Used car buying is advertised as being simple and easy with new services like vroom and Carvana. You can shop by make, model, style, budget in just a matter of clicks. You can get estimated financing costs and monthly payments.
Last year, Carvana was banned from selling cars in a NC county for six months. Carvana’s six-month sales ban in Raleigh came after North Carolina officials found the company failed to provide title paperwork to the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles, sold a vehicle without a state inspection, and issued out-of-state temporary tags on a vehicle sold to a state resident.
We are seeing a number of cases in Georgia where vroom or Carvana are selling cars and failing to deliver the tag and title, sometimes for many months. These dealers are unlawfully issuing multiple drive out tags, sometimes from multiple states.
We are having the same issues with titles as there is a shortage of used cars. What is scary is that it is not just the big online retailers, its local dealerships. Dealers are doing everything they can to acquire vehicles, even if they know they cannot get the title. The reasons dealers fail to deliver are several: 1) they do not have the title because of some paperwork snafu at auction; 2) they cannot deliver the title because they are out of trust with their floor planner that holds the title to secure money they have loaned to the dealer; 3) the dealer may not have paid off the trade in loan for the car if they accepted it in trade; 4) they may have failed to obtain an emissions test when selling to a resident of a clean air county and know they cannot get the tag and title. Consumers faced with this issue are in a bind because they cannot lawfully operate the car and the dealer refuses to refund their money.
Georgia law requires a dealer to deliver tag and title paperwork within 30 days. Failure to do deliver title is a misdemeanor crime in our state as well. Give us a call at Georgia Consumer Lawyer if you find yourself in a bind.