Baldwin Park, CA asked in Civil Litigation, Contracts and Consumer Law for California

Q: Can a dealership sell me a car with no title and had me pay to have smog passed fraudulently?

I bought a used car from a dealership 6 months ago. I received the temporary registration application from dealer and registration application says I need to get the car smogged. I go to a local smog check and the car fails due to the Cadillac converter being tampered with(serial #’s were removed) so I contact dealership and they tell me that I needed to go to a specific smog check referred by them. So I go to the referred smog place and the guy says it’s going to cost me $600 to pass since I took it to a place already and it failed. At this point I’m confused and very frustrated, I pay the $600 and got the smog check passed. It was a very shady experience and I know this dealer and smog are committing fraud. So I take the passed smog check to the dmv and they tell me I cannot register car because the title is missing and now insurance company says they do not have title and are trying to contact previous owner of car to get it. So they sold me a car with no title and no smog. Help?!

1 Lawyer Answer
Yelena Gurevich
Yelena Gurevich
Answered
  • Consumer Law Lawyer
  • Studio City, CA
  • Licensed in California

A: no, a dealer cannot sell you a vehicle without having title or having it smogged. You need to speak with an auto fraud attorney that will review all your paperwork and facts in detail and go over your options.

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