I recently started getting parking tickets in the mail. At first I assumed it was for my own MC or scooter because I’ve had this before and so I put if off until the next day or two and would pay it at the 7-Eleven.
I went into pay it an noticed it was for NT$850 which is huge for my normal infractions. I normally pay NT$50 for parking in the redzone, and sometimes get billed for a parking regular parking spot.
So then I looked closely at the ticket and noticed it wasn’t my scooter or MC license-plate number, but it was a LP I recognized.
Turns out it was for a MC I sold 8 years ago.
How could this be?
I knew the guy I sold it to and we both went to the MVB together 8 years ago for the transfer. His Mandarin was much better than mine so I gave him my ARC, he took out his ARC, I stood off to the side and oberved the transaction. Documents were signed etc. and the deal was done.
Guess not.
Turns out nothing was registered because of some admin error and the bike was never in his name although he had been riding it for 8 years.
I had sold it to him just before I left Taiwan for a two-year stint back home but now I had been back in Taiwan for six years and was firmly established with an ARC, job, apartment, two vehicles of my own and never a problem.
So then I start getting more tickets, this time in a bundle of four. Then two more tickets. So yeah, I’m sweating bullets, yanking my hair out, pacing the room and stressing.
I had no idea how to contact this guy because it had been 8 years since I saw him and we had made the sale when I was living in another city.
I started by checking back on the old social media sites we used to buy and sell stuff and even though I did find the original post for the sale of my bike, there were no responses listed below it, although there should have been.
So I continued checking all aspects of how my bike might have come up and indeed there was a couple more but still no luck finding the guy who bought it.
Luckily I still had a few good pics from the sales photo I used and it was a very good picture from two different angles. My LP was also clearly easy to see.
Thanks heavens I still had this pic because it is what saved my ass from paying about NT$8,000 in fines and taxes.
Anyway, I put the pics on FB in a category that focused on this city and put out a request for anyone who may have seen the bike around town and who might own it. It is a very distinctive retro-MC that I had restored, so easy to spot.
Jackpot.
Within an hour I had the response I needed. The person who replied gave me all the info I needed to contact the owner.
I’ll make a long story short, but suffice to say he was suspicious but finally admitted that the bike had never been in his name. He had been riding it all this time and had never renewed the insurance or been stopped by the cops for any reason.
He was now getting parking fines for parking in a very sensitive area, as were numerous other people. He knew it but becuase the fines weren’t being sent to his address so he ignorned them.
So now at least he was was coming clean on everything. I knew he was sincere and wanted to take care of the fines. He is a local business owner and I could have easily tracked him down, not to mention talk about these infractions on his FB page and he wanted none of that.
Anyway, it never went that far.
We agreed to meet at the local MVB and I handed over the stack of tix and he was actually relieved it wasn’t more cash owed.
The only problem is he didn’t have the bike on the road anymore. He had given it to his mechanic for sparte parts and didn’t have the license plate, which we needed to cancel the insurance.
Also, the reason I got the tickets so fast and furious is because they were being delivered to my old address. They found the error and began sending them to my new address.
This latest info gave the guy a reason to dispute the amount of the fines becuase interest had been tacked on and there seemed to be another admin error because of sending the fines to my old address when my present address is listed on my ARC
So he disputed the interest saying it was the MVB’s error. I think it was about NT$2,500 in interest. So I understood. At least the MVB knew about the initital sales transfer error 8 years ago and he was now officially on the hook for payment of fines.
Still, it took about three months for them to review the added interest and they ended up deciding the interest would not be deducted.
By this time he finally had the LP from the bike (thank god the mechanic still had it) and the guy handed it in the LP and paid all the fines and cancelled the insurance.
This could have turned out way worse, leaving me holding the bag on what turned out be NT$10,000 in fines and back taxes plus interest.
But he was a stand-up guy in my opinion. He admitted to the errors in his ways and paid all fines.
Anyway, super stressful situation and a lesson to be learned