What To Expect For Car Titles In 2025

Vehicle Titling in 2025
So what can you expect in the industry of vehicle titling for the year 2025? Obviously, with the new year, there are a lot of new rules and not a lot of new laws and also some industry transformations that we’ll be seeing in the coming year and years following. There are four major changes that will happen to the vehicle title process in the coming year. We’ll kind of talk about the four of them, and it’s going to affect you as a vehicle owner, as maybe an automotive professional, as a lender, as an auction. A lot of our clients are auctions.

Electronic Titles
The first one is going to be electronic titles. Electronic titles, so through our coalition called eART with many other title providers and some other third-party vendors like DocuSign, CarMax, and Manheim Auto Auctions, we are now pursuing a transformation with the different DMVs in different states to have them convert to electronic titling in all 50 states. Now, it’s a slow process, and it’s going to take a while to get there, but many states are already starting to implement technology.

Digital Signatures and Paperless Process
They’re starting to implement rules that allow for things like electronic digital signatures. Look, everything else you do in life, buy a house, sign a mortgage, you can do electronically, right? Use DocuSign e-signatures. DMVs don’t normally allow this right now; only one state really allows it, so we’re working on doing that. We’re also working on eliminating paper title documents. We’re looking at electronic documents. We’re working hard to get that done. So in 2025, we expect that many states are going to start adopting more and more of these rules and allowing people to have electronic titles and electronic records, which will make the process easier. You won’t get as much of a runaround, and you won’t have to wait as long for titles to come in the mail. You can get them almost instantaneously.

Montana LLC Loophole
The second big change for vehicle titles is going to be Montana LLCs. Remember, back years ago, there used to be the Vermont loophole. People did this Vermont loophole over and over to get titles from different states using the Vermont loophole, and that loophole, for many years, and we talked about it back starting five, six years ago, was really days are numbered, right? Because it’s not really the preferred way of getting a title, and the other states really didn’t like it because you weren’t going through the right process. Eventually, they put enough pressure on the federal government and Vermont to stop doing it, and the state of Vermont didn’t want to stop because they were getting a lot of money on sales tax.

The Montana LLC Loophole Explained
Well, now the loophole that some people are using is the Montana LLC loophole. What is that? Well, Montana does not charge sales tax when you buy a vehicle, so some people are using this process to buy a vehicle without having to pay sales tax by putting the car in a corporation name in Montana. Now, why a corporation name? Well, most states don’t allow you—almost all states don’t allow you—to get a title from that state unless you are a resident of the state. So you can’t just shop around and say, “Well, this state is easier or better for me to get a title. Let me just get a title from there.” It doesn’t work that way. You have to be a resident. But the way to work around it is you form a corporation in Montana, an LLC, you put the title in the name of the corporation, and you don’t pay tax. Well, technically, that’s not good because even though you registered it and titled it in Montana, you’re driving it in your state. So the tax isn’t just where you get the title; it’s where you use it, where you’re an owner.

Legal Issues with Montana LLCs
Whether or not that evades your taxes or not, that’s between you and your taxing authority and your revenue department. That’s more of a legal question than a title question. But you got to watch out because many states are recognizing that this Montana LLC is a way people are using to evade taxes or to avoid things like inspections or paperwork, right? And the states, you know, through our conversations with different states, they know that this is happening. They’re not stupid; they realize this is going on. There are all kinds of fly-by-night companies advertising, “Yeah, we’ll do this Montana thing for you,” and you know, you’re paying $500, $600 in fees to get a license plate from Montana.

Crackdown on Montana LLCs
A lot of people are doing it on higher-end vehicles like luxury vehicles or motorhomes when those could cost $100,000 to $200,000, and you could save $10,000 to $15,000 in sales tax. Now, there may be legitimate reasons to do it rather than just avoiding the sales tax, or you might say, “Well, I’m going to do that because I’d rather have a title there and still pay the tax in your state.” That’s fine, but that’s something that’s going to end pretty soon. You’re not going to see that being able to be done too much longer, and some states are starting to crack down. They’re sending out bulletins to law enforcement in the state, “Look, if you see a Montana license plate in our state, run the plate. If it’s an LLC, pull that car over to see if the driver is on the LLC,” because now that begs the question: Are they using the car in their state? Plus, check the insurance.

