Sold A Car, Now I’m On The Hook For $6,000+ Bill

Location: California, SLO County

Hello, here’s a quick explanation of my situation. I bought a car about 2 years ago in Alabama, and sold it about a year after that, in California early 2025. I sold the car to a man off Facebook Marketplace. I had never sold a car before so I asked a family member, and was told to do a bill of sale + signing the title over. At that time, I had never heard of a Loss of Liability form, nor did I know its importance.

Fast forward to about a week ago, I got a call from a collections agency. The guy I sold the car to got arrested with it in August. Due to him being arrested, the car was taken to a tow yard with a $160 a day holding fee. The agency was unable to locate my phone number or address until a week ago, so the bill had managed to accrue to a total of $6,360. The tow company chose to send the bill to collections, and sell the car to a junk yard. I am now on the hook for that bill, because the man I sold it to never registered it. So the bill is completely under my name.

I have no way of paying this bill, the collections agency won’t offer anything under $500 a month, or paying it in whole. They’re given me 48 hours to make a decision, or they are giving the information to their attorney. They did specify this is a civil issue, not criminal, albeit i’m unsure of what that means for me. I’m 20 years old, just starting out in the world, and I don’t have that kind of money. I’ve already asked family, and nobody can help, we’re all low income.

I have two questions, as i’m not sure which direction I can go.

1. Can I take the man to small claims court, prove he bought the car, and make him the one liable for this bill? (Despite never doing a loss of liability.)

2. What happens if I completely ignore this?/ Can I survive refusing to pay this, or will it screw me over in the future?