What Are The Easiest States To Get A Car Title

The Hidden Danger of Out-of-State Vehicle Registration Schemes
If you’re ever questioning whether it might be unwise to use some kind of workaround or out-of-state method to obtain a title for your vehicle simply because in your state it might be too difficult or might be too costly, here’s the reason. There are what’s called ALPRs. In this piece they call it license plate cameras. ALPR stands for automated license plate readers. It’s not just a camera that takes a picture. It reads the digits off the license plate and then runs a trace on that plate. And there are hundreds and thousands of them all over the place.

The Extensive Network of License Plate Surveillance
You’ll never see them. They’re hidden in parking lots. They’re on taxi cabs. They’re on lift vehicles. They’re on police cars. They’re on the side of the road. And as you drive by, these ALPR readers will capture every plate that goes by. And some of them are on private property. If you’re a private property owner, you can actually put an ALPR on your property and get income because you’re generating data.

How Government Agencies Track Vehicle Movement Patterns
And what happens is the government agencies, law enforcement, DMVs, tax authorities, revenue departments, they’re buying up this data to find out what cars are driving by their areas. And if they find that there are out-of-state vehicles that keep passing back and forth every day or every week for weeks and months at a time, they’re going to figure, well, that’s not just somebody on vacation visiting our town. That may be somebody who improperly registered a vehicle in another state because they wanted to avoid taxes, avoid inspection, avoid smog, whatever it is.

The Investigation and Enforcement Process
And they’re going to look into it and they’re now they know where you go because you drive by there. They’re going to arrange to have you pulled over and they’re going to do an investigation. And already just in the state of Denver, they’ve arrested 300 people. And they’re going to do more. Now that they see it worked, they’re going to do more. And many times the vehicle may not be stolen, but it might be one that has some type of title problem that was glossed over or papered over with a fake title.

Common Scenarios Leading to Title Problems
It may be something where a person lives in the area but didn’t want to go through the title process in their state because it’s too hard or it’s too much bureaucracy or the DMV gave you the runaround so they said I’ll just go to an easier state or I’ll do some kind of fake title loophole. They’re catching up to these people.

Insurance Fraud Detection Through ALPR Data
They may also find that your insurance isn’t with the right address. For example, when you get insurance, you have to tell your insurance agent where you are garaging your vehicle. Now, it doesn’t mean you have to have a garage. It means where you’re domiciling your vehicle, where you park it. And if you say you’re parking it in one town, but really you live somewhere else, you might be able to get a cheaper price on your insurance premium because some places are more dangerous. They’re higher risk of crime, theft, accidents.

How Insurance Companies Use ALPR Data Against Claims
So, you might get cheaper insurance, but if you’re really not parking it there, then they can match up your insurance records. Or even worse, if you have a claim, if you get in an accident, the insurance company can look at this ALPR data and find out that no, you didn’t have your car parked over here in the safe place. You were using it in the dangerous place, and they can deny your claim.

The Accessibility of ALPR Technology to Private Citizens
One of the companies is called Flock Cameras. You can look them up. You can order one for your subdivision, for your neighborhood, for your HOA, and it doesn’t have to even control access through a gate. You can just collect the data. Look, when you’re driving in public, you are in the public realm. Your information is not necessarily private because you’re out in public. Your license plate number is out in public.

Government Enforcement Through Public Data Collection
And these agencies are using it to enforce making sure that people aren’t doing shady things with titles or registrations or trying to evade proper procedures for things like vehicle inspection, safety inspection, smog, sales tax. So, think twice before you use some type of shady or questionable loophole to get a title because at some point it may come back to haunt you and it’ll cost you way more money. In some cases, they’re impounding and seizing vehicles from people that did something improperly.

