What is a Car Title Certificate of Destruction?So what is a car title certificate of destruction? This is a document that’s issued by an insurer with the designation that it’s designated for destruction, meaning that this car is not legal for use on the road ever again. It’s not a salvage title, it’s not a junk title, it’s not a repair title, it’s a destruction title, meaning that the insurer is saying this car needs to be destroyed. They do this because of liability.
Auction and Resale IssuesNow, many of these cars come from Copart or IAA auctions or some of the other insurance options that exist. In many cases, they sell for very, very cheap. Buyers will look at it and say, “I can fix this car up and sell it and make a lot of money on it.” However, without the legal title, you can’t put it on the road. Sometimes these become like musical chairs, right? The guy buys it from the auction, he finds out he can’t do anything with it, and then sells it to somebody else without a title and doesn’t disclose that it has a CD or certificate of destruction.
Disclosing the Certificate of DestructionIf you come across one of these cars, the first thing to do is find out where you disclose this information. If you bought it from the auction, you need to find out if it was disclosed to you. If it wasn’t, you can return it to the auction. If you bought it from a dealer, they have to disclose it to you. If not, you can return it. Look for that method first because, in most cases, no matter how much you paid for it, how cheap it is, it’s never going to be worth it to try to do something with that car because, without a title, you can’t even bring it to the junkyard.
Selling Parts and Export RestrictionsNow, if you can sell the parts off it to get your money back, maybe that’s the way to go. But remember, when you’ve sold all the parts off it and still have a frame and a chassis and the bare bones left, you have to get rid of that, and sometimes that costs money more than what you might have gotten from the parts. In addition, in many cases, it’s blocked for export. You can’t even export these cars because most countries don’t allow them to be imported, and the customs of even the U.S. sometimes doesn’t allow them to be put on the ship to go outside the country.
Curbstoning and Legal ActionsIf you’ve purchased it from what’s called a curbstoner, meaning somebody who’s not a dealer just buys and sells cars, you can get a refund by looking at whether or not they have a dealer’s license. If somebody sells cars for a living, it doesn’t matter how many they sell. If they sell two or three or five and they’re doing this for a living, they have to have a license. If they don’t have a license and they’re operating in the capacity of a dealer without a license, you can turn them in. Most DMVs and state police in the states want to know about this, so rather than have that happen, maybe that person who sold to you might want to give your money back and then maybe try to do something else with that car.
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So if you have a car that you purchased and you either don’t have a title for or you’ve lost it and it’s not already titled in your name, how can you get that title for free without paying a lot of money? Well, there’s 50 different states; each state has five or six different processes. So, there’s two or three hundred different methods to get a title. One of them will work for your particular scenario, and you could do this yourself.
Vermont Registration Title MethodThe most common method is the Vermont registration title. You can look at our other videos on how that’s done, but the state of Vermont will issue a title to many vehicles with just a simple bill of sale, and that bill of sale does not have to be from the actual title owner; it can be from anybody that you bought the car from. That’s the easiest one.
Determining the Right ProcessDetermining what process will work for you is a little bit of legwork. Sometimes it requires a little bit of online research, but it’s something that, if the process exists, you can do it yourself. You don’t need to pay some money.
Duplicate Title ScenarioIf it’s a true duplicate, meaning that you have the title in your name already, you just lost that document, you could just go down to your DMV, tell them you lost your title, and they’ll give you another one for four or five dollars. It’s easy to do.
Contacting the Prior OwnerIf for some reason it wasn’t in your name, contacting the prior owner is the next best way to do it. But then you have to convince them to go down to DMV and get a title, which sometimes isn’t always the easiest thing to do.
DIY Title ProcessBe aware that any process that’s legal and available, you can do yourself. You don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to a company to do this for you.
So what is going on in the world of car titles? Well, there’s a lot of developments with technology, just like there is with any other industry.
Coalition for Electronic Secure Title Registration Transformation (eSTRT)And with vehicle titles, there’s a coalition of title industry and dealership customers and companies that are putting together a group that is going to look at technology as a way to streamline the title process. This is eSTRT stands for Electronic Secure Title Registration Transformation Coalition.
