Lien Release For Car Title

How to Get a Lien Release for a Vehicle Title

So how do you get a lien release for a vehicle title if you have a car that needs to get a title and there’s a lien holder showing on that title record with the DMV?

The title normally won’t be released until you have that lien cleared from the title records. Some of the complications could be if the lien holder’s out of business or if the car’s not fully paid off, or if it’s an automax type car title loan.

In those cases, you have to go through a certain process. If the lien holder is out of business, you have to find out where they transfer their assets to.

If the car is not paid off, you might want to do a lien mitigation to have the lien discounted to an amount that’s palatable.

If it’s a title pawn, you may find that loan’s not even recorded on the title so there might be a duplicate title possible.

In other cases, if there’s any trouble finding the lien holder finding where they are, you can maybe get a letter of not interest from the bank listed on the title which will be the same as a lien release.

Sometimes if you have payoff documents from the bank showing that it was paid off on a certain day, the DMV may accept them.

So a court-ordered title is your last resort but if the car title loan is more than ten years old sometimes a court-ordered title may be the way to go.

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How to Contact a Prior Owner for a Vehicle to get a Title

So how do you get in contact with a prior owner of a vehicle to help you get a title?

Get the name and identity
You need to do three steps. First, you need to get the name and identity of that person.

Find their current location.
The next thing you need to do is find out their current location because, in some cases, the title record for that person might be an old address where they’ve moved from, and now that they live somewhere else, you have to find out where they are now.

Contact Them and What to Say
The third thing you need to do is know how to contact them and what to say. If you want to ask somebody about a car they may have owned years ago to help you out with paperwork and that’s not approached correctly, it may backfire, and they may not help you at all.

Federal Law: The DPPA
So how do you get the information? Well, there is a federal law called the DPP that prevents the release of some of that information except for very specific scenarios, and your scenario may qualify for that, but you have to apply for it correctly.

Alternative Methods
Another way to look for it is to look for old papers inside the car, maybe oil change receipts, maybe underneath the car, maybe an old purchase order, buyers order, even a plate frame, oil change receipts from an oil change company, or the tag on the windshield might help you find the owner.

Need Help? Contact Us
If you have difficulty finding a prior owner, you can call us up or reach us through cartitles.com, and we can find some solutions that might help you get in contact with that prior owner.

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Getting a New Car Title

So what’s the process for getting a new car title?

Scenario Assessment
Well, you have to look at the scenario to see which of the processes you have to go through.

True Duplicate Title
If it’s a true duplicate, meaning that you are the title owner and it was in your name, you just need to get another copy. That’s an easy process. You go to the DMV, bring your driver’s license to the VIN number, and they’ll take care of that for you.

Changing the Owner Name
If you’re changing the owner’s name on the vehicle, you may need other documentation. You might have to remove a lien holder if there’s an old lien holder on the car. Look first at what documents you have: a bill of sale, a receipt, or any other documentation showing the vehicle’s transfer to you.

Locating the Prior Owner
You may have to locate the prior owner to get some of these things signed, which may be part of the process of getting a new title.

Recent Purchase Considerations
If you bought the car recently, you want to take a look to see if you bought it from a dealer or private seller, and even though somebody may have seemed like a dealer, sometimes there’s people who sell cars out of the blue that aren’t really legitimate licensed dealers; they’re just individuals who flip cars from the driveway or from some car lot somewhere.

Paper Trail and Chain of Title
So check to see if it was a dealer or a private seller, and if there is, what’s the paper trail and what’s the chain of title that you have putting the car in your name?

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Getting a Car Title when the Owner is Deceased

So I didn’t get a title for a car if the owner is deceased.

Possible Scenarios
Maybe you bought a car from the family of somebody who died. Maybe you bought a car from somebody you didn’t get the paperwork from, and maybe they died later.

Main Issue
In any case, if the owner of the vehicle is deceased and you need to get some paperwork signed, it creates some difficulties because if they’re dead, they can’t sign any paperwork.

Solutions
You may be able to apply for an airship title where the heirs to the vehicle are listed as relatives by the court. You may have to go through a will or probate process if the person has died and has left their assets to some other party. If there’s an executor of the estate, that can happen.

