No longer owning the cars but still get toll bill from it

Pick a state of your choosing and please tell me what penal law would apply in the highlighted instance.

And here's this from Arizona, which shows that yes, the registration DOES expire when the vehicle is sold, as common sense might lead one to conclude.

And one from South Dakota which says the same thing. And one from Illinois which states that it is illegal to operate a vehicle with the previous owner's plates.

(And in case I need to spoon-feed it to you--the law that makes it illegal to operate a vehicle with an expired or cancelled registration is what would apply in the highlighted instance).
 

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That's all great, but the Op is in Texas. What's the law there?

Apparently such that the DMV tells the OP to get his tags back?

EDIT: 30 days to title the vehicle, per this press release: https://www.txdmv.gov/sites/default/files/body-files/titlepenaltiespressrelease_4.pdf


State law requires private sale vehicle buyers to title in 30 days or face financial penalties Not transferring a vehicle in 30 days can cost (YOUR COUNTY) residents big money. A new state law requires those who purchase vehicles in a private sale, whether it’s in or out of state, to obtain a new title within 30 calendar days or face financial penalties. “In some counties people are finding they owe hundreds of dollars in title penalties for failing to title within a month of purchasing their new car or truck,” said (YOUR NAME), the tax assessor-collector for (YOUR COUNTY). “Please don’t let this happen to you,” (YOUR LAST NAME) added. Failure to title within the 30 days results in an automatic $25 penalty, plus another $25 for each month the title is late. There are no waivers for these penalties, which means the (YOUR COUNTY) county tax office and the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles cannot reduce or forgive what you may owe. The law does grant an additional 30 days to active-duty military personnel, which gives them 60 days to transfer the title before facing late title penalties. While the penalties may seem harsh, it’s important to remember this helps to protect you when you go to sell a vehicle. “When vehicle buyers don’t put the title in their name when you sell them a car or truck, anything they may do with that vehicle is going to trace to your name,” (YOUR LAST NAME) explained. Sellers don’t have to rely solely on the buyer to do the right thing.
 
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So it boils down to:

Seller is liable for tolls, etc... because he didn't notify the state. Had he done so, the tolls etc, would be a moot point. As it stands, ne should fill out the forms provided by the state and submit them to at least stop the bleeding here...

The Buyer (by law) was supposed to obtain title within 30 days (but didn't). They will be penalized if and when they ever pull a legitimate title.
 
Fill this form out now.
Do it online and it will be valid as soon as you submit it.
LINK TO SITE
Problem is you need an address to put in the new owners spot, and if they are no longer there, kind of hard to do (you could still put that in since that was where you dropped the car and title off at).

Anything before this is submitted is unfortunately still going to be on you since you are still the legal registered owner, unless you can get your former friend to pay for it.

Take this as a learning experience, and a warning and notice to others. Know the laws of your state.
I learned this almost 20 years ago when I traded in a vehicle to a dealer and left the plates on the vehicle.
A few months later, I started getting parking tickets for the plates, something I was getting phone calls and mail from collection agencies for over a decade.
2 years after I had traded it, I had a visit from a Sherriff detective from 200 miles away asking me about the vehicle (vehicle was involved in a drug bust with the plates on it still in my name, officer said plates were evidence and would be destroyed after the trial).
Stupid me expected the dealer to fill out all the paperwork to show I was not the owner any more, but apparently was never done, even after I had gone back to the dealer 3x to get it resolved.

Since then, when I sell/trade a vehicle, I keep the old plates and fill out the VTR-346 form immediately, as well as get a pic of the buyers drivers license.
When I buy a vehicle, I offer the seller their plates if they have not taken them off.
 
And here's this from Arizona, which shows that yes, the registration DOES expire when the vehicle is sold, as common sense might lead one to conclude.

And one from South Dakota which says the same thing. And one from Illinois which states that it is illegal to operate a vehicle with the previous owner's plates.

