My car just got impounded for expired, out of state registration, what now?

January 29, 2007 10:44 AM

My car just got impounded for expired, out of state registration. What now?

After we moved to California, my mother-in-law in Tennessee gave us a car. When my brother-in-law drove it out here, it already had expired tags. Due to very strained financial circumstances as a result of unemployment which are just now abating, we postponed registering the car (in favor of not getting evicted).

Inevitably, today I got pulled over.

The officer said I'd get something in the mail, but I'd like to get this taken care of ASAP. How do I simultaneously get the car out and get it registered as quickly as possible? And does the fact that I still have a Tennessee license affect what I do next?

posted by jaybeans to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

Note: I am not from CA or TN but I have messed with a lot of car registration in a lot of states. These are general guidelines, check your state rules for specifics.

Who owns the car? Whoever's name the registration is in needs to get new tabs for the car. There are a few ways this could play out

1. Car still belongs to mother-in-law, she goes to Tenn DMV and gets tabs and sends them to you
2. Car belongs to you, has been sold but you haven't registered it yet. Now is your chance to register it in CA and get new tabs, You'll need bill of sale and possibly some other stuff. Check CA DMV website for more information, you may also need to get it inspected.

In short: you can't get tabs for your m-i-l's car without registering it yourself, but she can do it for you if the car is stillt echnically hers.

Neither of these keep you from getting your car out of impound (I think) but they DO keep you from legally driving your car home. So, you have to either get it towed out of impound (which might be a ton easier/cheaper than leaving it there) or drive it out of impound to someplace nearby that you can leave it while you get the registration dealt with. In the immediate short term, your TN license shouldn't matter, but in the medium-term there is probably a limit to how long you can be CA residents with a TN driver's license.
posted by jessamyn at 10:59 AM on January 29, 2007

Call the police, ask them where the impound lot is (or where you go to get one out of impound), go there and ask them what you need to get it out of impound. This will likely be proof of registration + fine.
posted by poppo at 11:00 AM on January 29, 2007

This happened to me once, in Oklahoma. The impound place in Oklahoma wouldn't release the car until I showed them up-to-date registration for the car, which meant that a family member had to FedEx me the current registration from the state where the car was registered.

So, if California's policy is anything like Oklahoma's, you will not be able to get the car out until it is current in its registration.

Act quickly; my guess is that daily storage fees are mounting at this very moment.
posted by jayder at 11:00 AM on January 29, 2007

Daily storage plus the towing fee. The above are correct. Hopefully your mother in law signed the registration over to you already. Then it's a question of getting your registration, and possibly proof of insurance. Best thing to do is to call the police and find out what you need to do.
posted by Eekacat at 11:25 AM on January 29, 2007

This happened to me several years ago in SF - my truck was parked on the street, however. I had to go to the DMV and get a CA driver's license as well as a temporary CA registration. I don't remember how much all of this cost but I believe it was a few hundred dollars and will depend on how long the vehicle was in the state.

You'll want to take care of this ASAP as the storage fees at the impound are indeed hefty.
posted by sanko at 11:26 AM on January 29, 2007

Yes, get going on this ASAP. Storage fees add up FAST!!
posted by clh at 11:51 AM on January 29, 2007

Most traffic lawyers will offer a free consult for things like this. Start calling; you don't have an obligation to hire them, but should be able to find one who will talk you through your options. Do not under any circumstances rely on information the police officer told you about what to do next.
posted by mediareport at 1:41 PM on January 29, 2007