Notable Members and Their GoalsAnd if you look at the members, a lot of big names here, including car titles right here. You can see right on the list, right next to Carvana, Auto Data Direct, NADA Dealer Association, Meum Auctions. A lot of big-time players in this field are trying to make car titles easier.
Consumer Frustration with Current ProcessI’m sure that as a consumer, the reason you’re watching this video is because you have an opinion about how hard it is to get car titles. You’ve dealt with the bureaucracy of DMV, you’ve dealt with the paperwork issue where no other type of thing you work on has complicated paperwork like this, right? This is a car title. Everything else you work on is electronic: DocuSign, different types of automated technology, and car titles is kind of in the dinosaur days.
Goal of Modernizing Titles and RegistrationSo this group are people who are trying to get a shared conversation about modernizing title and registration, and we think this is a big opportunity. It’ll make the job easier for title companies, it’ll make the process easier for buyers and sellers of vehicles, but most importantly, it’ll take the antiquated process of getting titles and bring it to the modern era.
Current Technology and Future IntegrationWe already have a lot of automated systems and mail merge and AR artificial intelligence in our company that helps us process car titles easier, faster, more efficiently. But at some point, it has to be turned over to the government agency that issues the title, normally Department of Motor Vehicles.
Future Process EnhancementsThis process, and it may take several years, will now allow us to interface directly with the DMV to get titles issued using electronic signatures, using database lookups, using artificial intelligence. The objectives of this group is using electronic signatures on documents, electronic submission and processing.
Electronic vs. Paper ProcessWe now have to print paper documents, get them signed with ink, and get them to the DMV. This will make it a lot easier and also do a lot of these transfers electronically, where you don’t even need a piece of paper.
Keeping You UpdatedSo keep an eye on our channel. We’ll keep you up to date on the progress of this group, and if you notice, we talked about DocuSign. They’re one of the members because they want to be part of this as well, to get these vehicles done with modern-day technology, not ink on paper, which is old school. Keep an eye on our channel. We’ll keep you up to date on the progress, and at some point, getting a title is going to be much easier than it is today.
Here’s another good reason why you want to make sure that when you do a title transfer it’s done properly. Here’s a person who sold a vehicle many years before to a scrapyard and was getting $500 fines because the record wasn’t filed properly.
Ensuring Accurate Record-KeepingYou want to make sure that when you buy or sell a vehicle that all the records are properly recorded, properly signed, properly turned in. Because if you’re a prior owner and your car isn’t transferred to a new buyer, you might get fines for past due registrations, maybe storage fees if the car is impounded, and also you could be liable if anything happens with that car.
Contacting Prior OwnersSo one of the things that we do quite often is contact prior owners to get the car out of their name so you don’t have any liability if the car is used in a crime or gets in an accident and you don’t have any proof that you sold it.
Case Study: Arizona IncidentThis poor person sold their car many years before. This was in Arizona, I believe. Yeah, Phoenix, Arizona. They sold the car in 2017. Because the fact that it wasn’t filed properly, in 2023 they started getting notices that they owed $500 in abandoned vehicle charges because the car was dumped somewhere.
Importance of DocumentationSo you want to make sure that when you sell a car, you also get good documentation, just as if when you buy a car. If you have any questions about proper title transfers, you can reach us at our website at the link below.
So how do you get a duplicate title that’s been lost for your vehicle in the state of Michigan?
Online FormMichigan has an online form that you can fill out on the computer without having to print anything out. It’s sent to the Secretary of State, and the SOS (Secretary of State) Office will process it within a week or two.
Fee and Transfer OptionIt’s a fifteen dollar fee for that duplicate title. You can also transfer the vehicle on that document at the same time as you request a duplicate.
Notarization and VerificationNotarization is not required on that form as long as you’re the legal owner. And when you do it online, they’ll send you an e-mail verification to let you know that they’ve received it and they’re processing it.
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