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How To Get Out Of A Lien Release With Negative Equity

Understanding Vehicle Financing and Short Sales
So, what is a car short sale and how does it compare to a voluntary repossession, a loan modification, or lean release? Well, a vehicle loan is a financing instrument that’s used to get a vehicle purchase funded when you don’t have all the money. So, if you’re buying a $40,000 car and you only have $3,000 in cash, you would get a loan for the difference. If later on it’s determined that you may have trouble paying for that loan or if you have difficulty covering the payments or if you owe more than it’s worth, you can do several things.

Available Options When Facing Payment Difficulties
You can do a loan modification with your lender and we have an example on the screen of that. You can do a voluntary repossession, which is terrible because it ruins your credit. And you’re still going to owe the difference. So, let’s say if you bought that car for 40,000, you finance 40,000 and then two years later you want to do a voluntary repo. It might only be worth 20. You’re still going to owe probably 35 and you’re going to do the repo. They’re going to sell it for 20 and they’re going to send you a bill for the other 15,000. So, it’s not going to save you that much. They’re just going to hit your credit and they’re going to garnish your bank accounts.

Loan Modification and Car Short Sale Alternatives
You could also do a loan modification where you can contact a lean holder and maybe get them to adjust the terms. You can also request what’s called a car short sale. What this does is it’s a package of paperwork you can put together that shows what your current value is if it’s only $20,000, you can ask the lender, “Let me sell it for $20,000. Let me out from under this out of equity, negative equity, upside down, whatever you want to call it.” Sometimes they call it being underwater in the vehicle.

Short Sale Process and Requirements
And the lender will let you sell it for a fair value. You’re not going to sell it cheap. You’re not going to sell it to your cousin for, you know, 15,000. You’re going to have to sell it in the open market and to show all kind of documentation that you don’t have, you know, a million dollars sitting in the bank. You don’t make $200,000 a year. You’re going to have to prove that it’s a hardship.

Lender Policies and Potential Outcomes
And what they may do, it’s up to the lender, is let you sell it to get out from under it. And then that negative equity, that balance, they may either wave part of it. They may let you make payments on it. They may defer it, they may convert it to a personal loan, unsecured loan based on the lender’s policy, but also based on how good of a package you submit to them. And this is an example from Ally Bank, one of the largest lean holders of what they do for loan modifications.

Lender Program Variations and Documentation
You have a lot of options. Different lenders have different programs. They don’t always make them public. They don’t always make them conspicuous because they really don’t want a lot of people doing them because it costs them money. So, you may have to just submit a standard package of documents. And the link below will give you examples of those to request that your lender allow you to sell the vehicle to get out from under that payment where if you have too much negative equity, you can’t even trade it in because the dealership can’t absorb or digest that much negative equity on a vehicle when even when they’re selling you a new vehicle.

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Lien Still Showing After Loan Is Paid Off

The Problem: Paid-Off Loans with Persistent Liens
So, we’ve been seeing a lot more of this scenario show up with clients where you have a vehicle that you had a loan on at some point. You paid off the loan a long time ago, but there’s still a lien showing on your title record. How could that be? You paid off the loan, the bank sent you the title, the bank verified it, but the title record still has the lien. Here’s why. When you pay off a loan with the bank, the bank will take that title certificate that they’re holding on to. They’ll stamp it paid.

Bank Procedures and Limitations
They’ll sign it. They’ll probably mail it to you. But what they won’t do is clear the lien from the official government title record. Why don’t they do that? Well, in order for the bank to clear that lien, they have to go through some steps. First, they have to have one of their employees fill out a bunch of forms. Probably take them an hour’s worth of labor. They have to file those forms with the government, pay a fee, wait for it to come back, and then send that to you. That all takes time and money. So, what the lender figures is, well, we sent our borrower a title. That’s good enough. It’s their problem from there.

The Risk of Lost Documentation
Well, what if you lose that title certificate? What if you lose the documentation they sent you? Well, think about it. At that point, the only two people in the world who know that that title is paid off is you and the bank. The DMV doesn’t know you paid it off. They never were notified. So, if you have received a title from your leanholder stamped paid, we highly recommend you will be back in your video in just a few seconds.

