When Does Delayed Vehicle Ownership Paperwork Become Used Car Fraud?

Buying a car is a marathon, not a sprint, even if it is not your first vehicle purchase.  You spend hours going back and forth with chatty salespeople at the dealership about minute features of the car that might increase or decrease the sale price by a few dollars, until the financial department finally gets back to you with the final approval for the loan.  You read pages of fine print on the loan paperwork before you sign, because auto loans are no joke; they are most people’s biggest outstanding debt, except in the case of homeowners, where the car loan is second only to the home mortgage.  Once the sale is final and the car is in your possession, your work is not done.  As soon as you drive your car off the dealership lot, you go straight to the DMV to register it.  While you are waiting in line at the DMV, you call the car insurance company to add your new ride to your car insurance policy.  If you have spent an especially long day at the car dealership and do not close on the sale until the evening, then you go home and spend hours on the phone with the car insurance company’s overnight skeleton crew before going to the DMV first thing in the morning.  In summary, there are so many details to keep track of that no one can blame you for forgetting some of them.  The owner of a Pennsylvania car dealership is facing criminal charges for overcharging customers and failing to send them their vehicle ownership paperwork; he did this numerous times before customers noticed and complained to police.  If you lost money because of a dealer’s mistakes or delays on your vehicle ownership paperwork, contact a Philadelphia used car fraud lawyer.

Car Dealership Owner Faces Hundreds of Criminal Charges for Vehicle Paperwork Irregularities

Michael Humbert owns a used car dealership in Hanover, and he is currently facing hundreds of criminal charges, including 72 felonies, for his alleged dishonest actions in his capacity as a car salesman.  He overcharged dozens of customers on state fees, pocketing the difference.  The worst cases, though, were when he failed to notify the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation so that it could send ownership paperwork to the buyers.  Pennsylvania law requires sellers to notify the DOT within 20 days of a vehicle sale, so it can verify the documents and provide the buyer with official paperwork.

One buyer told police that, months after buying a car from Humbert, she still did not legally own the car.  She constantly feared getting pulled over by police, because she would not be able to prove that she owned the car.  Eventually, the lender of her car loan threatened to cancel her loan and repossess the car because she had not sent the lender a copy of the paperwork.

Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com About Used Car Fraud

A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help you recover compensation for your financial losses due to used car fraud.  Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.

Source:

eveningsun.com/story/news/crime/2025/03/19/hanover-pa-man-charged-in-fraud-case-against-ideal-auto-group-deception-michael-humbert/82544040007/