Registration Back fees & Dealing with the CA DMV
 

I am finally at the point where I can start thinking about driving my car again, however Ive just learned that about $600 in registration back fees are due...

Given the "unique" nature of the FD and the downtime that comes with owning one, I figure some of you may have found yourselves in a similar situation.

Basically, the car has been down in "project mode" for 10 years (wow...). I remember sending the PNO payment, however the DMV claims no record of it and has tallied up a bunch of fees and penalties that I am supposed to gladly pay.

Ive done a bit of research on the subject and have found a few possible ways around the fees (or at least ways to lower the fees) including:
* Registering the car out of state & transferring back at a later time.
* Filling out a "statement of fact" stating that the car was not driven during the lapse in registration...taking this form to the local DMV along with a sob story of how broke I am and possibly the manager will reduce some of the penalties. (Apparently all DMV locations have the power to waive or reduce fees, at the managers discretion)
* Junk the car and re-register as salvage
* Find a registration services company who is willing to help try to negotiate the fees for me.

Any information from your collective experiences with similar frustrations would be very much appreciated.

THANKS guys
cheers

pay the fees and keep it legit

How did you send the PNO fee? Should you have a record for it?

* Filling out a "statement of fact" stating that the car was not driven during the lapse in registration...taking this form to the local DMV along with a sob story of how broke I am and possibly the manager will reduce some of the penalties. (Apparently all DMV locations have the power to waive or reduce fees, at the managers discretion

^ I would go for that. Show them the mileage on the odometer.

I mailed them a check. This was like 10 years ago and I no longer bank with the same company or else Id try to pull the account info and see if they ever cashed the check. It could have gotten lost in the mail as well I suppose...

I always wondered how expensive US registration fees are now, compared to Australia.

Our dollar is basically worth nearly the same as yours at the moment, within a few cents.

To register my FD, it costs $600.00 AUD every six months in Australia.

if you did, you would have received an annual notice that says its on "non-op"

S

I have the same issue with my husband's project mustang. He has not registered it in years and now the fee is something like $700. We are planning to sell but have to pay the fee if its going to be registered again or the new owner will get it (which we wont do).

Trust him, this fart has like 7 POS on non-op!:lol:


including a project Mustang? :scratch:

at least they are all running...hows ur collection of RX-7 for parts lmao

600? 8 years ago I paid about 1000 to register mine, they said something about the car being a class z what whatever that means ,you have to pay to play I quess

cough it up

The "Statement of fact" route works; I was able to shave about 1/3 off of the bill in a very similar situation back in '09. Better than nothing.

Be prepared to kiss some grotty public servant's ass, though. Figuratively, not literally... unless that's your thing, I guess.

state of ca need cash not facts. for this reason, dmv employees are not allowed to think outside the box. you got more questions? go to the next window

Talk to a lean sale agent. They have ways around the fees, but it will still cost some bucks.

lien sale will not wipe out the back fees.

From my build thread, back in 2009:

https://www.rx7club.com/build-thread...4/#post8834772

In the meantime, my birthday is next week. I got the "Congratulations! You can renew your Driver's License by mail!" (It actually says "congratulations" on it, like I've won a frakking prize or something) notification back in early July.

I mailed the form back on July 9th, along with the required check.

Bank shows DMV cashed the check on July 19th.

Do I have my new license yet? Of course not; it's only been six weeks - - and there's no way to find out if I will get it before my current one expires on Tuesday next, without going to a DMV office and inquiring. No way to just phone, or anything.

On Monday, realizing I can't wait any longer to find out what's going on (was it mailed? Was it stolen?) I tried to get a reservation to avoid the two hour average wait times. First available reservation at any nearby office was well into September.

:banghead:

Gotta love mindless drones. Life would be so much less interesting without them. What would we do with all our time and money?

Thanks everyone for all the constructive feedback! (minus, "cough it up" =P)

DivinDriver: What did you say in your statement of fact?

It seems like this is the route to go...although I am going to investigate the registration company that Alex mentioned.

IIRC (had no opportunity to make a copy - - had to write it out longhand on the spot) I essentially stated that I had paid the full registration fee in 2005 (not the PNO as I initially thought) but was unable to smog the car at the time, and that because of unpublished internal DMV policy this meant my registration was "incomplete" and no further notices were ever sent by them - - a policy not known to the general public.

I further started that I was of the opinion that, as I was never notified that having paid the entire fee due but not completing the smog check would cause me to accrue penalties without any notification in subsequent years, I did not feel that I should be held responsible for penalties that I was never informed that I would be exposed to, as well as subsequent years' registration fees that I was never billed for even though DMV had my accurate address and the means to inform me.

Or something like that, along the lines of "I shouldn't be held responsible for accrued penalties I was never warned about or notified of, when the DMV had the means to notify me but chose not to."

I think the final arrangement was that I paid the registration fees for the missing years, but not the penalties. Which reduced the total by about half.

dmv believed you coz white is right and i bet they even gave you a senior discount ala dennys. being young doesnt pay sometimes lol

I spoke to someone at the registration office Alex mentioned. They told me that in the past they were able to place a lien on the car that (somehow) would lower the fees, however the DMV became aware of this method and instated regulations that no longer allow for this sort of approach... =/

Do the statement of facts.
That always works for me.

+1 for statement of facts.

usually they will not waive all of the fees but they usually will knock it down to 1/3 of the original fees. this is much more reasonable than any other route you can possibly take.

if the clerk denies it as possible, just keep cycling through clerks until you get one that understands that it is either $200 or nothing. remind them "do you really think i could have driven the car on the road for 10 years without at least a citation and/or impound?"

Yes. Option #2.

I just did this recently with very good results. Be friendly, like any bureaucratic process, it is mostly discretion of the employee that determines the outcome.

I paid 3 years of back reg on a car that had not been registered in over 12 years. It is legal and plated today.