easytarget
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
So, I was apparently in a daze and went through with a motorcycle purchase with blinders on, ignoring red flag after red flag. I'm in awe of my own stupidity, treating it as a learning experience and moving on, but have a few questions. Here's the breakdown:
Cycle advertised in craigslist as clean title, have emails from seller alleging clean title and current registration. I paid for the bike and he left me with a very vague bill of sale (again, my fault) and instead of the actual title (said it was lost) an application for duplicate title signed by a previous owner. I should have ran at this point but I didn't. I was already riding the bike in my head, not thinking about the rape I was in the process of receiving.
So, I check out the registration calculator online (CA DMV web tool I should have used BEFORE purchase) and vehicle turns out to be a salvage, hasn't been registered for over a year, still needs to go through salvage rebuild process of inspections, etc. I tried to contact seller the same day to reverse sale (yeah right) but of course the guy has disappeared.
My question is this: I have a bad feeling CA won't accept a signed but not notarized application for duplicate title from a previous owner who I have no way of even contacting. Am I obligated to pay california's ransom for back registration and taxes considering it's probably impossible to even get the title in my name or the bike registered? I know they will gladly accept the money, as stated on their website. Am I legally OK to just part this bike out and take the loss as a learning experience instead of basically paying california for a purchase based on fraud that can never be registered?
One last bit, some are probably thinking the motorcycle was stolen, I checked the stolen vehicle database and it wasn't. I think this fraud is just limited to trying to dump a vehicle he knew he couldn't register.
Any advice welcome. Sorry for any rambling or incoherence. I'm multitasking.
So, I was apparently in a daze and went through with a motorcycle purchase with blinders on, ignoring red flag after red flag. I'm in awe of my own stupidity, treating it as a learning experience and moving on, but have a few questions. Here's the breakdown:
Cycle advertised in craigslist as clean title, have emails from seller alleging clean title and current registration. I paid for the bike and he left me with a very vague bill of sale (again, my fault) and instead of the actual title (said it was lost) an application for duplicate title signed by a previous owner. I should have ran at this point but I didn't. I was already riding the bike in my head, not thinking about the rape I was in the process of receiving.
So, I check out the registration calculator online (CA DMV web tool I should have used BEFORE purchase) and vehicle turns out to be a salvage, hasn't been registered for over a year, still needs to go through salvage rebuild process of inspections, etc. I tried to contact seller the same day to reverse sale (yeah right) but of course the guy has disappeared.
My question is this: I have a bad feeling CA won't accept a signed but not notarized application for duplicate title from a previous owner who I have no way of even contacting. Am I obligated to pay california's ransom for back registration and taxes considering it's probably impossible to even get the title in my name or the bike registered? I know they will gladly accept the money, as stated on their website. Am I legally OK to just part this bike out and take the loss as a learning experience instead of basically paying california for a purchase based on fraud that can never be registered?
One last bit, some are probably thinking the motorcycle was stolen, I checked the stolen vehicle database and it wasn't. I think this fraud is just limited to trying to dump a vehicle he knew he couldn't register.
Any advice welcome. Sorry for any rambling or incoherence. I'm multitasking.