An Oregon woman in a wheelchair has been picketing in front of a Vancouver used car dealer. Her name is Mary Williams and she’s upset the dealer hasn’t given her the title to the van she purchased almost a year ago.
“I don't have a title. I would not be able to keep them from towing it, even after I paid cash for it,” Williams said.
Williams says her ordeal started last January when she needed a new van. She didn’t need anything fancy, but it had to be reliable and have room for a modification in the back to fit a wheelchair lift.
Williams found a suitable van at Hot Wheels, LLC on Highway 99 in Vancouver. She paid for it in full: $5,895. She spent an additional $3,000 installing a chair lift in the back. But almost a year later she still doesn’t have the title to the van.
Text messages provided to KGW show that Williams sent a text to Hot Wheels the day after the purchase asking if she could come to the dealership and pick it up. Someone from the dealership wrote back: “You can pick it up today, but I haven't run the personal check so when you come to pick up the van I will swap you cash for the check and give you the title."
Six weeks later, and still with no title, Williams sent another text message asking for the title. Someone from Hot Wheelers responded, “I think the title clerk mailed it, she'll be in on Monday."
But Williams said there was a problem. The dealership had mailed the title to the wrong address, even though she requested they sent it to her P.O. Box. It was instead sent to the address on her bill of sale, where she doesn’t get mail.
Automotive expert Bobbi Cockeram speaks to dealerships all over the country about legal and proper title registrations. She said in Washington, dealers are required to give cash buyers the title or provide documents on how to transfer the title in a "reasonable time frame".
“They are obligated to give you the ownership documents of it, there's not a time frame with some states, though,” Cockeram said. Still, she said a year without providing the title is not reasonable.
“A year is out of control,” she said.
Cockeram says things get complicated because Williams lives in Oregon and Hot Wheels, LLC is a Washington dealer. That makes it difficult for Williams to simply file for a "lost title" form and get a new one.
Frustrated with the entire situation, Williams took Hot Wheels, LLC to Clark County Small Claims Court. She won a judgment of the maximum amount allowed in the court: $5,000 plus court costs.
But even then, Williams said Hot Wheelers did not provide the title, nor did they pay the judgment. She said an employee of the dealership told her she’ll never get it.
A KGW reporter stopped by Hot Wheels, LLC. Employees did not want to go on camera for an interview, but the finance manager told us they mailed Mary the title after she bought it and they don’t know what happened to it. He also said they now have a new title and they’re not giving it to Mary unless she drops the small claims judgment for $5,000.
Hot Wheels LLC’s lawyer, John Terry, sent an email saying, "It is my understanding that she believes she is entitled to money, the title and the car.”
He added: “My client is willing to refund the transaction. My client is willing to assist her in getting the vehicle titled. My client is not willing to do both."
Williams also filed a complaint with the Washington State Department of Licensing.
The DOL told KGW that dealers violate the law when they willfully fail to give a title to an out-of-state customer. They cited a statute that reads:
The director may by order deny, suspend, or revoke the license of any vehicle dealer or vehicle manufacturer or, in lieu thereof or in addition thereto, may by order assess monetary penalties of a civil nature not to exceed one thousand dollars per violation, if the director finds that the order is in the public interest and that the applicant or licensee:
(1) In the case of a vehicle dealer:
(b) The applicant or licensee, or any partner, officer, director, owner of ten percent of the assets of the firm, or any employee or agent:
(v) Has willfully failed to deliver to a purchaser or owner a certificate of title to a vehicle which he or she has sold or leased;
KGW obtained a Carfax report on Mary’s van. The report showed the van is an Oregon vehicle, titled in Oregon. And was likely purchased by Hot Wheels, LLC at a local auction before it was sold to Mary. The Carfax report also show a "duplicate" title was issued in July, two months after Williams won her small claims judgment.