Yeah---sure sounds like it. Are these elected officials??? Do the CA guys vote??? They need to get busy and vote em out altho it might just be too late for CA.

 

Moved out of Southern California 20 years ago, and I couldn't be happier; nice place to visit (NOT REALLY) but that's it... I lived there from the time I was 3 until 33. When we moved to the Memphis, TN area, I re-registered all our vehicles, boat and trailer within a couple of weeks. The following year, I receive notices from Calif for the registration of all our vehicles, boats/trailer. These were sent because of the mail forwarding. I promptly replied with our new mailing address and the facts of our move out of state a few months earlier. You would have thought that would suffice? WRONG, they then sent me notices of past due registrations, to our new address in Tennessee. Again, I collected all their mail, placed it in a large envelope and mailed it back along with a copy of our TN driver's licenses. The following year, I receive notices of the past due amounts, which were now in the $1000 range, along with a notice that they would be attaching our Calif State income tax returns! Well HELL, guess what? Go right ahead, I don't have Calif State income tax any longer... It took them over three years to stop harrasing us... F**K Calif!