People are stupid...& legal question

[jeepn4evr]

SO I have a truck for sale. 1972 Ford. Been for sale for a while, both at my house & down at my business. Truck has no title. Have someone interested in it & really wants me to get title. So I start jumping through hoops for title & found out its easier to get than I thought. I need a VIN verification among other things. I borrow a trailer to tow to get VIN verified & emissions test as it is easier than getting a temp tag for truck & safer as tires aren't real good. At any rate I get emissions & VIN stuff done & find out I didn't pass emissions. I bring truck (still on trailer) home yesterday & park it. I had written on windshield with shoe polish "FOR SALE" with my phone number while it was parked at my business & since it hasn't come off the trailer its still on the windshield, even though this guy is 90% sure he is going to buy it. So I get home from work today & find a ticket on the truck for a $25 parking fine for "offering vehicle for sale in residential neighborhood". I call to complain & am told you can't have a vehicle for sale on a residential street. What is dumb is we have sold vehicles here before & most of them have been parked in the street & never had a problem. This truck of course isn't licensed which is why it is on trailer. Also they wrote ticket to the trailer, not the truck on the trailer. Trailer is not for sale truck is. There are expired plates on the truck, they could have written the ticket to those plates. Here is the dumb part. Person they wrote ticket to or "registered owner" is trailers owner, my friend who let me borrow it. If I want to fight ticket he has to go to court to fight it. He didn't do anything wrong & trailer isn't for sale. Question is is there any way to get out of having him go to court & fight ticket? I don't mind fighting it, but I know he won't want to go to court for something that I did.

[Leon Phelps]

Revenue generator, not worth the fight, just pay the 25 bucks. Yes I know it's bullshit, but seriously how much of your personal time is worth the 25 bucks.

[Steve]

Yep, just pay the $25. It ain't worth the headache to fight it for that.

Hint: If you do fight it, don't try to justify it by telling the judge that you've sold others there and didn't get a ticket. ;)

[theirishavenger]

You shoulda told him you had just bought it and hadn't taken the writing off yet.

[SCOUTMAN67]

Why do you need to get an emissions test to get a title? Are you going the "Application for Older Vehicle in Lieu of Bond" route? I've done that twice now and didn't have to get emissions tested. I was only getting a title though...no plates & registration.

-Gary

[Steve]

Why do you need to get an emissions test to get a title?

You don't, but it must have a current test to be legal to sell.

[jeepn4evr]

Yeah forgot to mention guy wants emission test too. Failed first time due to smoke, probably needs to have a good run down the highway to blow out the crap in the engine as it has been sitting for a few months. I just finished changing the plugs & the oil, seems to be a little better but not sure if it will pass.

Yeah I did tell everyone on phone I had just bought truck & hadn't cleaned it off window.

At any rate have an update. Called the number listed & they didn't understand why trailer was ticketed & not truck so they said they would send an email to ticketing officer. Officer actually called me back within an hour. He said you cant have any vehicle for sale within 300 ft of residence. If vehicle is registered to house its parked in front of he usually lets it slide. But since trailer & truck wasn't registered to anyone that lived anywhere near address he had to ticket it (read revenue generator, my impression not his). He said he could have towed them both citing "abandoned vehicles" since again neither of them were registered to live anywhere around here. So he ticketed the trailer with the "selling vehicle blah blah blah". He said that was to take care of problem before they got complaints about abandoned vehicles etc. He was doing his job as defined by the laws, and he was constrained by what laws told him (my impression not his). If he had asked anyone on our block if they knew whose trailer it was or whose truck they would have pointed at our house & said something like those idiots there. Granted I don't own the trailer but its is over at the house enough to be recognized. To make a long story longer he did say he was going to dismiss the ticket when we were done talking which I thanked him for. So now I don't have to waste time or money to get out of this. I did make sure to wash the shoe polish off the window.

Interesting side note. When I called the complaint number lady there said on parking tickets the "mail it in within 20 days" statement really didn't mean anything. They weren't going to issue a warrant for my friend if it didn't get paid. Only works on parking tickets, speeding etc is a different story. So basically if you get a parking ticket & don't pay it there is no penalty.

[denverd0n]

He said he could have towed them both citing "abandoned vehicles" since again neither of them were registered to live anywhere around here.
WHAT!!??!! What kind of BS is that? So, like, if I park my car in front of my dad's house for a weekend while we go skiing together they can tow it as an abandoned vehicle? BULLSHIT!!! I think he's just feeding you a line!