Recommended Action for Cleared Titles
That you bring it to the DMV to have them clear it off your title record and give you another title without any mention of that lien on it.

Lost Title Solutions
Now, if you are in the situation where you have received a title and lost it and you need to get another copy, what you can do is you can file a written documentation request with your leanholder. Our website, Car Titles, will tell you how to do that to have them issue a lien release. They will not be able to send you another title. They only have one title to give you, and they can’t print titles. Only the government prints titles. So, you can request from the lien holder a certified lien release letter of non-interest. Once you get that, then you can file it with the DMV. You’ll probably have to pay the fee.

Proper Communication Method
However, if you’re going to request this document from the leanholder, don’t try to do it by phone. If you call them up and say, “Hey, send me a lien release.” They’ll either say, “Yeah, no problem. We’ll do that.” And they never will. They might even tell you flat out, “We’re not going to do it.” Right? They don’t want to spend the time. So, don’t waste your time calling them. Do it by mail. Do it in writing. Fill out the document. Send it to the lien holder for signature and go that route. Our website again will tell you exactly how to do that.

Related Scenarios and Additional Resources
But this is a very common scenario with people who have a paid-off loan and you can’t get the lien release. What about a charge off loan? What about if it’s not paid off, but a charge off? It’s a similar scenario. Look at our YouTube channel. We’ll have some videos about how to get a charge off loan off of your title record.

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Should You Even Buy A Vehicle Without A Legal Title Certificate?

Common Questions About Buying Vehicles Without Titles
ONE of the most common questions we get is about buying a vehicle without a title. Obviously, if you already have a vehicle with no title, you want to proceed with title recovery and some of the methods that we talk about on our website in order to get a title for it. If you already have the vehicle, what about if you don’t have a vehicle and you’re looking to buy one and you’re not going to get a title when you buy it? Should you do that? Well, officially we don’t recommend purchasing a vehicle without a title.

Why We Don’t Recommend Buying Without a Title
HERE’S why. All of these methods for getting a title that you see on our website for title recovery, court order title, bonded title, VT transfer, prior and a contact, all the different methods that are available work most of the time. Sometimes though, there is something about the vehicle that would prevent you from ever getting a title.

Scenario 1: Stolen Vehicles
FOR example, an obvious situation is if the vehicle is reported stolen, can’t get a title.

Scenario 2: Junk or Parts-Only Vehicles
WHAT about other possible scenarios? What if the vehicle has been reported as a junk or parts only vehicle? Sometimes if a vehicle has been owned by an insurance company where they paid out a total loss claim, they have reported it to the federal government as a junk or a parts-only vehicle. Now, don’t think you can just look at the vehicle and see what kind of shape it’s in and know that it’s not a junk vehicle. Many times, these vehicles are completely in good condition, but the insurance company has reported as parts only because of liability purposes.

Scenario 3: Open Liens
ANOTHER scenario is if the vehicle has an open lean against it. Now, leans sometimes can be removed. There’s a process for doing that. You can see on our website at cartitles.com, there’s a lean release removal process. Usually that works. But if the person who borrowed the money for that vehicle has been actively deceiving the lender and it’s an active default, there may not be an easy way to remove the lean.

Scenario 4: Delinquent Taxes or Registration
ANOTHER scenario where a title could be impossible is if the vehicle has been delinquent on back taxes or on back registration. Some states, if their registration fees or taxes are not paid, paid on the vehicle will freeze that VIN number. they will freeze that title so that nobody can get a title for it.

The Risk of Buying Without a Title
SO, as you’re looking at buying a vehicle, you’re looking at buying something without a title, remember that there is some chance that you may never ever get a title.

