Registration fees

My dealer wants to add a $60.00 tag agency fee before reimbursing me for excess registration fees from the $300.00 estimate that I paid in the lease. The words in the lease Section 5 A (6) are Initial Registration Fees) .Under Section 5 A (5) Initial Title fees is N/A. The actual State of Florida Certification of Title is $76.75. My registration fee is “0” as I am transferring my license plate which includes registration and expires in May 2022. On the Motor Vehicle Rental Order the dealer list the items on the $1,500 deposit required. One item called Documentary Fee is for $499.00. That $499.00 is further broken down as $96.00 Documentary Delivery Fee and $493.00.Clerical fee. Realistically I am owed all of the $300.00 Registration fee as that amount for me in Florida is "0’ It’s almost two months since the start of the lease and the dealer’s contact for my request will not answer my calls or emails. the salesman states its not in his hands anymore with the same answer from the finance manager. To Me the lease contract by misstatements is void.

Has the deal been funded and have you made any payments yet?

Are you saying that they’re calling you up after the lease has gone through and are trying to charge you an additional fee for the tag agency? Or just that they tacked on a tag agency fee as well?

I assume the dealer is out of state?

When did this deal occur?

The deal is funded and done.

The deal was made in New Jersey and I am a Florida resident.
I’m in New Jersey for the Summer.
The lid is a lease where this dealer adds into every lease contract per hell or high water a $300. For Initial Registration fees, $499.00 for Documentation Fees and even $299.00 for vin etching.
Per the State law in New Jersey where my lease was effected the excess part of the $300.Registration Feed be refunded to the customer after the lease starts usually within 60 days. If I was registering the auto in New Jersey the registration costs could approach the $300.00.
In Florida it just so happens that if you transfer your plate to another car your registration is continued until the end of the two year date sticker on your license plate. Your both month is used for that purpose.
My dealer maybe by assumption figures that the Turk fees are part of the registration fees. In Florida they are not.
I have travelled this road before with leasing a car from a Florida dealer that misrepresented and double charged for fees. I won a lawsuit against him .
I wonder how many customers at my dealer don’t ask for any registration reimbursement.

Still not seeing where the $60 for the tag agency comes into this. did you already pay that or are they asking for that now?

Is your stance here that the $76.75 for title doesn’t “count” as a registration fee and that you should get your $300 back and they should eat the $76.75 as it wasn’t properly itemized as a registration fee?

Have you received your updated registration from FL already?

I will give them two more weeks and I will not accept a check for less that the $300.00. If no answer then to the BBB where I believe they will at least reply.
If they still are remaining with their position on the $60,00 being registration fees I may try small claims court or sue for consumer fraud under the act.
I won’t give in.

I’m still struggling to understand what you’re taking issue with and what refund you think you’re due.

Have you received your registration? How long ago did you lease the vehicle?

Are you upset that they included $60 for an outside agency to handle the registration and charged you for it or are they trying to add that on after the fact?

Are you upset that they said “$300 for initial registration fees” and they’re pulling the $60 agency fee and $76 title transfer fee from that amount?

Did you not pay an itemized title transfer fee at all and think that you should get all $300 back and not have to pay the title transfer fee at all because it wasn’t listed properly?

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I got the registration finally after six weeks. Now I placed my Florida plate on the car.
In New Jersey the dealer would soon forget that he owes back the excess registration fees charged unless you asked for it.
The salesman remains silent.
There has not been an auto lease where I haven’t found a discrepancy from taxes on a return fee to charging twice for the same item and most of the time forgetting to return State registration fees never charged by the State.
The dealer accounts for his handling charges on the so called documentary fees .
My wife actually didn’t like this car I’m referring to and we changed to another auto at considerable additional charged for an almost new trade in.
So now I have another lease with the $300.00 registration fee where there is none.
I will be looking for a total of $600.00 returned.

Not sure how internet strangers are supposed to help you.

Keep hounding the dealership. Look into legal action if necessary.