Lien Considerations
Well, what if there’s a lien on the car? Well, then you might have to have the lien holder sign a lien release letter.

Helpful Paperwork
A bill of sale from the executor of the estate may be a helpful piece of paperwork to use for some processes, like a bonded title or Vermont title, depending on the scenario.

Worst-Case Scenario
In the worst-case scenario, you may have to go through a court order title process, which takes a long time, but it’s not as hard as it sounds. Every municipal court and county court has a process for having you declared the legal owner of the vehicle by affidavit.

Documentation
If you are the heir to that person and have a death certificate and a will or probate, you can go directly to DMV, and they’ll process your title application. Make sure, though, that you have a copy of that death certificate to go along with the aircraft.

DIY Process
Again, these are all things you can do yourself. Sometimes they seem complicated because you’ve not done them before, but there is a do-it-yourself process that costs very little money. You’ll have to pay some title agent a ton of money to get a title for you if it’s just a deceased owner.

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Car Title Recovery True Duplicate Scenario #1

Scenario Number One: True Duplicate
So if you need to get a title for your car, we’re going to look at scenario number one, which is what we call a true duplicate. What that means is that the vehicle is currently legally titled in your name, and all that happened is that you lost that document. I mean, the title was already printed with your name on the front, your address on the front, and it was issued to you. You just lost it. It’s not that it was signed over to you. It’s not that somebody gave you a title application. It means you issued to you. You just lost it. It’s not that it was signed over to you. It’s not that somebody gave you a title application. It means you already have the title in your name. If that’s the case, then here we go.

Steps to Get a Duplicate Title
All you need to do is go to the DMV office the title office their license office whenever they call in your state sometimes it’s Department of Transportation sometimes its Secretary of State if that’s the case you go to that office you bring your photo ID and you bring your VIN number your vehicle identification number with those two things you present it to the clerk they’ll look up in their system to make sure that you are the legal title donor that vehicle they will check your ID to make sure you are that person because they don’t want to be handing out legal documents to the wrong person right so once they verify that you can order duplicate title right on the spot and it’s exactly what it sounds like it is a duplicate replacement title there’s no changes they don’t put it in somebody else’s name they don’t change anything about it.

In-Person Process and Possible Mail Delivery
Now, that’s easy to do in many cases; they may be able to hand it to you on the spot. In some DMVs, now we’re going to have a vault printing system where they don’t keep blank titles on location because people were stealing the blanks and typing them up with any car they wanted, and it was a security problem. Sometimes, a state will have a vault where they print all the titles. You can order it at the branch location, but they may have to mail it to you in a few days.

Handling Liens on the Vehicle
One other curveball that may come up is if you had a lien on the vehicle, even if it’s paid off, the DMV may not be aware that that lien is cleared. Here’s why, when you paid the last payment on that car loan, the bank simply pulled that title out of their file cabinet, signed it, stamped it paid, and mailed it to you. They never really notified the DMV that you paid off your loan, so now it could be ten years later and the DMV’s records still show that loan that was originally issued on that title, so you might have to get a lien clearance letter or a lien release letter to bring with you so the DMV will issue that title.

Cost and DIY Process
A true duplicate it’s very inexpensive some states as low as two dollars most states are between 10 and 15 sometimes 20 dollars there’s a few notable exceptions the state of Florida has a 70 or 80 dollar fee the state of Illinois has a 70 or $80 fee most states are relatively inexpensive and you can do this yourself you don’t have to pay anybody to do this you don’t have to hire a title agent to do it you can do it all yourself you probably cannot do it online you probably need to maybe download the form from the website print it out sign it in most cases the DMV is going to want to have good identification of you as the owner so that way it protects you from having somebody just type in your VIN number online and get your title you want to have your title protected so that only you are able to get it and that is policed by having a legal form with a signature sometimes it has to be notarized if you’re not going to be in person at the DMV office but every state runs a little bit different so a true duplicate with no name changes is a very straightforward process it’s a little bit of bureaucracy because you are dealing with a government agency but it’s something you can do yourself usually inexpensive make sure if there was a lien that you have a lien release letter and it should be in good shape without too much hassle look for that form on their DMV website you can download it print it and handle it that way.

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