Why VIN Verification is Required by DMVMany times a client asks us why does the Department of Motor Vehicles or the titling Authority require a VIN verification or VIN inspection on a vehicle when they’re transferring a title. Well, here’s a good reason why.
Fraud Investigation by FDLEThis is a case that was investigated for many months and there was fraud happening on titles in the State of Florida. The FDLE, which is the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, cracked down and arrested more than 20 people that were fraudulently titling cars. What were they doing? What they were doing is they were buying vehicles from dealerships on credit or with a bad check, and before the loan defaulted or before the check bounced, what they would do is they would change the VIN number on the vehicle and they would get a fraudulent VIN number (vehicle identification number). They used that to apply for a title and transfer it to somebody else so that unsuspecting buyer was actually buying a stolen car. This operation, Gone in 60 Days, netted all these people arrested.
Expansion of the ScamWhat happened was it was so popular as a scam that then they started renting vehicles from airports and other high-end areas and doing the same thing. They were changing the VIN numbers, putting a fake VIN number on, and then reselling the vehicle. Sometimes they would even sell it to an insurance company.
Purpose of VIN InspectionSo the reason for having a VIN inspection or VIN verification is to make sure that the VIN number that’s on your vehicle is actually the correct VIN number for the car. Now, you know it is—you know, are aware that it’s legitimate—but the Department of Motor Vehicles wants to make sure and protect you that you’re not actually titling an illegal vehicle or a stolen vehicle.
Protecting Innocent BuyersIf the VIN number has been tampered with, removed, altered, changed, sometimes people will buy these vehicles from Copart or IAA with junk titles or parts-only titles and slap another VIN number on from a salvage vehicle, and that’s a way to sell a car or truck to an unsuspecting innocent buyer. So they’re trying to protect the owner, meaning you, or even the next buyer from having a vehicle that’s ineligible.
Simple Process of VIN VerificationNow, it’s real simple. Usually, a notary or any local agent can inspect the VIN number. Really, all they have to do is look at the VIN number, make sure it’s the same as what’s on your title paperwork, and then also verify that that’s the actual identifier for that vehicle, that it hasn’t been tampered with, it hasn’t been altered in any kind of way.
Importance Despite InconvenienceA VIN inspection, VIN verification is inconvenient, it’s annoying, but there’s a reason that they do it. They’re not just trying to make your life miserable and make you jump through hoops or be inconvenient. They want to make sure that that vehicle is eligible, legitimate, because once they issue that title, that’s a legal government document. They’re putting their trust and faith behind it that you are now the owner, that’s a legitimate vehicle.
One-Time RequirementSo now when you go to sell it, you can represent to your buyer everything’s legit. So it is a one-time thing. You don’t have to do it every year; you don’t have to do it every month. It’s a one-time event that you have to get a VIN verification performed to make sure that that vehicle is legitimate.
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Understanding Bonded TitlesSo how does a bonded title work and how can it help you get a title for a vehicle? Well, most states—42 to be, I’m sorry, 38 to be exact (there are 12 states where you can’t get a bonded title)—will allow you to get a legal title for a vehicle that you have no paperwork on using a surety bond process.
Importance of Bonded TitlesThe reason this can help you is you can see this picture here there’s a barn find, right? If you find an old car abandoned on the side of the road, you may be able to use the bonded title process. Even though you see in this article the word abandoned, do not use “abandoned vehicle” as an application for a title in almost every scenario. What’s going to happen is if you declare the vehicle to be abandoned, what’s going to happen is you’re not going to get to keep it because what happens if it’s declared abandoned? The police will ask an authorized towing company to remove it, take it to storage, and then they will sell it at a public auction. Abandoned vehicles are not “finders keepers.”
Applying for a Bonded TitleHowever, if you file for a bonded title, a surety bond title, it’s basically you going to the licensing title authority and saying, “Look, I legitimately am authorized to have this vehicle. I bought it, it was left on my property, I gave somebody money for it, I traded for it, but I don’t have the old title, I don’t have the transfer of ownership.” Obviously, if you have the title, it would be easy. You know, a title is a certificate that looks like this; it’s got all the official government printing on it. If you have that, you have no problem. But if you have purchased a vehicle, acquired a vehicle, traded a vehicle, or somebody left you a vehicle that has no legal title, now you have to do something different.
Misconceptions About Bonded TitlesOne of the things that many people are misinformed about on a bonded title is you have to pay thousands of dollars to get a surety bond. That’s actually not true. What you have to do is you have to purchase a surety bond in an amount that’s equal to the value of the vehicle, but that surety bond is probably only going to cost you a hundred dollars for the actual surety bond. And once you get that surety bond, you have to sign some affidavits, fill out some forms, make sure everything is all I’s dotted, T’s crossed. You submit it to the DMV, and as long as the vehicle is not stolen, doesn’t have any large open liens on it, and it’s not reported as parts only, they’ll give you a title, and you can own that vehicle.