(And in case I need to spoon-feed it to you--the law that makes it illegal to operate a vehicle with an expired or cancelled registration is what would apply in the highlighted instance).

Applicable rules and regulations but they are not Penal Law.
 
And here's this from Arizona, which shows that yes, the registration DOES expire when the vehicle is sold, as common sense might lead one to conclude.

And one from South Dakota which says the same thing. And one from Illinois which states that it is illegal to operate a vehicle with the previous owner's plates.

(And in case I need to spoon-feed it to you--the law that makes it illegal to operate a vehicle with an expired or cancelled registration is what would apply in the highlighted instance).
Here in Arizona, you are supposed to keep your plate when you sell a vehicle. When you purchase another vehicle you can use that plate for it. I have the plate issued for our Honda Odyssey in 2011 on my pickup. Before that it was on our Pilot for over 5 years. My daughter's plate disappeared off her motorcycle. We immediately reported it to the police and applied for a new plate.
 
Fill this form out now.
Do it online and it will be valid as soon as you submit it.
LINK TO SITE
Problem is you need an address to put in the new owners spot, and if they are no longer there, kind of hard to do (you could still put that in since that was where you dropped the car and title off at).

Anything before this is submitted is unfortunately still going to be on you since you are still the legal registered owner, unless you can get your former friend to pay for it.

Take this as a learning experience, and a warning and notice to others. Know the laws of your state.
I learned this almost 20 years ago when I traded in a vehicle to a dealer and left the plates on the vehicle.
A few months later, I started getting parking tickets for the plates, something I was getting phone calls and mail from collection agencies for over a decade.
2 years after I had traded it, I had a visit from a Sherriff detective from 200 miles away asking me about the vehicle (vehicle was involved in a drug bust with the plates on it still in my name, officer said plates were evidence and would be destroyed after the trial).
Stupid me expected the dealer to fill out all the paperwork to show I was not the owner any more, but apparently was never done, even after I had gone back to the dealer 3x to get it resolved.

Since then, when I sell/trade a vehicle, I keep the old plates and fill out the VTR-346 form immediately, as well as get a pic of the buyers drivers license.
When I buy a vehicle, I offer the seller their plates if they have not taken them off.

I learned this when I traded in my older Sienna. At least at that time, the stealership gave me the license plate.
But I still received a renewal notice.
That is how I found this form to fill out.
 
Here in Arizona, you are supposed to keep your plate when you sell a vehicle. When you purchase another vehicle you can use that plate for it. I have the plate issued for our Honda Odyssey in 2011 on my pickup. Before that it was on our Pilot for over 5 years. My daughter's plate disappeared off her motorcycle. We immediately reported it to the police and applied for a new plate.

Same in Virginia. I have a 20-year-old plate on one of my cars and every time I renew the registration, the DMV offers me a new plate due to it's age but I have to pay extra for it. Nevermind that they didn't give me any discount for transferring the plate from my old car instead of getting a new one...
 
In cali when you sell YOU fill out a tag transferring ownership - gets you off the hook.

It's still up to them to register it, and pay the taxes, but you are out of the loop once you mail in the sale tag.

Ask for the car back, or for him to register it, and tell him if he doesn't act you'll consider it stolen.
 
About 6 month ago I give away my old car to one of my friend , I was helping him out . But he seem like so not take any responsibility ( anyway no longer friend) I don’t want go much detail into it .

I sign the title over to his name and drop it at his door . Well few months later I still get the toll bill . I went to Dmv and told them I don’t own the car any more . They say nothing they can do . The owner never come register it but still driving around . They told me get the tag but I have no idea where he now . Lost contact with him also .
Did you sell it with the license plates on it?

If your plate is still out in the wild, someone is driving around racking up tolls with it.

If you file a police report about the stolen plate they may credit you back the toll. It is a process.
 
There is nothing about a "commonwealth" state that changes anything with respect to the law. About all you can say about a "commonwealth" state is that it's a "commonwealth" state.

