Advice on selling an unregistered vehicle

[EvilTofu]

This is very stressful for me, it would be a huge relief if you could help.

My brother left his car in my condo garage 6 years ago to work in China. Three years ago, he came for visit and asked a local used car dealer if they would be interested. The salesman gave him a card and said he would contact me if he finds any buyer. He has not called.

Since it is a red Corvette, it attracts wrong attentions. I keep getting complaints about this derelict vehicle, in my own damn spot that doesn't affect anyone at all. It has waste me a lot of time and caused me a lot of stress. And the evil eyes from people who think they know better...

My regular condo manager who understood my difficulties never gave me a problem. But she's on maternity leave and this new woman is a real pain in the butt. She issued me a warning letter today (May 10th 2017) to remove the car no later than March 16th 2017. I can't do that because it isn't a Delorean.

My real problems are:
1) Car is owned by my brother, he does not have Ontario Driver's License, he's not in the country.
2) Vehicle was registered in Florida, not imported to Canada.
3) Looks brand new but it was from 2002.
4) It has not been driven on the road in years. So it is even more unappealing.

Is it even worth importing, doing safety inspection and all that to sell it? Is there a way to sell it back to the US? Please advice.

[racerboy88]

You have a paperwork nightmare to deal with the car. Your best bet is to contact your brother and get him to sign over the car to you. It will cost you time and money to deal with it.
Will your strata leave you alone if it has storage insurance？check the strata bylaws b/c I think as long as it has storage insurance and it is in your stall, I don't think they can do anything.


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[SassyAshley]

The issue may actually be your condo's insurance policy. I live in a Condo Complex and our insurance will not allow us to have any vehicles parked in our lot that are not road worthy which means they must have:
Valid Plates
Insurance
Maintained (Must be able to start car on request, move car on request)

It is considered a safety issue that is something were to happen or repairs were needed we have to be able to remove all cars from out lot.

As for selling it, there would be a lot of paperwork not to mention I am pretty sure since the car was never imported correctly it would be subject to fines and duty which may quickly add up to be more then the car is worth.

[Ciel]

Wait a sec-if the car is from Florida, does that mean the condo location is in Florida too? I'm reading your post as brother brought over a US car into Canada that is currently sitting in your Cdn condo parking spot without giving you any of his paperwork or car registration stuff and basically left you to deal with his car problems. And he does not drive so he had to have had a reason he got a car before he left to work overseas?

Unless you can get brother to show up this weekend to take the car off the spot and move it at his own expense to a storage location, you are going to be responsible for dealing with the condo letter at your own expense and removing the car at your own expense. I'm sure that besides Transport Canada likely wanting to know about the car, the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles could be keen to know about the car. I'd suggest that you see if you can search the car's VIN from the plate on the front dash (did brother leave you the car keys??) on the Florida site to see what records connected to the car come up. Service Ontario will want a fee to do a VIN search in their Ontario database if you decide to run a check through them. You really just need to know who is still legally registered as owner of the vehicle.

From the current condo property manager side and even fellow tenants, someone could have made a complaint about the car being in the spot and not looking like it is being used, so as other SCers have pointed out, check your condo by-laws. There is likely a process you have to follow if you reply to contest the removal order.

Did brother leave you any money to deal with car issues? Or can he send you money by wire transfer (Western Union)? He left you a mess to clean up and it's his duty but now you are on the hook.

[Ciel]

If you were going to send the car back into the US, there's a form that applies:
https://www.nhtsa.gov/importing-vehicle

Transport Canada site about importing cars from the US:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/motorvehicle...-index-445.htm

To sell a used car in Ontario, you need that selling package from Service Ontario and you did not indicate if you have the bill of sale or other paperwork from brother concerning his ownership of the car. So--time to do some Internet research.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/buy-or-s...ehicle-ontario
Since you do not have paperwork, then you don't have the vehicle portion that is used to apply for transfer of ownership when a car is sold.

[Ciel]

I guess your brother did not think about leaving you a power of attorney to act on his behalf for financial matters? So he has to be involved. Call him or text him or e-mail him until you get him on at the same time and read him that letter and get him to deal with it or send you big money to handle it. You'd need a lawyer I think to ensure you are not left liable in any way during the removal of his property from your condo parking spot.

So no verbal agreements to act on his behalf. You need documents and contracts from him authorizing you or whoever he picks to deal with the car stuff. Or consider doing a small claims suit against brother for any expenses you get stuck with in dealing with the matter. Include costs for your time!