My Dad received an interesting piece of mail from the toll authority in Houston.  It seems he racked up some fairly considerable tolls, even though he hasn’t been to Houston in years.  A quick glance at the included photos revealed that the tolls were amassed by the new owner of a Chevy pickup that my Dad traded in two years ago.  One would think that doing business with a large car dealership would insure proper transfer of the car title, but that isn’t always the case.

Over the past few weeks my Dad has been working with the car dealership, the Houston toll authority, and the state of Texas to try and correct this issue.  It isn’t quite as simple as you would think.  One of the items they asked for was a copy of the title, but who keeps one of those when you sell a vehicle?  Eventually the Houston toll authority was satisfied with a copy of the bill of sale and a signed affidavit.

In all of this my Dad has learned about form VTR-346 – Texas Motor Vehicle Transfer Notification.  His truck went from the dealership here in town to another dealership in Alvarado.  A family in Corsicana purchase the truck and must have taken it on a trip to Houston.  Through all of those transfers and sales my Dad remained as the owner of record for the truck.  Form VTR-346 is a notification from the seller to the state that the vehicle has been sold.  It is the responsibility of the new owner to transfer the title and register the vehicle within 30 days of purchase, but this isn’t always done.  When selling or trading in a car, it is a good practice to fill out form VTR-346.

Another good suggestion is keeping a copy of the vehicle title and associated sales documents in your records.  You simply can’t depend on a car dealership or individual to get the title transfer done.  Having copies of the documents can help to quickly resolve any issues that might arise.

Need more information about selling a car in Texas?  This brochure from the state might be helpful.

10K Update

I didn’t have a chance to write a post last Monday with an update on my February progress in the 10K challenge.  The financial side of the 10K challenge continues to stay on track with another good month of flipping items and saving money.  The physical portion of the 10K challenge continues to progress slowly but surely.  In case you missed it, I have challenged myself to make/save an additional $10K this year and I also want to get back in fair enough shape to run a 10K.  Everyone needs a goal, or two, or eight to be aiming at.