Friend car got my towed and impounded.

[Sykes]

Hey everyone,

I'll try to make this short for all of you.

I've been trying to sell my car for the past little. During this time, I moved to Toronto to take a really good job position so I entrusted my car to a good friend of mine to take care of the viewing, sale, and transaction while I'm still here.

Yesterday, my friend decided to take the car to put a bit of gas in it (to prep for a couple of viewings that day).The problem is that I cancelled my insurance before I left and my registration expired shortly after. While at the station, there happened to be a police officer there and he ran my plates. To make a long story short, my friend recieved $6000 worth in tickets and my car got towed and is now in the impound lot.
I'm not quite sure what to do right now and how to go about things, espicially since I'm here in Toronto. The most immediate issue is getting my car out of the impound - can I appoint somebody to get it out for me, or do I have to fly back and do it myself?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you could keep the responses relevant to the issue at hand, that would be awesome as I can only access the internet through a Blackberry for the next couple of days. Thanks for your help.

[sr20s14zenki]

Ok, youre in a pretty bad situation here. The thing is, if your friend goes to fight the tickets he MAY get "ignorance is no excuse to break the law, you should have checked that the proper documents were in the car". Anyways, you may be able to get the tickets gone, but the only way to do it is for him to go to court and plead the case on the court date. You would naturally have to get in on it too somehow, not sure how. Anyways, hope that helped....there is a possiblity to fight them, depending on how lenient the court system is that day

[Talonstylz]

Make a bill of sale to your friend. Most insurance companys give you 14 days. I know ama does. But not all insurance companys. Then let him show it, then all he'll get is a improper use of plate. I didnt know about the 14 day insurance thing, i thought it was only registration till the same thing happened to me. Talked with my insurance, and they sent me a letter stating how they would of covered it in an accident, etc...

Something to try.....

[The Cosworth]

Iirc the registered owner needs to get the car out of the impound. You cannot appoint someone AFAIK but maybe call the impound and read them your post?

[Weapon_R]

Insure the vehicle and then take the insurance to the impound along with a tow truck and you'll be able to take out your car. Get a family member with a signed authorization note to do it for you.

If you sign the bill of sale over to your friend, he may keep it himself and deduct his costs from the sale. People change when large sums of money are involved. He should have taken a jerry can with him and filled it instead of driving the car there.

[Talonstylz]

Aslong as you have a signed and dated note that allows your friend to get it out of the impound he'll be fine.

[Talonstylz]

Originally posted by Weapon_R

If you sign the bill of sale over to your friend, he may keep it himself and deduct his costs from the sale. People change when large sums of money are involved.

I guess it depends on how good of a friend he is?

[D. Dub]

Get smarter friends.

[nova1]

Weapon R's post is what you should do.

[E-MARK]

What kind of car is it?

If you don't resolve it it will be up for auction in a couple months. You can do the future owner a favor by sending him the keys on the day of the auction so he doesn't have to have a locksmith do the hard expensive work of re-keying it.

[Sykes]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the replies. The car is a '91 240SX - the fines alone are double the value of the car. I'll look into the suggestions provided. I'll keep everyone posted.

If anyone else has some suggestions, please post and let me know. Thanks.

[BlackArcher101]

And next time, keep it insured until it's actually sold. How do you expect someone to take it for a test drive? If they got into an accident... you'd be footing the repair bill for both vehicles involved.

I agree with WeaponR

[88jbody]

the only thing I know for sure is that with no insurace or regestration the impound will not release the car unless it is on a tow truck.

if the car needed gas and was not legal for the road he should have gone and used a gas can to get gas.

[canuckcarguy]

If you're going to have the vehicle towed out of the impound, I don't think you'll need any insurance. You might have to fax or mail some sort of authorization to the impound to release the vehicle to somebody else.

If your friend knew the vehicle was uninsured, he's a moron and deserves the ticket, and should probably talk to a lawyer.