Avoiding the Abandoned Vehicle DesignationNow remember, if you say “abandon” instead of “title” in an article, let’s say this right here: if you find an abandoned vehicle in your barn, that’s not yours to keep. You have to call the police, and the boys in blue will get that relic from you, right? So don’t say it’s abandoned because if it truly is abandoned, it’s probably not yours to keep unless you go through some other processes.
Mechanics Liens and AlternativesOne of the processes they talk about is you can put a lien on the car for a storage fee, but that’s actually not completely accurate. The reason why is, in order to do that, you have to be a licensed automotive shop, and you have to have signed repair orders saying somebody brought this car in for service. In fact, there’s so much attempted fraud with that process that the state of Oregon says you need a twenty thousand dollar bond before applying for a mechanics lien. Body shops and other auto repairs will have to obtain a twenty thousand dollar bond in order to be able to assert a lien on a vehicle for non-payment. So most states are going to this model or already have, for that matter. You have to be a licensed automotive facility, you have to have a signed repair order, and you have to post a twenty thousand dollar bond.
Avoiding Fraudulent Mechanics LiensThere’s many easier ways to do it. Even if you have a buddy of yours that has a repair shop that wants to put in a fake mechanics lien, don’t do it because they’re going to audit that lien. They’re going to audit all of these mechanics liens processes. If you don’t have all the documents from the owner and when the ownership is changed, they’re going to send a letter to that prior owner that says, “Look, somebody filed for a mechanics lien on your vehicle to change the ownership. Did you bring your car in for service somewhere?” And if that person says, “No, I sold it on Craigslist,” or “I traded it in,” or “I left it in some field,” they’re going to revoke that mechanics lien, and they’re going to probably seize the vehicle. So don’t put in a fake mechanics lien. What you want to do is do a bonded title.
Court Order Titles as an AlternativeAnother thing you can do is a court order title, and this article goes on to talk about it. There might be another way by getting a judgment of ownership. They might ask the applicant to make some efforts to contact the owner, and you have to file it with the court in the county where you reside. If you file a claim of ownership with the court and an affidavit, the court can give you a judgment. You bring that to the DMV to get a title. You can do that without getting a surety bond.
ConclusionSo get more information on both the surety bond and a court order title. Those are definitely good ways to go. They’re much better than even the Vermont loophole that people do all the time because Vermont’s going to charge you big-time sales tax. We’ll talk about that in another video. But check out bonded title and court order title as options to solve your problem.
Thank you for your order from cartitles.com. Your package for the court order title documentation has a number of different documents in it, so here’s some basic information to get you started.
Checklist and Signing RequirementsFirst of all, look for on the top page of your package a checklist of the steps you need to go through for the court order title. First of all, there are several forms that you will need to sign. The one thing we can’t do is we can’t sign your name for you. You have to sign your name, and almost every county in the country requires an ink-on-paper signature to submit the package to the county clerk, the court clerk, to start the court order title process.
Variations in Court RequirementsNow, keep in mind that every court is going to be a little bit different, and even from week to week, month to month, the exact requirements of the court may change. This is why it’s very important to get your package filed with the court as soon as possible. There may be some other steps you need to do, for example, file a vehicle history request with your DMV. The DPPA form that’s included in your package, you may be required to send out notices to prior owners that may be in your package. But if you start that petition filing with the court as soon as possible, it’ll start the clock ticking on getting your file in front of the judge or magistrate.
Legal Advice DisclaimerNow remember, we’re not attorneys, we’re not giving you legal advice. The court will advise you what they’re going to need and what they don’t need. We recommend that you file the petition and the affidavit without a great deal of supporting documents. Let the court ask you for supporting documents. At some point, you may need to submit the prior history report that you get from the DMV, but wait until they ask for it to submit it.
Filing the PetitionFile the petition as soon as possible. At the same time, file the request for the DMV to get that prior owner report back to you. Don’t wait until you get that back to submit to the court. Here’s why: most counties in the country will have a week or so lag time to give you a hearing date, to give you a response date. You want to get them started on scheduling you on the docket, on the court calendar, on the schedule as soon as you can. That way, while they’re doing their end, maybe they’re going to do some research on the vehicle, maybe they’re going to do some other backgrounding, you can do things like request a history report, pull together documentation, get that court filing started as soon as you can.
