California Collections and Recollections

There was a post in the Foreclosure Discussion Forum on this site that reminded me of how far California goes to collect what they think is owed to them.  We moved from California several years ago and took two vehicles with us.  Being responsible citizens, we reported both vehicles as having left the state of California so we wouldn’t have to pay motor vehicle fees to two states.  Life goes on, then out of the blue California slaps a lien on an account we still maintain in California.  Our first notification was our bank sending us a notification of the lien which was for something like $125.00.

We call the bank, they verify it, so we start with the state of Confusion California and try to determine why they are trying to charge us for a vehicle that isn’t in their state.  Apparently, the person who handled the first vehicle paperwork was overloaded with having to do two vehicles at a time so they never entered the second vehicle paperwork into the system.  After providing multiple copies of verifications that the second vehicle was in fact no longer in California and had not been in California for a long time, we were able to get the lien removed.

Did we get the money our bank charged us refunded?  California doesn’t work that way.  If we wanted to get reimbursed the $35.00 or so the ban charged us, we’d have to complete the state paperwork for that along with the $30.00 processing fee.  I really enjoy some of California, but the public sector is a nightmare.