Insurance and Registration Issues with Montana LLCs
Because if you have a Montana LLC, the question is: Where is your car insurance policy from? If you have a Montana policy, but you’re driving it, let’s say, half the year or all the time in Virginia, let’s say you’re kind of misrepresenting to your insurance company where you’re using the car. On the other hand, if you get an insurance policy from Virginia and you have a Montana LLC, then it doesn’t match the registration. So that could be a problem. So if you’re going to look at that, we recommend getting legal advice from an attorney to make sure what you’re doing is not going to get you in trouble. Look, it may not, you may talk to an attorney and they say, “That’s fine,” but just make sure that you verify for yourself that what you’re going to be doing matches your personal needs and matches the laws in your state and matches what you’re trying to accomplish. It doesn’t get you into trouble accidentally.

Salvage Vehicles and Copart/IAA Auctions
Number three is salvage vehicles: Copart vehicles, IAA auction vehicles. Well, we’ve started this conversation many years ago, three or four years ago. Most of the vehicles now that are coming out of Copart and IAA are going to start to be more commonly designated as “parts only” vehicles, not salvage. Some states call it “certificate of destruction,” some states call it “non-repairable,” Texas calls it that. Some states call it “junk.” Right? The scary thing is some states don’t call it anything. They just don’t give you a title, and you may not know you’re getting one of these.

Insurance and the Parts-Only Designation
What does that mean? Well, if the vehicle has been designated “junk” or “parts only,” its VIN number is void. You can’t get a title, can’t get a registration; it’s a permanent cancellation of that vehicle as being eligible for any kind of on-road use. Can only use it for parts. A lot of people are buying these cars out of Copart, IAA, not knowing what they’re getting into, and they’re finding out later, “I can’t get a title.” And we’ve talked about this before, so this isn’t news. The news is more insurance companies are starting to use this instead of salvage titles. Why are they doing that?

Why Insurance Companies Favor Parts-Only Titles
Well, what they’re finding is they’re not getting that much less money for the car at the auction. They’re getting the same amount. Why is that? Well, most of the people who are buying cars at Copart or IAA are not buying them for the purpose of putting them back on the road, fixing them up, and selling them. Most of the people buying cars there are buying them to take them apart anyway. Even a salvage title. In fact, the only people really making big money on cars at Copart or IAA auction are the ones who are dismantlers.

The Economics of Buying Salvage Cars
You buy a salvage title car, it’s crashed in the front, and they take it apart. You can have a $5,000 engine, a $3,000 transmission, $2,000 airbags, maybe five or six of those, you have wheels, you have doors, you have computers. Gosh, there are four or five computers on a car, each one could be worth $1,000 bucks. By the time you add all that up, it could be more than what the car would be worth if you bought one from a dealership. Right? So you have the expense of dismantling it. More importantly, you have to have the expertise of knowing where to put all these parts, ship them to warehouses, put them at the right place, and advertise them.

Insurance Companies and Salvage Cars
But these parts companies already have that. They’re already doing that. So if you took the same car, let’s say a 2022 Toyota Camry, it’s crashed in the front, you buy it for half its book value or even a third of its book value. You might think, “Well, I’m stealing the car.” Well, by the time you buy all the parts, put the car back together, and go to sell it, you’re going to find a couple things. First of all, you’re not going to get that much for the car, because people who are in the market for used cars want a car that’s in good condition. You don’t get that much out of it. But by dismantling it, you’re now part of the supply chain that gets to sell these parts. And that’s why insurance companies have figured that out. They’re selling parts, they’re liquidating these vehicles, they are selling them off, and they’re moving them through auctions without much of an issue.

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How To Avoid Car Buying Scams

Fake Auto Sellers: A Growing Concern
We’re seeing this more and more with these fake auto sellers. They might have a vehicle for sale online and they might ask you to ship money and they’ll send you the car. They might even have the physical car available for you to look at, but it’s not a licensed dealer. One of the things you want to do anytime you’re buying a vehicle from a person or company is make sure you buy it either from a private party that’s the owner of the vehicle or a licensed dealer, and you have to verify both of those.

Verifying the Vehicle’s Title
If you’re buying a vehicle from a private party, what you want to do is look at the title, look at the name on the title, and make sure the person you’re dealing with is the same person whose name is on the title, not a third party that’s flipping the vehicle or saying, “I’m selling my cousin’s vehicle,” or “I got it from an auction.” If the person on the title is not who you’re dealing with, don’t buy the car. Because here’s the thing: vehicle titles cannot be reassigned. Once a vehicle title is signed over to another person, the title can’t be reassigned to somebody else. That person has to get a new title first before it goes to somebody else. So, let’s say somebody’s flipping cars. They buy a car from John Smith; their name is Sally Jones. Sally Jones can’t resell it to you until she gets a new title. So, if a car has been flipped and you’re not dealing with the person whose name is printed on the front of the title (not written on the back, printed on the front), you could have a title problem.