Limitations of VIN Checks
AND you might say, “Well, gee, can I do a title search? Can I run a VIN check? Can I check the VIN?” Well, yes and no. All of these VIN checks that you see online, Carfax, VIN search, all these different online consumer searches don’t check for everything. Even if you look at their terms and conditions at the bottom of their site, it’ll tell you this isn’t a real 100% government VIN search. It’s a just a kind of a basic online database. Many times it doesn’t even show up if it’s stolen. It doesn’t show any leans. It might say it looked for leans, but most states don’t report leans outside of their DMV.

DMV Limitations
AND you might say, “Well, can I go to the DMV and check this?” Well, you might be able to go there, but you’d have to go in person with your photo ID. They won’t do it over the phone. They won’t do it by email. They don’t do it online, certainly. But here’s the other thing. The DMV probably only has records for their state. So, if there’s some record in another state which would prohibit you from getting a title, it’s not going to show up.

Due Diligence Limitations
SO, you can perform some due diligence in advance to try to see if maybe there’s something obvious that would prevent you from getting a title, but you’ll never be able to know 100% if the vehicle is eligible for a title before you buy it.

Official Recommendation and Risk Warning
SO, officially, we don’t recommend purchasing a vehicle without a title. Obviously, if you have one already, you want to try to get a title. nothing you can do then. But if you want to go ahead with a purchase because you want to take the risk, remember that whatever you’re paying for the vehicle, even if it’s a great deal, is totally at risk until you get the title certificate from that government agency. And until that new title shows up in your name, you are at risk of losing all your money.

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How To Get A New VIN For A Vehicle

The VIN Number Obstacle
Many times in obtaining a new title for a vehicle, one of the obstacles that comes up for many clients is the fact that there’s no VIN number on the vehicle. So, if you have a vehicle that’s maybe an older car that the VIN number has been damaged or wasn’t part of the assemblage, or maybe you purchased a vehicle that you can’t find the VIN number. A lot of times, this happens on a trailer or maybe it was an import car that has no VIN number. What do you do? How do you get a title?

Vehicle Identification Requirements
Because in order to have a title for a vehicle, that vehicle has to be identified as a specific car. And that’s the word the letter I in VIN stands for identification. A vehicle identification number is the unique qualifier that makes that car unique to one particular identity and not comingled with something else. So, if you have a vehicle without a VIN, you can’t start working on getting a title until you get that VIN number. How do you do it? Well, you can’t just assign a VIN or you can’t buy a VIN from another car and slap it on your car. That’s actually VIN tampering and that’s a federal crime.

Government Application Process
What you have to do is you have to submit to the government an application to have the vehicle assigned a VIN number. And in most states, that’s called an assembled vehicle or a kit car or some type of constructed vehicle. Here’s an example of one of those forms. This happens to be from Nevada.

Certificate of Inspection Requirements
Have a certificate of inspection, affidavit of vehicle construction. And this is a way to have that vehicle be declared a legal vehicle and have a VIN number assigned.

Government VIN Assignment Process
Now, when that happens, the government is going to assign a VIN number. They’re going to create a VIN plate and they’re going to attach it to the vehicle and they’re going to use very special tamperproof rivets. So, you can’t just slap it on another car. It has to go on that car. The first thing they want to do is make sure the vehicle is safe for the road. And you see these check boxes down here. Has to have a windshield, glass, mirrors, steering, headlights, tail lights, the things that make it safe for the road. And some of these requirements vary by what year it is or what type of vehicle it is.

Legal Vehicle Requirements
Now, the one thing you can’t do is you can’t use this to make a vehicle to go on the road that’s not supposed to be on the road. And you can see they have a big red letters. A vehicle label for off-road use only may not be converted for on-road use with this form, right? You have to have a legal street vehicle. So, you have to make sure that your vehicle is eligible for a title in your state. Like sometimes these Japanese mini trucks or army surplus military surplus vehicles, they’re not allowed for the road and they’re going to look into that when you do this application.

Solution for Missing VIN Numbers
But if you have a vehicle you’ve purchased, maybe an older barn fine that the VIN is missing, this is a way to have a new VIN number issued to have that vehicle be legal, usable, and be able to put back on the road.

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