If you give him a bill of sale after the fact and back-date it, it's fraudulent and will likely contradict whatever conversation your friend had with the police when they charged him. He almost certainly said something along the lines of, "uhh, this is my friend's car, I'm selling it on his behalf, and I thought it was insured." If he now changes his story with your cooperation, you'll both be exposed as liars in court, never a wise prospect. He might have coverage through his own insurance company (if he has one), he should call them and see, but I doubt it.

If you didn't tell your friend that the car was uninsured, you should man up and pay for his lawyer, and ultimately pay for whatever tickets he received, plus the bump in insurance that will likely plague him for a few years. Unless he can prove that he had coverage, he won't get a fine reduction in court; as far as I know the fine is a mandatory minimum penalty, and the judge doesn't have the discretion to reduce it. It's an expensive lesson, but look on the bright side; where would you be if he'd been in a serious collision in your uninsured car?

Good luck.

PS Just out of curiosity, was the vehicle RHD? That might explain the random plate check by the police...

[phil98z24]

.

[Primer_Drift]

Isn't ticketting someone on private property (the gas station) considered solicitation??

[BlueGoblin]

Originally posted by Primer_Drift
Isn't ticketting someone on private property (the gas station) considered solicitation??

from the OED:

solicit

• verb (solicited, soliciting) 1 ask for or try to obtain (something) from someone. 2 ask for something from. 3 accost someone and offer one’s or someone else’s services as a prostitute.

— DERIVATIVES solicitation noun.

I do not think that this word means what you think it means.

[dannie]

6k in tickets for no registration and insurance is almost impossible. The ticket for no insurance is 2800 (lets say 3k for the hell of it) and the ticket for no registration is 230. What is the rest for?

If your buddy has a suspended drivers licence and was driving the car when he was busted, getting the car out isn't that easy. Is there any way to know for sure what tickets he got?

When I say it isn't easy, I mean that you cannot get your car out for 30 days without government approval.

[Weapon_R]

Originally posted by Primer_Drift
Isn't ticketting someone on private property (the gas station) considered solicitation??

If the private property is accessible by the public, the police can give you a ticket

[Sykes]

Originally posted by canuckcarguy
PS Just out of curiosity, was the vehicle RHD? That might explain the random plate check by the police...

The car is not RHD. It's a bone stock, Canadian market, 240SX.

Originally posted by phil98z24
I'm with Canuckcarguy on this one... whatever you do, don't back date any bill of sale or try to fandangle your way around this one in order to help him out of this. I know you haven't implied you were going to help him out here, but if you do - that is not the way to do it.

I totally agree with the both of you - this option didn't even cross my mind, let alone even considering it. It's not going to happen.

Originally posted by dannie
6k in tickets for no registration and insurance is almost impossible. The ticket for no insurance is 2800 (lets say 3k for the hell of it) and the ticket for no registration is 230. What is the rest for?

If your buddy has a suspended drivers licence and was driving the car when he was busted, getting the car out isn't that easy. Is there any way to know for sure what tickets he got?

When I say it isn't easy, I mean that you cannot get your car out for 30 days without government approval.

I thought the $6k in fines was a little outrageous as well, so I dug a little deeper and you are right: the maximum fine for driving without insurance is $2875. I talked to my friend again and he said that the police officer told him he'd have to pay around $5000.

As far as his driving record is concerned, it's near spotless so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle (relatively speaking) to get the car out of the impound. I just have to do what was suggested by people earlier and fax over an authorization to have my car released.

My friend knew that the car would be uninsured by the time I got to Toronto, but didn't know the registration was going to expire at the end of June (I moved to Toronto at the end of May). Eitherway, he knew he shouldn't have been driving the car - it's just one of those "things that probably never happen" that actually happens. I do feel badly for him and am doing everything I can to help him out.

Until I know what the final outcome of this whole situation is (i.e. his Sept 2 court date), I'm helping him to be proactive by getting him to call in, inquire about the tickets, and see if he can speak to the Crown beforehand to negotiate something (albeit this won't happen for at least another 2 or 3 weeks as the ticket hasn't been received by traffic courts yet).


Thanks for all the suggestions everybody - I really appreciate it. I'll keep you posted as to what happens.

Again, if there are any other suggestions that haven't already been made, please post them. Thanks.