Capt Van

A couple months ago I traded my C7 Z06 in for a new Callaway C7 Z06.

Fast forward to last Friday. I get a call on my private number from the person that apparently bought the Z from the dealer who left a voice mail asking if I was the Capt.Van that traded it and needed to talk to me.
I figured he just wanted to know the history of the car so I returned the call.

He tells me that the state that he lives in kicked back the title because the car was registered in Florida during a natural disaster, hurricane Irma and unless they could get a notarized statement from the owner of record at the time that it was not damaged (it wasn't even there at the time) they were going to mark the title as water damaged.

I told him that it is a dealership issue and they need to contact me.

He told me that he had contacted the dealer and they gave him a notarized statement signed by the owner of the dealership and he sent that off to the state. A couple weeks later the state kicked it back again and said it had to come from the owner of record at the time of Irma. He then contacted the dealer again and they said not a problem we'll get in touch with the owner. Then last week the dealership texted him to let him know that had finally got the paperwork back from me, come and pick it up.

When he got there they handed him the document and as he read it he became suspicious because the signature on it had a different date that the notary and the notary is an employee of the dealer. He took the paper and not wanting to have it kicked back again he tracked me down and told me the story.

I told him that this was the first I'd heard about it and I hadn't signed anything from the dealer since I traded it in. He sent me scanned image of it and sure enough it was not my signature, not only that the car was never titled in my name, I own vehicles in a trust name.

I went ahead and filled out the papers he needed to get it straightened out with the state.

What liability does the dealership have in this? I have not contacted them as of yet, but thinking about calling the stae agency that governs dealers and maybe GM.

Thoughts?

CB1953

I could never register a car there.....

03 A/E Coupe

Did you sign a "Power of Attorney" type form during the your Transaction at the Stealership ? This is a pretty common practice...

It was for your convenience so you wouldn't have to go back to the Stealership to keep signing subsequent stuff as the paperwork transpires post sale...
For example, to sign off on a title if wasn't there at time of sale.

leadfoot4

Although you shouldn't have to, I'd tread lightly with this. After all, you're "in bed" with this dealer, since you bought a new car from them, and any issues that may arise with the car, will most likely be handled through them. You don't need/want them to "get even" with you, if you cause too much trouble for them.

OTOH, you don't really want any legal repercussions later on, over the status of your previous Corvette. I can understand the new owner's position, especially if the car was NOT in the geographical area at the time, therefore didn't suffer any damage. However, I think that the dealer should have contacted YOU, and asked if YOU would sign an affidavit, that they supplied, stating that the car wasn't flood damaged, and then send it off to the new owner. Essentially they forged a document, and that's NOT right....

DDSLT5

Tell me all about how shitty the Callaway is!!

Kevova

I would talk to an attorney 1st and go from there. It's close to identify theft. I wouldn't want someone signing my name and notorizing it on anything. Especially on things I'm not connected to.

CB1953

ThePigWhisperer

This!!!!!!

snide

In for the Callaway review.

TorchRedRocket

Deluxe

Even if they had Power of Attorney, they should have signed their own name with notation as POA for Capt Van.

Jimnc

The notary should lose his/her license for notarizing a signature for a person whose identity was not verified. The dealership didn't actually submit the fraudulent document. They sent it to the buyer who rejected it. Since the document was never submitted to the DMV I don't see that anything actionable occured.

Bajaholic

My question is in what way were you hurt by the dealership? And though feeling somewhat violated, How or where will it effect you? I do not condone what they did, but.... it seems to me, they were trying to make your life easier by just "handling" the new buyers request?

I would also guess if you look at your paperwork, there is a POA, this is a very common procedure. Though not executed properly from the sounds of things, you still gave them the right to sign on your behalf, assuming the POA was signed by you.

mikeb

While I agree with most of this, I'd think hard about letting the DMV know that the dealership had their notary-public sign the form.

Of course, if the OP has a lawyer on retainer, or knows of one willing to advise pro-Bono, this would
be my first choice of action.

grandpawmoses

The Notary is on the hook. Probably just ignorance on the dealership paper shufflers.
This probably goes on everyday because, at the end of the day, there was no intention of a crime.

JonMN

I hate it when the dealer shares your name with the next buyer of your trade-in. Only happened once to me, but that's enough.

sublime1996525

hope2

wasting ink, tell us about the Calloway.

bonnevillebill

nj02vette

Calloway wanted to send me on vacation years ago.