Dealership Missing with My Plates and Title

[lawlesslost]

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: Florida

In August I bought a car at a dealership in Fort Lauderdale. I cheap car for $1500. I had $900 down so we spaced out the rest in payments every two weeks. I have temporary plates on the car and I have been calling and calling to see when the plates would arrive... they never called back. Now they are one month expired, so I finally drove out to the dealership to get the plates and pay the last payment and get the title.

The dealership is gone.

All I have is the temporary registration and plates. I was pulled over the other night and the officer issued me a warning, notice to appear in court and present the new plates.

Now what do I do? They are gone, so I have no plates, no title and a ticket to appear in court and the possibility of loosing my license is I can't present the proper registration information.

I am calling the DMV and will likely need to file a police report, but does anyone have other advice? I am a mom with a full time job and need the car to get to work... this is a very serious situation.

Thanks

[lawlesslost]

I'll reply to myself...
DMV says I need to go file an investigation at the DMV regional office. I am just hoping I can get new temp tags so I can continue driving the car... Any advice on filing an investigation like this so I don't loose the car?

[zedex]

Start by searching for the salesman that sold to you the car. In your paperwork, you have names. Find these people and get the lowdown on what happened and who you can contact within the company to get your tags.

Contact the BBB and maybe they can get you information, same with the office of licensing. In order to do business, they must have a license. If you know of anyone else that bought a car from them, get names from them.

Get a police report on the closure and take with you to court along with any information you were able to get. You will have to show the judge that you are sincerely trying to resovle this. Take pictures of the empty building and carless lot with their sign. This will show that the storefront is completely empty.

Even fly-by -night carlots hire local people, so not everyone in the compnay packed up and moved on. You just have to find them.