Man billed $1,500 for vehicle he didn't own, insurer says he still has to pay
CBC
When Darrell Nash sold his used SUV last spring, he thought the deal was done.
After all, the 66-year-old retired truck driver who lives near Langley, B.C., is a self-described "car guy" who says he has plenty of experience buying and selling vehicles.
A couple of months later, Nash says he was blindsided by a $1,500 towing and storage bill for a vehicle he no longer owned, thanks to what he calls a "terrifying loophole in how vehicle transfers are handled."
"It's a problem," Nash told Go Public. "A very strange situation … I didn't know what to do."
While Nash was in hospital recovering from open heart surgery in March, his grandson, with permission, sold the family's 2004 Acura MDX to a stranger.
It wasn't worth much. The aging vehicle had more than 300,000 kilometres on it and mechanical issues, so they sold it for $500 cash. The buyer filled out the proper transfer forms, brought his own plates and drove away.
"Two adult people made a deal, shook, signed papers and transferred money … that should be the end of it … but it doesn't seem to be that way," Nash said.
About three months after the sale, the RCMP called. The vehicle had been found abandoned about 35 kilometres away, uninsured and still registered in Nash's name.
"I got a call saying that this vehicle was in Surrey on the side of a road with no plates on it," Nash told Go Public.
"And I said: 'Oh, I sold that car a couple of months ago and I have the paperwork for it.' And he goes: 'Oh then you're fine.'"
But he wasn't.
A couple of weeks after that call from police, Nash opened a letter from a towing company demanding payment. Because the buyer never registered the vehicle, legally it still belonged to Nash.
“The tow truck company just pretty much said that ‘Well, we’ll just send it to collections,’” Nash said, adding, “'and you’ll end up paying it because it’ll ruin your credit.'”
Experts say Nash’s situation could happen to almost anyone who sells a vehicle in most of Canada.
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