Hello there,

I am from LA California and I wanted to ask what should I do when I have transferred my leased vehicle to a new owner but that new owner never registered the vehicle on his name yet and now I am receiving a bunch of tickets.

Right now I have to deal with two tickets and both of them has corrections in the tickets. I do not have the car anymore and I have proof that I submitted the notice of transfer and reliability form before the ticket dates. How do I correct them without going to court?

My main concern right now is that do I HAVE to appear in court for the $364 fees that doesn't belong to me? The new owner must be driving the car everywhere because this court is really far away from where I lived. I have submitted written documents and proofs that I don't own the car anymore but I received a letter in return that I MUST pay my fees for them to review it or appear in court. I do not want to do either of them. If I ignore it, will it go to my dmv record? I went to DMV and they told me not to pay it since DMV has the record that I don't own the car anymore. If it really go to the collections for not paying it or taking any actions, then will I still be reliable for it or dmv will ignore it since it shows that I don't have the car anymore?

Also, is it possible to take any actions against the new owner to make him go and register the car to his name? I am so tired of appealing for all the tickets. I think I received almost 20 in total. Glad that most of them are parking and toll tickets though. Those were easy to be removed.

Any answers will be greatly appreciated. Thank You!

Wow, what a conundrum. Does the letter state that if you pay the fees they will review the case, and if they find you innocent return the fees? If so, and given that you don't want to pesonally appear, that may be the best answer. Otherwise you either have to appear or hire a lawyer who will appear on your behalf, and that will probably cost you more.

I'm curious how they're traced these tickets to you - did you make the mistake of leaving your license plates on the car when you transferred it to the new lessee? Always remove license plates when selling or transferring a car!

It only states that in order for the court to process my case as a Trial by Written Declaration, I must post bail $364. So I assumed it will be refunded back to me? But why must I pay when it is NOT my ticket. They did traced the tickets with the license plates. I did not know that I have to remove the plates since it was a LEASED vehicle.

How does the DMV record works? Will it go to my dmv record through my name and address or by the vehicle license plate? DMV does show that I am no longer liable for the vehicle.

Also, the registration is due in March, if he doesn't renew it and gets pull over by cops, will I be liable for the tickets again?

It doesn't matter if it was a leased vehicle. The plates are assigned to you for that car. You will be liable until the license plates...that are assigned to you and not the car itself....are removed from the car.

NEVER sell a car and leave your license plates on it.

I'm amazed that you can even sell a leased car.

That's a good point, Joy. I was so caught up in leaving the plates on it that I never even considered that.

So how did you sell the car?

Did some more research and have come to learn that in CA the license plates follow the car, so my previous adminition about removing the plates was wrong - sorry 'bout that. Since you have filed a "Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability" with the DMV then you should be held blameless. See the FAQs on this here:

DMV-Online Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability System-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (http://apps.dmv.ca.gov/online/nrl/nrlfaq.htm)

Consequently if you have done this properly and have documentation to that effect you will win your case. And yes, the fees will be refunded to you when you win, so I would go ahead and pay to fight it.

One other thing - when you transferred the car to the new lessee you must have received some sort of document from the leasing company acknowledging that you are no longer responsible for payments - right?

Joy, Odinn7 - note that the OP didn't sell the car, he transferred the lease to a new lessee.

I did not sell the car, I transferred the car to new owner. I am no longer liable in payments and everything changed to his name except the dmv records, since he hasn't gone and update it. I doubt he will.

Thank you ebaines for the research. I am so clueless with these procedures. I just read the DMV link that you posted. It says that I won't be liable for the tickets after the date of sale. So do you think it is okay to ignore it? I really don't want to pay the $364 fee. Also, Im worried I won't get my full refund back.

That is unreal for it to be that way with the plates...I have never heard of that. Nice work looking that up ebaines.

I also wanted to say that in this state, you can't just transfer a lease either...I have much to learn.

As a side note, GA used to just transfer tags so the vehicle was sold with them. As above, person who bought my truck never changed the tags and was involved in a serious accident with major injuries and fled the scene. Guess what? 2 days later the police come to arrest ME. Only after about 3 months of time and effort and follow up was I off the hook. Now, you remove the plates and turn them in or destroy. Bad idea to transfer tags.