At 01:28 PM 2/20/2005, you wrote:
>What about the slip the previous owner tears off the title and sends
>to Sacramento when they sell the Vanagon?
>
>Doesn't that remove registration liability for next year?

It must, because I sold a barely-running '82 Oldsmobile for $100 and didn't
hear from the DMV about it ever again. I also know that the guy who bought
it never registered it in his name because TWO years after he bought it I
started getting letters from the city informing me that it had been
abandoned on the street and, as the DMV's owner of record, I'd have to pay
impound fees if I wanted it back and they'd auction it in 60 days if I
didn't respond. I got a couple letters like that and never heard from them
again. For basic registration stuff the California DMV doesn't have the
power to send you a bill and make you pay. All they can really do is
withhold registration papers on the vehicle in question until the
additional levies are paid. If you fail to declare a car non-op and it sits
in your back yard for ten years before you fix it and try to register it,
you won't see squat from the DMV after the first couple renewal notices;
but when you go to re-register it after those 10 years, they'll want the
reg fee plus 9 years worth of "failure to declare" penalties.

John Bange
'90 Vanagon "Geldsauger"