Unlicensed Car Dealers and Scams
Another thing is these unlicensed, fly-by-night car dealers. What these dealers are doing is pretending that they’re a legitimate dealership but they’re not licensed. How do you verify that? Get the name of the business and their address and check with the Licensing Bureau of your state to see if they have a valid auto dealer’s license. If you’re buying it from a company that does not have a valid auto dealer’s license, they’re not allowed to buy and sell cars for a living. Now, if you’re buying it from a company that owned it, like Joe’s Plumbing, that has a bunch of trucks, that’s a different story. They’re selling a vehicle with a title with their name on it, like we talked about with the private sell. But if you’re buying it from a company that’s flipping cars, buying cars at auctions, and they’re not a licensed dealer, that’s not allowable under the law. In this case, there’s a couple in Oregon that lost $45,000 because they bought a vehicle from a fake dealership from a stolen car.

Protecting Yourself from Fraudulent Sellers
If you buy a car from a licensed dealer and they make a mistake and sell you a vehicle that has a title problem, they’re supposed to make it right, and there are funds and bonds that can make up for that. So, make sure when you’re buying a vehicle, that’s your hard-earned money you’re putting at risk. Either buy it from the person whose name is printed on the title or buy it from a company you can verify has a dealership license, and they can show you the title. Don’t give them money if they can’t at least show you the title. They might not be able to give it to you because they might have to process it into your name, but make them show it to you to make sure they actually have the title and are not selling a vehicle that they haven’t paid for yet.

Additional Resources
If you like this blog, be sure to click on a few others on our website, cartitles.com, to see if there’s other information that might be helpful to you about this same subject or maybe even other related subjects that could assist you with your resolution of your issue.

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How Do Duplicate Car Titles Work?

How Duplicate Titles Work for a Motor Vehicle
So how do duplicate titles actually work for a motor vehicle? A duplicate title request is when a person who is the legal titled owner of the vehicle requests a replacement certificate for the one that they had or lost, or never had to begin with. Now keep in mind that a duplicate title is a very specific phrase. What it means is exactly what the two words mean: duplicate title. It is a duplication of the last title issued. So remember, a vehicle title is a legal document that explains and identifies an actual vehicle’s year, make, model, and VIN number, but also assigns the ownership of that vehicle to a particular person. Right, so Joe Smith owns this 2020 Toyota Camry. Well, if Joe Smith is the owner, he has a title; it’s a certificate. If at some point Joe Smith loses that title, Joe Smith and only Joe Smith can request a duplicate title certificate. Nobody else can because the DMV or the titling authority in your state is not going to give that title certificate to anybody except for Joe Smith. It protects him in his ownership because if anybody could get the replacement title, then anybody could get any title for any car they wanted, even if you had a bill of sale or receipt or anything. So the only person who can request a duplicate title is the person whose name is in the title records.

What to Do If Your Name Isn’t on the Title
So how does that work? Well, if your name is not in the official records, then you don’t want to order a duplicate title. You want to do a title replacement, title recovery, or a title transfer. That’s a whole different thing. We’ve talked about that in other videos, and you can find out more on our channel or on our website. But if your name was on the last title and you want to order a duplicate, you can do that. Now remember, if there’s a lien holder listed on the title, they have to be cleared off first. Even if you paid off the loan, that lien might still be lingering in the title records. You might have to get that cleared up, and we can talk about how to do that. You can find it on our website. If there are other owners on the title, a co-owner or co-signer, you also have to get their signature to make sure they’re okay with you getting the title.

The Fastest Way to Get a Duplicate Title
Now, what’s the best way to get a duplicate title? Well, the fastest way to do it is to go in person to the Department of Motor Vehicles office. Drive there, take an appointment, wait in line, show your ID to show who you are. They’ll match your ID, look up in the system, “Yep, that’s your name on the title.” Here’s another title. They normally can give it to you the same day. Sometimes smaller branches might not have blank titles in stock, and they might have to mail it to you in a couple of days. That’s the fastest way to do it and the cheapest, for that matter. But now, you have to go to the DMV, get the right forms, and do everything. There are ways to do it that are easier where you don’t have to go anywhere, but that’s going to cost a little more money.

