Complicated

So…we begin our tale at about 7:45 last Friday morning.

Eric and his brother, Ryan, leave for Michigan, planning to stop in Plain City for a McDonald’s breakfast and coffee.  All goes to plan.

They head north, intending to arrive at the SOS office (Michigan’s version of a BMV) around 11:30.  All goes to plan.

Steve also arrives around that same time with the minivan in question.  Again, all according to plan.

From there, however, things got…let’s call it…complicated.

After waiting in line at the SOS office, Eric and Steve are told that the bank screwed up the title.  See…when they paid the car off (multiple years ago), the bank officer neglected to sign the appropriate space indicating that.  So, according to the title, there was still a lien on the van.  Um…oops.

So, Eric and Steve leave the SOS office to find a branch of Steve’s bank (keep in mind that neither one lives in Ann Arbor).  They find it.  The bank acknowledges the mistake and writes up a letter indicating that the lien does not, in fact, exist.  Excellent.

Back to the SOS…wait in the line again…

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,” the woman says, “but this title still isn’t right.”  Turns out the bank screwed up a second thing on the title.  Not only did they not sign where they should have, where they DID sign indicated that the lien was to be transferred to the buyer of the car.  Um…no.  We were not picking up a loan on this van.  We were buying it.

The guys get out of line, call the bank, arrange to have another letter faxed to the SOS office clearing the second issue.  Half an hour later, the letter arrives.  Finally, they can now go through the line and officially sign the title over to Eric.  It took two hours, but that part was finally done.

Except that they were not done.  We also needed a notarized bill of sale to indicate we paid Michigan sales tax.  And the notary at the bank was now at lunch.

So they had to drive to a different section of town to find a bank whose notary was in the office.  Found it.  Filled out the bill of sale and got it notarized.  Then they went to find Steve’s wife, Sarah, so they could head back to Grand Haven and Eric could head home.

Eric finally called me at 3 p.m. to say he was on his way.  Thanks to a bank’s multiple mistakes, he arrived back at 6:30, much too late to do anything about transferring the title or getting temporary plates until Monday.  

So, the van is sitting in our driveway.  I drove it around the neighborhood this afternoon.  But until we get the title transferred and such, we won’t be using it much.  Hopefully, we can get all of that done on Monday…and then we will have full use of our new minivan.

Which, by the way, is very nice, full of amenities, and much akin to driving a tank in comparison to my little 1995 Corolla!

And that is the story of Eric’s epic journey to buy a minivan in Michigan.  

The end.

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