Car owners who haven’t received their titles protest in front of Secretary of State on Monday, Dec. 14

DETROIT — The owner of a Detroit dealership whose license was revoked by the state earlier this year is claiming negligence by the Secretary of State for leaving more than 100 customers without titles to their cars.

Big 3 Auto Sales, located at 1355 Plymouth Road, was one of five businesses audited and suspended by the state in May for allegedly trafficking in stolen vehicles and parts. As a result, customers who had purchased vehicles from the dealerships around that same time were left without titles for their cars because they were confiscated by the state following the audit.

Earlier this year, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson assembled a special task force of investigators to audit dealerships following a number of suspicious transactions. 

Fatima Charafeddine, owner of Big 3 Auto Sales, denied any illegal activity or wrongdoing from her business, which she ran for more than 10 years.

“I never had one complaint from a customer or a violation from an inspector,” Charafeddine said. “We were one of the best sellers in Detroit. We used to do about 15 files a day.”

An investigator originally visited her business on May 6, when she was not present. The investigator spoke with an employee regarding five missing files.

Then, on May 28, the Secretary of State and Homeland Security came into her business and suspended her license without notice. They confiscated all the files and titles related to the business — many of them had yet to be filed.

That same day, the state suspended four other local dealerships in the Detroit area. All of them were owned by Arab Americans.

Charafeddine said she never received a notice or warning from the state before her license was suspended. While the files had not been present when investigators audited her dealership, Charafeddine claims she was later able to provide paperwork for those inquiries, giving the state no reason to suspend her license.

However, during an administrative hearing in October, the Secretary of State revoked her license.

Charafeddine is filing an appeal against the state’s decision, claiming they had no evidence of wrongdoing on her end. 

“They took all the information they needed and they closed my business just like that,” Charafeddine said. “There is a process the state has to go through to close a business. Instead, they jumped over this step without putting us on probation or giving us a warning.”

In the weeks following the suspension of her business, dozens of customers contacted her for titles to their cars. She said the state was only able to give titles to about 10 percent of those customers.

“Seven months later, the state has still not solved the issue,” Charafeddine said. “They gave my customers some steps to take, which cost them a lot of money and time, but at the end they returned their files and wouldn’t let them get their car titles.”

The state analyst that’s handling Charafeddine’s case allegedly told her attorney that there was an option to place the titles under her personal name. But that would mean she would get charged for the sales tax of some 200 vehicles that needed titles — which she couldn’t afford to do.

“Most of my customers know that I can’t help them any more,” she said. “I’ve done my part. I gave them receipts and gave them something to prove that they purchased it. I gave my customers everything they need. The state needs to process the customers’ titles. That’s not my job.”

One of her customers, Donny Musstaf, purchased a 2010 Ford Fusion in May that he said is now collecting dust because he can’t drive it or sell it without a title.

He’s spent the last seven months trying to obtain a title for his purchase, but he said the state is still giving him the run-around. He was told to purchase a surety bond — an avenue often taken for vehicles that have missing titles.

He paid the $575 fee, along with the sales tax on his vehicle and the title fee, amounting to more than $1,200. Several weeks later, he received a letter in the mail denying him the title. Musstaf still has the vehicle, but with no no title or refund check on the surety bond.

“I told them it’s not my problem if the dealer is under investigation,” Musstaf said. “Then they told me to take some steps where I spent money on a surety bond. I paid an extra $575 for nothing. They sent me a letter saying it won’t be processed, but they kept the money.”

And he’s not alone. Dozens of customers were told to take the same route by the Secretary of State, spending well north of $1,000 on the surety bond and sales tax, only to have their application rejected without a refund.

On Monday, December 14, dozens of residents protested in front of the Secretary of State’s office on Schaefer Road in Dearborn, demanding answers as to why the state still hasn’t resolved their transactions. 

These protestors included Muhsen Awad, who purchased both a 2013 Chevy and a 2013 Altima from Big 3 Auto Sales last spring, and Moustapha Al-fetlawi, who purchased a 2013 Ford Edge. 

Al-fetlawi said they had one simple message for the Secretary of State.

“We just want out titles; we don’t want anything else from them,” he said.

Some customers had even purchased multiple vehicles and also took the same steps, spending thousands of dollars to get a car title only to have the applications rejected. Charafeddine said some of her customers have even had their vehicles impounded. One customer who now lives in Kentucky is also struggling to get his car title from the state.

Fred Woodhams, spokesman for the Secretary of State, told The Arab American News that the department  has been trying to collect a list of customers from Big 3 Auto Sales in order to ensure those customers receive their car titles, but that the dealership has yet to comply. 

“We’ve had conversations with the dealer a number of times explaining how these issues can be resolved and it’s unfortunate we haven’t been able to get the information to assist customers,” Woodhams said. 

Woodhams also said that if customers were told to purchase surety bonds, they were most likely speaking with the wrong department. He said the state can’t refund those bonds because they were most likely purchased through a third party insurance company. 

Woodhams said customers need to contact the Business Regulation section of the Secretary of State at 888-767-6424 and provide documentation to prove ownership of their vehicles. 

“We will review the documentation with the customer to make sure they get their titles,” Woodhams said. “That’s why the department took action, to protect car buyers and to make sure dealers aren’t trafficking stolen parts. They are more than welcome to call us to ensure they do get their titles.”