Remote Options for Ordering a Duplicate Title
If you go on our website, cartitles.com, it’ll show you the process for doing it remotely. You can order it online. It’s going to take longer and might cost more money, but it’s going to be less work. So you have to balance: do you want it faster and cheaper or slower and easier? Right? It’s easier to just click a button online and get it, but if you need it fast or you’re on a budget, go to DMV in person. Bring your photo ID, bring the VIN number, and you can get it directly there that way. If you don’t mind waiting a little bit and would rather not go in line at the DMV, then you have other options.

Conclusion and Additional Information
That’s how a duplicate title works and how the duplicate car title process is handled. If you do have more questions, you can click the link below. It’ll give you instructions and also offer you the option if you want to talk live to a licensed, certified title agent. You can do that as well on our website, cartitles.com.

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Why Is The DMV So Hard To Deal With Getting A Vehicle Title

DMV Horror Stories
So we all have DMV horror stories. In fact, this publication asks readers to talk about your worst experiences at the DMV, and they had no shortage of responses. But, you know, it’s not hard to find the bad stories. The question is, why? Anybody ever stop to wonder why the DMV is so difficult to deal with and why they make it a hard time? Well, it’s a combination of a perfect storm of two factors. One factor is, it’s a government agency. It doesn’t have the same efficiency, implications, and goals and objectives as a private company.

Government Agency vs Private Company
If you’re a private company, if you don’t do things well, you go out of business. If you don’t serve customers well, customers don’t come see you, and you close, you fail. If you’re a restaurant and have terrible food, you’re done. Right? If you’re a bookstore and you don’t have good customer service, lock your door. DMV is different. The DMV doesn’t matter how bad the services are; you have to go there. You don’t have a choice. There is no competitor to DMV. They don’t have to make a profit. They don’t have to have good reviews. They’re the DMV.

Legal Documents and DMV Responsibilities
There’s another factor that people don’t realize. They’re handing out legal documents. When they hand somebody a license, a driver’s license, that’s not just a card something you put in your wallet. It enables you to do lots of things: to go on airplanes, to show your ID, to buy things, to vote, to open a bank account. If they handed it out without doing the proper due diligence, it could create a lot of problems for identity theft or fraud. When they hand out a car title, they’re handing the ownership legality of that vehicle to that person because the title doesn’t just have information about the car, it also tells who is the owner.

Title as Legal Ownership
So if I went to the DMV and said, “You know what, I want a title for this car, 2022 Toyota Camry, whatever it is, fin number 1234, give me a title,” if they didn’t make sure all the documentation was correct, giving me a title to the car isn’t just a piece of paper I can put in my file cabinet. It now gives me an equal dollar amount to the value of that car. So if that car is worth $30,000, when they hand me a title, in effect, they’re handing me $30,000 in cash. And also, the other side of that is they’re taking it away from somebody else because somebody else used to be the owner. So unless they make sure all of that is correct, they’re arbitrarily taking away something from somebody and giving it to somebody else. So they have to do it right.

Bill of Sale and Documentation
So their process is going to be pretty strict, and you might say, “Well, I have a receipt. I have a legal bill of sale. I bought it from somebody.” What is a bill of sale? We will be back in 8 seconds. In the meantime, remember, you have access to live, one-on-one consultation, undivided attention of a licensed, certified expert in this subject and many others. We want to listen to your story, we want to hear your questions, and give you expert advisement of your options. We want to tell you what we know about your situation and what options you have. Now, back to your video.

Understanding Bill of Sale
A bill of sale is just something somebody wrote on a piece of paper that said, “I took the money from somebody and gave him this car.” It doesn’t necessarily mean they were the legal owner. It doesn’t mean they had the right to sell. It doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lien holder on it, a co-owner, or it wasn’t their car at all. Right? Well, I rented the van. It’s not a stolen car. It doesn’t have to be stolen to not be sellable. If I rented a car today from Hertz to rent a car and drove it around and then put an ad on Craigslist and said, “Hey, I want to sell this car,” I could give you a bill of sale, sell you the car. It won’t come back as stolen. I gave you a legal bill of sale. I can even get it notarized. Does that make you the owner of the car?

The DMV’s Role in Protecting Legalities
What happened to Hertz? It’s not how it works. There are legal documents you have to have. So the DMV is enforcing those to protect you as much as anybody else. You wouldn’t want somebody to sell your car out of your driveway if you went on vacation without paperwork or with fake paperwork and didn’t check everything out. So it protects everybody. Is it inconvenient? Absolutely. Is it tough? Sure. And that’s why we have a division of our company called Cartitles.com that helps people navigate that difficult title process. It makes it easier.