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Given the current environment, 6 weeks isn’t to be unexpected from NJ.

The salesmen doesn’t have anything to do with this.

Some of this may have been easier to clear up in the F&I office on the first or second transaction before getting to this point.

Glad to hear you are willing to die on this hill!

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I’ve certainly never seen doc fees account for outside agency handle interstate registration.

Being that the title/registration was handled by an outside agency, perhaps they’re the one you should be talking to.

With all that said, is there a question here that you’re looking for input on?

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You are willing to go to small claims court over $60? Everyone is different I guess.

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Money GIF

I definitely wouldn’t waste my time lol

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I have a copy of Auto Tag Agency bill and on their bill is a charge of $72.00 State Orig New Title , Transfer Rg Regis of $9.10 and $5.00 agency charge and then a handling fee of $60.00. On my signed lease is a column headed Initial Registration fees with an amount of $300.00. Under the column headed initial title fees is N/A. That means Not Applicable. Under Documentation fee is an amount of $499.00. there is a further breakout of $96.00 for Document Delivery fee .
A contract must be clear in terms and acceptable to both parties. With no refining terms that a handling agency’s fee can be added to the State of Florida Registration and Title there can be no handling charge made. If that $60.00 is part of the document delivery fee I can understand that as I paid that fee already. If the dealer has a new separate document fee then he owes the State of Florida sale tax of 7% which he has not paid. If the dealer needed further explanation of his lease Initial Registration and Title sections he would have needed to added a definition section to the lease. He did not and no one explained to me that Initial Registration fees which are created by the State of Florida could include handling fees of an agency not connected to the state of Florida . Also that the word N/A under initial title fees can define as anything else but Not Applicable.
I spent 40 years in the Insurance Industry dealer with contracts and if the contract was not understood by the Insured there was a chance of a bad faith claim with triple damages.
All I want is for the dealer to honor the lease as presented to me without exceptions not presented to me before signing the lease.
How may other buyers or lessors have never received the excess registration fee charges back on a lease or sales contract? This can be a big deal .

So it’s a semantics argument that you’re taking umbrage with?

I don’t disagree that the contract is written vaguely and that you may have a legal leg to stand on in sticking it to the man. Of course, if you follow the contract to the letter, that also means that you didn’t pay for title transfer at all, so your florida registration shouldn’t actually exist.

So we can look at this from the pragmatic view point, which is you went to a dealer many states away, asked them to do an out of state deal, and they made a presumably good faith effort to capture all the expenses in the $300 registration bucket. From that, they pulled out $60 to have an expert on out of state paperwork handle the paperwork, since you insisted in going to an out of state dealer, and there was $86.10 in fees, meaning you should be due back a refund of $153.90. Yes, that doesn’t tightly walk along the contract stipulations, but I think it’s a reasonable middle ground where you pay the expenses that were actually required and you understand that you asked a dealer out of state to go at risk.

The alternative is that you hold the staunch position where the contract items are what they say they are and because the title fee and agency fees aren’t properly itemized, and only the $9.10 fits the contract letter. You tell the dealer to eat it on the other $135 worth of stuff, and take them to small claims on the pure matter of principal because you asked an out of state dealer to operate within the confines of your state and are upset that they aren’t well versed in the registration and title requirements of states they don’t operate in. You ignore the fact that you agreed to a contract that doesn’t actually allow you to register the vehicle in your state anyway, and while you’re technically right, you burn a ton of time and energy over very little.

Either way, is there a question here that you’re looking for input on or are did you just join this forum and post here to pontificate?

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I agree with you that I may take the middle ground.
I have taken other types of complaints to a winning solution learning a lot about contracts along the way.
I just think that others should receive an education on auto lease contract wording.

I received all but $8.90 back on two lease contracts that the dealer had charged $300.00 for registration. So I received two checks for $290.10 each.
I also received the entire $299.00 Vin Etching Insurance fee back. My auto was not vin etched at all and it is not insurance but a warranty.
The squeaky wheel gets the most attention.

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