You are missing the fact that you CANNOT allow a buyer to use your registration. The registration is effectively cancelled as soon as the vehicle has been sold. You can't hold a registration on what you no longer own, therefore it is invalid.

And, as I've stated previously, any reasonable person knows that they are buying the car, not the registration. It is unreasonable to expect that you can buy a car and continue to use it with the previous owner's registration.

Not even getting into the insurance aspect of it, which is another problem. Most states require a car that's registered to also have a valid insurance policy.

Is the seller supposed to keep the insurance in force? Is the irresponsible buyer who hasn't bothered to title or register the car in their name going to get insurance on it?

And, let's say the buyer gets pulled over, while the vehicle is still displaying the plates registered to the previous owner. Do you really think claiming ignorance is going to get the buyer out of the heap of trouble he's going to be in?
The registration is effectively cancelled as soon as the vehicle has been sold

Short answer: Yes.

Longer version: There is a process.

A vehicle is "Sold" when the title is presented for Transfer Of Ownership at the DMV, RMV in Massachusetts, MVC, BMV, whatever it is. At that time, a new Title (probably with new owner's name) is presented to you (if you're transferring it from someone else, to you, you would be the one at the counter.)

If the title never makes it to the counter and this is never done then the car is never sold.

Slightly OT but not really: Poster that insist that a bill of sale can feel his purpose should come and enter in now but I maintain that a bill of sale is not a title and I would love to see someone take a bill of sale to a DMV where they tell you to get the title. I love the example to be cited of somewhere that doesn't do that, as these things tend to do. Scammers LOVE Bill Of Sales. Not Titles...
Been there. Done that.

Back on track. If you have a license plate that belongs to a car and then you sell the car what do to happen or at least to my knowledge that license plate now becomes not on file and comes back to nothing.

Now, this is 2022 and they can probably look up the plate that the car previously belonged to that wouldn't surprise me at all. Then even also with insurance information . Did not always used to be the case.. police computers could see License Status (Valid? Good? Revoked? Suspended? Not issued?) and Registration (Stolen? Current? Whose car?)

Registration would follow who holds the Title.

So someone is driving with an open title than the old license plates still belongs to the car and to any police officer you drive by your just driving someone else's car perfectly validly, that what may be happening here, if OP seller MetalSlug didnt get the plate, then whoever is driving it is sticking you with the tolls because they have your plate doesn't matter what car it's on it would be helpful if there was a photo with a toll violation, then you could also dispute it, I think they literally make you make a police report to submit if you're trying to get the toll invalidated so you don't have to pay it.

But all this to say that if the car was quote on quote sold with license plates than that could be why this is happening.
 
So someone is driving with an open title than the old license plates still belongs to the car and to any police officer you drive by your just driving someone else's car perfectly validly, that what may be happening here

True, if the officer just runs the tags it'll come back as a valid registration unless the DMV is notified that the vehicle has been sold. Then I would expect that the DMV will cancel that registration and then if the officer runs the tags it will show as cancelled, and then the officer will do whatever an officer does when that happens, which is probably to pull the vehicle over.

But if the officer pulls the vehicle over (say for a traffic violation) before the DMV is notified of the sale, one of the questions they always seem to ask is "Is this your vehicle?". (I think they're trained to ask that). And if the new owner answers yes, there's going to be some problems when the officer finds that the vehicle isn't registered to the driver who just told him that he owns the vehicle.
 
About 6 month ago I give away my old car to one of my friend , I was helping him out . But he seem like so not take any responsibility ( anyway no longer friend) I don’t want go much detail into it .

I sign the title over to his name and drop it at his door . Well few months later I still get the toll bill . I went to Dmv and told them I don’t own the car any more . They say nothing they can do . The owner never come register it but still driving around . They told me get the tag but I have no idea where he now . Lost contact with him also .
At this point, report it stolen. Give the police his name and last address. Let them know he is racking up tolls, and the locations where the tolls were charged. You will have to pay the tolls up until you report it stolen. Just say he never paid.
 
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