So basically if you get a parking ticket & don't pay it there is no penalty.
Uh... NO!

It goes on your record. Get pulled over for anything at all, or have someone ticket your car in the future, and if they do a check it WILL come up! I don't know if this lady was on crack, or if you just misunderstood what she was saying, but you cannot just ignore parking tickets with complete impunity!

[jeepn4evr]

So here is what I think happened & why he made comment on towing both vehicles.

He is cruising neighborhood & sees trailer w/ truck on it with for sale on windshield. He knows that "offering a motor vehicle for sale in a residential area" is illegal (ordinance #5.55.10.4 Jefferson County). Vehicle (or in this can vehicle on trailer) is parked in street, not in driveway or on sellers property where it is legal to offer for sale. Trailer isn't connected to any vehicle (truck used to tow it with is with me at work), & while in front of a house (mine) actually parked across street in front of house. (technically on neighbors side yard, but behind where I normally park my truck, but he didn't know that).

So being the good civil servant he is & wanting to make sure a) everyone is following the law & b) that he has exhausted every avenue to gain revenue, he runs plates on both vehicles & finds neither is owned by anyone living any where near where they are parked. Now having learned this he might ass-u-me (you know what assuming does don't you?) that trailer is abandoned & can tow it.

However I would think that (granted thinking has gotten me in trouble before) before determining a vehicle (or in this case trailer w/ vehicle on it) is abandoned, it would have to be parked there for quite a while & observed by residents of neighborhood that it hasn't moved & after those residents asked around trying to figure out whose it is (in my neighborhood I am usually the first asked) they would call & make a complaint to police or jeffco sheriff.

Now as stated before had anyone living in my neighborhood for 6 months or longer been asked whose trailer or whose truck was parked where it was they would have told them it was mine or at least whose house it belonged too, at which point he could have verified this by knocking on the door as someone was home at the time. (thus saving him time of checking the plates & writing the ticket & me the unnecessary spike in blood pressure & time trying to find out how I "broke" the law.

So if it was abandoned yes they could have towed it, but am not sure how it could be determined to be abandoned when it had only been there for 24 hours or so

[Eric]

Paragraphs are your friend!

[jeepn4evr]

Fixed it

[LONEWOLF]

Story reads the same with or without paragraghs. :D

[Steve]

Cliff Notes version:

- County ordinance was violated.
- Ticket was issued for violating county ordinance.
- Ticket has been dismissed.

End of story.

:D

[old_man]

Here in Loveland, you can't park a trailer on the street that is not connected to a vehicle for more than 1 hour, otherwise you are open to a ticket. You also can't work on anybody's vehicle in your driveway except someone who legally lives at that residence.

[SCOUTMAN67]

You don't, but it must have a current test to be legal to sell.

Even on a vehicle that old? I've bought and titled in my name a few Scouts without emissions tests. Heck, a few of them didn't even have motors.

-Gary

[Steve]

From the CRS: 42-4-310. Periodic emissions control inspection required.
Statute text
(1) (a) (I) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, a motor vehicle that is required to be registered in the program area shall not be sold, registered for the first time without a certification of emissions compliance...

[jeepn4evr]

Even on a vehicle that old? I've bought and titled in my name a few Scouts without emissions tests. Heck, a few of them didn't even have motors.

-Gary

Yeha but I actually want to sell vehicle & need an emissions for that. I don't need it for the title, but thought it would be good to get done. Most of the scouts you titled are still sitting in your driveway as a future project. Did you register any of those or no?

Any suggestions on how to jerry rig it so it doesn't smoke? runs fine, & passes on everything else, but when you hit the gas for the RPM test it looks like you are fogging for bugs. I changed the plugs & the oil & added some no smoke. Its better but still smokes. Guy that wants to buy it just needs an older truck, don't think he minds the smoke but he wants it to pass emissions.

[Leon Phelps]

Any suggestions on how to jerry rig it so it doesn't smoke?

Prolly needs the mixture leaned on the carb

[CSP]

To make a long story longer he did say he was going to dismiss the ticket when we were done talking which I thanked him for.

Get it in writing or proof that it's been dismissed. You don't want the owner of the trailer ticketed, or worse, towed in the future for failure to pay fines if it really doesn't get dismissed.

[jeepn4evr]

I plan on doing that in next few days. Want to make sure they have enough time to have it in their system if its not dismissed before calling.