So what do you look for when you’re deciding to pay for a car title online? First thing is to recognize that a car title can only be issued by a DMV by a government agency. So if you’re paying somebody other than the DMV, find out who that is and why are they collecting your money.
DIY vs. Paid AssistanceMost cases if there’s a difficult title scenario you can do it yourself. You may not have the knowledge but a little bit of research. If you have more questions, you can reach us through our website at Consumers Title Work. You can ask questions, we can help you, but you can do this yourself. If you need assistance and you want to pay somebody, that’s fine, but don’t pay much more than 40 or 50 dollars for a company to help you with titling. It’s not that hard to do; it might be filling out some paperwork, maybe giving you some advice. But if you’re spending 2 or 3 or 4 or 500 or more, really you’re paying somebody for something you can do yourself in a half an hour, 45 minutes.
Regulatory Caps and Licensed CompaniesIn fact, some states have a cap on how much companies can charge because there’s online companies that are charging hundreds of dollars. In fact, Texas is passing a law that capped it at $10 because that’s how easy these processes are. Make sure that wherever you’re paying is a licensed company. It’s not just some fly-by-night firm. Remember they’re going to have your physical address, they’re going to have a copy of your driver’s license, they might have a power of attorney. You want to make sure it’s a legal licensed company.
Company Credibility and Payment TermsAlso, do they have a physical address? Can you walk into this company and meet them in person, or are they just online working from a house or somebody’s basement? You don’t want to deal with somebody like that. How about payment? Do you want to pay it all up front or maybe pay them when it’s done, or maybe half and half? You want to give somebody other than the government agency your money; you want to make sure you know what you’re getting. Who is the payment being made to? Is it a person? Is it a company? And do some research on that company.
Legal Compliance and PaperworkThen take a look at what are you signing. In some cases, companies that assist or charge for car titles use illegal methods. You want to look at the paperwork you’re signing to make sure it matches the scenario of the car. You don’t want to be signing a mechanic’s lien if you never brought the car in for service. You don’t want to be signing an affidavit saying something happened that didn’t because if that is the case, you may find your title revoked at a later date because of fraud.
Risks of Power of Attorney and ScamsAlso, if you’re signing a power of attorney, remember you’re giving that person or that company the right to do anything they want with that car. They could sell it; they can put it in their name, and that puts a lot of risk on you. Dozens of online title scam companies have already been shut down over the years, more in the works. This is an area where there’s a lot of fraud and a lot of kind of gray area operations, and you don’t want to be caught up in that. These illegal methods are costing people their vehicles and costing states a lot of tax money, so you don’t want to be unknowingly part of an illegal process.
Conclusion: Pay the DMV DirectlySo make sure that first of all, if you’re paying to get a title, pay the DMV directly. They can issue a title. If they’re telling you they need more paperwork or the process is incomplete, look up online to see how you can do that yourself before you pay a lot of money to another company to do it.
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Lost TitleSo what is the difference between a lost title, a duplicate title, and a replacement title? Well, a lost title is simply when you lost the document copy lost that title.
Duplicate TitleA duplicate is when you get another copy of that last prior title with no changes, meaning that if it was in the name of John Smith and the new title is issued the same way, even if it’s handed to a different person.
Replacement TitleA replacement title is like a duplicate, but you can simultaneously change ownership if you want to put it in somebody else’s name. Again, different states have different rules and different terminology, but typically a replacement title is getting another one with the option of changing the name on it.
Ownership ProofEither way, if the title is not around, you need to get one of them to prove ownership of that vehicle.
What is title recovery? For vehicle title recovery is simply getting you as a person qualified to get a title from the DMV. If the DMV has said no to you, then you need to get title recovery.
DIY vs. Hiring CompaniesIf something you can do yourself, there’s a lot of companies that advertise online that they’ll charge you money to do title recovery, but in most cases, it’s a process you can do yourself going through the right channels in the right process.
The Importance of a Valid Title DocumentSo what all goes into the process of transferring a vehicle title? First of all, you have to start with a valid title document. You need to make sure that you have a legal title; it’s the most current version, not an old version, and it’s not a replace duplicate.
Proper Execution of the TitleOnce you have that document, you need to do a proper execution, meaning that the legal owner listed on the front has to sign that title over to somebody else. If there’s a lien on the vehicle, even if it’s paid off, it doesn’t matter if the loan amount is zero. It has to be executed that’s paid on that title. In some cases, the lien release and/or the ownership transfer have to be notarized.
Submission to the DMVOnce that’s all done, you have to present it to the DMV. The transfer is not complete until it’s submitted to the DMV, and they issue a new title which supersedes the old title. You got to do that because the owner of the car may have gotten a duplicate, they may have a loan on the car, they may have some other claims against a car that are not reflected.
Completing the TransferGetting that title transfer to the new owner isn’t complete until a new title document is issued with the new ownership name on it. You want to do that as soon as possible because if the prior owner has any legal event in their life – divorce, they die, they have a bankruptcy, they get sued – some debtors or a state can look up their assets and say, “Hey, wait a minute, this car’s in their name. Let’s add it into the estate or let’s add it into the lawsuit.” So you want to get a transfer to your name as possible so you’ll have any conflicts with people who have claims against that vehicle from prior owners.
So how do you get a car title search? Well, the first question is whether or not you can get one or not is what actually do you want searched.
What Can You Search in a Car Title?If you want a history of the vehicle that’s okay. If you want to know what type of title it is salvaged repaired junk title that’s okay too. If you want to know the last state the car was registered then that’s an okay type of search to do. If you do want the owner’s names and identity of vehicle ownership that’s not okay.
Legal Restrictions: The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA)There’s a federal law called the DPP a driver’s Privacy Protection Act which limits access to ownership information. It was passed back in the 90s to protect identity and locations of people.
Misuse of Ownership InformationLet’s say for example you want to find out where somebody lived you look to their car you write down their plate number or their ID number and you go and do a title search and you find out where they live. Where there were people using that process to stop celebrities and to maybe find people that they want to know find out where they live. There was even cases of road rage where somebody would get mad at somebody on the road write down their car information and find out where they live and go knock on their door and do something bad to them. So for that reason you can’t search the owner of a vehicle that makes it difficult sometimes to track a prior owner.
Alternative MethodsIf you need to get a car title in that case things like acceptable uses through a licensed investigative agency may be used to find that information. The information probably can’t be revealed to a third party but it could be used to do title recovery as opposed to a title search.
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