Helping Customers Navigate the DMV Process
It’s tough because we are the ones that have to deal with the DMV, work with the bureaucracy, and then also deal with the clients that still have, you know, some difficulty. But at least it makes it easier for our customers, which we love doing. Someday, there’ll be electronic titles, and you won’t have to do paper. But that’s years away. So if you’re wondering why the DMV is always so hard to deal with or gives you the runaround, that’s why. They’re not bad people. They’re not trying to, you know, make your life more difficult. They have a job to do, and their system of structure is different than a company.

Understanding DMV’s System and Mindset
Look, if me and you walked into the cell phone store and we wanted to go get a new cell phone, right? We walked in and say, “Hey, I want to buy a new phone.” There would be five people jumping over themselves to try to help you to sell you a phone because they’re going to make money on that phone. They’re going to make a commission. They might get a bonus. DMV is not like that. They don’t get a commission if you get a title. They don’t get any extra money if you get a title. So there’s two different mindsets. They’re there to protect the legalities of a process, unlike a private company that’s trying to get as much stuff out the door as they can.

Perception of the DMV
So if you look at it that way, it won’t be as annoying. It won’t be as frustrating because you have to look at it as two different things. Just because you walk through a door into a lobby, it’s not the same experience as walking into Home Depot, where they ask you, “Can I help you find, you know, that fitting?” DMV is not like that, and if you look at it differently, it’ll be much easier to navigate and much more peaceful for your well-being.

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How To Make Getting A Title From The DMV Easier For A Vehicle

Dealing with the DMV for a Title
So you might be wondering why is it so hard to deal with the DMV to get a title. Are you getting the run around for getting a car title or vehicle title from the DMV? You might think that it shouldn’t have to be that hard. In fact, in this article, this woman’s talking about making three trips back to the DMV, back and forth to their house. We’ve had clients we deal with every single day that tell us, “I’ve had to go back and forth with DMV a dozen times.” Well here’s the reason why: The DMV has very specific requirements for getting a vehicle title that you have to meet before they can give you a title. Even if the person sitting at the window is sympathetic to you and they hear your story and they say, “Yeah, you’re supposed to have a title,” if you don’t have the right paperwork, they cannot give you a title. Even if they wanted to, the system won’t let them print one. A title is a legal government document issued only by that government agency, the DMV. You can’t buy one from a company. You can’t download one from the internet.

Preparing Before You Go to the DMV
You have to go through the DMV. Now what you need to do is be prepared before you go there to make sure you understand what the requirements are. Don’t guess. Don’t say, “Well, I have a bill of sale, that’s enough. I have insurance, that’s enough.” You have to know exactly what their requirements are. How can you find out? Well, you can use our website, cartitles.com, as a free consumer resource to get all the requirements for the DMV before you go. Because if you, you will be back in your reading in just a few seconds. In the meantime, remember that actualhuman.com offers you live one-on-one private video consultation with an expert in this exact subject. We want to listen to your story, we want to hear your questions, we want to give you expert advisement of your options and tell you what we know about your particular situation. Now back to your reading.

Getting Information in Advance
Go there and have them tell you what the requirements are. You made a trip, you waited in line, you talked to them, then you have to go home to do everything and then go back again. You can get all this information in advance. You can even get the forms, all the blank forms for the DMV, print it out from our website, fill them in, follow the instructions. We even have other videos like this one that’ll explain to you exactly how to prepare these documents. That way, when you go in, you’re not empty-handed. You have everything you need already done. The DMV employee will appreciate that from you. They’ll process your order faster, and you can get in and out of there in one trip rather than having to go back and forth with getting everything.

Don’t Guess and Avoid Frustration
So don’t leave it to chance. Don’t guess and see if you think you know what it takes to get a title. Even if you got a title two years ago, the laws may have changed. Requirements may have changed. They change all the time, and not knowing what the current requirements are is going to put you in a position where you’re just going to waste extra time and go back and forth, and you get frustrated. Maybe the DMV person will sense that, and they might not help you as well. So use our website as a free consumer resource.

Make It Easier on Yourself
Look, dealing with the DMV is going to be bureaucratic, it’s going to be inconvenient, and annoying anyways. Make it easier on yourself so you don’t end up like this woman, having to make three trips back and forth to get done what you want to get done. We wish you the best of success, and if you do want more direct instruction, you can click our website below to get consultation to talk to a title agent or to get the forms. If you like this video, be sure to click on a few others on our channel to see if there’s other information that might be helpful to you about this same subject or maybe even other related subjects that could assist you with your resolution of your issue.

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