SoCal man turns to 7 On Your Side after getting $1,300 bill for dormant DMV fees and penalties

FRAZIER PARK, Calif. (KABC) -- A local man is facing a costly bureaucratic problem after selling his truck to a friend 14 years ago. He recently bought the truck back from him, but when he tried to register it, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said he owed more than $1,300 in back fees and penalties.

Robert Gettinger reached out to ABC7 On Your Side after he was hit with the shocking bill.

For most people, selling a vehicle is simple. You sign the paperwork, hand over the keys, and move on. But for Gettinger, the truck he sold 14 years ago has come back to haunt him and his wallet.

He said the trouble dates back to a 2012 sale, when he transferred the truck to someone he knew. He said they both went to the DMV and completed paperwork, but something in the process was never finalized.

"Back in 2012, I went to the DMV to sell this truck to somebody I know. And we went through the transaction of filing the paperwork," Gettinger said. "I'm not sure he was supposed to finish it, or I was supposed to finish it, but somewhere in the mix, something didn't get done."

Gettinger says the new owner wasn't even using the truck. He kept it in Malibu, and after fires, COVID-19, and life getting in the way, the truck sat untouched for years. It was always covered, so the paint is still OK, and amazingly, it still has a 2012 DMV sticker in pristine condition!

Fast forward well over a decade and, in a twist, Gettinger ended up buying the same truck back.

"So then 14 years went by, and I said, 'Hey, what about that truck?' I said, 'Did you ever do anything with it?' He said, 'No.' I said, 'Do you want to sell it back to me?' And he said, 'Sure,'" Gettinger explained.

But when Gettinger went to register the truck again, the DMV told him he owed more than $1,300 in back fees and penalties.

"I went to the DMV, took the paperwork down there, and I'm told, all of a sudden, 'You need $1,369 to register this,'" Gettinger said. "I said, 'The truck's not even worth that money. I mean, it looks in good condition, but it has 180,000 miles on it."

Gettinger said the most frustrating part is that -- if indeed the sale documents didn't go through, and the truck was still registered under his name and address -- he wonders why he didn't receive any registration notices or late fees in the mail over the past decade.

"They had the address, even when I talked to them, they verified that, 'Hey. Yeah, we know your address. We never sent you anything. In this case, we don't need to send you anything,'" Gettinger said. "But it kept growing and growing. I mean, I think it must've started at $50 to $150, that it was. How did it get to 10-times that without me getting any notice or anything?"

For now, the truck remains parked on Gettinger's front lawn. Since it isn't registered, he said moving it onto the street could lead to tickets and additional fines.

Eyewitness News reached out to the California DMV for a comment about the fees and whether situations like this can be resolved.

The DMV wouldn't say much except that they are looking into it.

"We cannot give you a timeframe for when they will look into the issue and be able to address it. Please know that we value our customers and work diligently to help them address their vehicle-registration needs. Thank you so much for bringing this customer issue to our attention," a spokesperson for the California DMV said.

Gettinger says he fixed up the truck's engine, put new hoses in because the old ones had been chewed up by rodents, and cleaned the interior. He says it looks good, and it's ready to go, but until the registration gets sorted out, the truck isn't going anywhere except maybe deeper into paperwork and bureaucracy.