• Madrigal@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    At least this one is vaguely coherent. Surely there should be a way to cancel registration if the vehicle is no longer in your possession or no longer exists?

    • Phil_in_here
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      11 months ago

      When you transfer it out of your possession, you generally transfer it into someone else’s, so it’s still registered.

      I bet they also have a register for totalled vehicles (so if you get caught with a registered vehicle that’s been marked as totalled, there’s some red flags).

      It’s like asking, “why can’t you just delete my Social Security Number?”

    • Nougat@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Couple of things here, and if I become snarky, it’s at the sovcits, not you.

      A vehicle title identifies the owner(s) and lienholder(s), if any. Vehicle registration is to put license plates on the car, in order to identify the vehicle and its likely owner/operator from a distance. (That information can also be gotten from the VIN, but a VIN is not at all easily readable, even up close.) Registration can also be used by the state to track and verify things like vehicle inspection and insurance compliance.

      It is perfectly legal to own an unregistered vehicle. You can even drive it if you want - on private property. Registering the vehicle, and complying with inspection, insurance, etc., allows you to legally drive the car on public roads. You know, the ones which are built, operated, secured, and maintained by the government.

      Once you’ve titled a vehicle in your name, you are responsible for it. If it’s wrecked or broken down, you pay to remove it from the roadway. If you sell it without transferring the title, and the new “owner” abandons it somewhere, you will be located and may be on the hook for the cost of removing it.

      Once you have registered a vehicle, the same thing applies. The only way to “cancel” your vehicle registration is to transfer the title to a new owner, at which time, that new owner is responsible for registering the vehicle (or not, keeping it on private property, or making some dumb ass fake “license plate” out of cardboard).

      • mwproductions@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        What happens when the vehicle reaches its end of life? Does the title get transferred to the company that disposes of it?

        • BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Yes, you transfer the title to the vehicle to the disposal company otherwise they would be destroying your property. Which would be illegal. For example when an insurance company scraps a car thats been totalled in an accident you send them the title and they destroy the car.

          So he’d still need to transfer that title on as long as the car is a car.

      • Madrigal@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Pass. I expect the SovCit sees it as a way of avoiding various responsibilities, such as ensuring the vehicle is roadworthy.

        • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          They bought a car and the city or state is telling them it has to be registered or it can’t be on their property. They’re probably trying to find a way out of it