Mailing the DocumentsNow, how do you do that? In your package, there will be an address for your court. We recommend mailing it to that address. Don’t go in person. Don’t, you know, go to the courthouse. They want as few people in the courthouse as possible. And if you do it by mail, maybe that’s a day of bringing it in person. But that way, if they do need something, they can contact you rather than confusing them with information if you walk in the door.
General InformationAgain, this is general information. There are 3,611 counties in the country. Every county is a little different. What you want to do is get that thing filed. That way, they can tell you how they prefer to do it. In fact, different magistrates in the same county may have different preferences on how they want to proceed with your case. So get it filed, let them tell you what they need.
VIN Verification and Additional RequirementsBe prepared for a few things. They may require you to do a VIN verification, have a police officer come look at the vehicle and verify the VIN number. They may also require you to take a picture of the VIN number to prove you’re in possession of the vehicle. So take a photo of your VIN number as soon as you can. Make sure you have a valid ID. If your driver’s license is expired, get that renewed because you may need that.
Post-Judgment StepsRemember, once you get that judgment of ownership from the court, if they give it to you, you’re going to need to file that with the DMV, and there’s also paperwork in your package for the DMV title application as well. Get that form filed.
Contacting Us for AssistanceIf you do have questions that aren’t answered in this video or in your package, email our help desk. [email protected] is the email; you see that on the screen. You can call us up too, but remember, our title processors are on hold all the time with the DMV. So if you email, a lot of times they can answer you back much quicker by email than if you call in and wait for them to be off the phone with the DMV. You can usually get a faster answer by email because while they’re on hold with the DMV, which they are all day, they can still answer emails. It’s harder for them to answer a phone call. So use the email. If you do request a phone call, put that in your message, and we’ll get back to you.
Final EncouragementBut get that paperwork started. We’re glad to be of assistance. We know how hard it is to get titles, and we’d like to eliminate the bureaucracy as much as we can.
Welcome to another episode at car titles.com. One of the most common questions that comes to us has to do with vehicle liens. It could be removing a lien from a vehicle title record, for example, an old paid off car loan or a charged off car loan or a loan that shouldn’t even be on the car.
Common Lien QuestionsAnother lien question that comes up is a mechanics lien. Can you use a mechanics lien to get a title? There are some very important misconceptions that people have that at the very least could keep you from getting a title and have you be rejected on your title transfer. At the worst, it could create legal problems. Look, most people don’t intend to do anything illegal or get in trouble, but a lot of times there are urban legends or online forums that tell you you can do certain things that might end up getting you into trouble.
Vehicle Liens and TitlesSo let’s first talk about a vehicle lien and a vehicle title with a lien on the record and figure out what that is. First of all, a vehicle title, as you know, is a legal document. Here’s what it looks like. This is a title for a vehicle, and it’s a certificate that’s issued by a government agency. Most states call it the Department of Motor Vehicles or DMV, something like that, and that state agency keeps track of and issues vehicle titles.
Lien on Vehicle TitlesNow, if you purchase that vehicle and when you bought it, you got a car loan from either the dealership, a manufacturer, or a bank or somebody like that. Let’s say you got a car loan from Chase or from Toyota Motor Credit. That lender is going to put that lien record on your official title history. It’s going to go into the government agency record system so that your title will say right on it, lien: Toyota Motor Credit. In fact, in most cases, they won’t even give you the title because that’s being held by the lien holder in most states. So as long as that lien is on the record, you can’t sell it, transfer it; sometimes you can’t even get the title because the bank owns it.
Removing a Paid-Off or Charged-Off LienWell, what happens when you pay that off or it’s a charge off and now you have to get it removed from the title record? Well, in most cases, let me back up, in some cases, the bank or the lien holder will actually take action to remove that lien from the title record. They’ll either send a document, they’ll do it electronically, or they’ll sign an affidavit that the DMV will use to take it off the title. Sometimes they give that document to you and then leave it up to you to remove it from the title. Sometimes all they’ll do is they’ll take that title certificate, sign it, stamp it paid, and send it to you, but they’ll never clear it off the title record. That’s a problem because if you lose that one single piece of paper, now you’re out of luck.
Process of Removing a LienSo how do you take it off? Well, in almost every state, the process goes like this. Some lenders have a direct electronic connection to the official DMV records where they can electronically type it in, hit enter, and it clears it. Sometimes they require a piece of paper, and that’s more common. That piece of paper is called a lien release document. It’s an official form from the DMV that releases that lien from the title record, which clears your title, and now you can sell it, trade it, do whatever you want.
Obtaining a Lien Release DocumentHow do you get one of those? Well, we’ve talked about it before, and don’t forget, in a minute, we’re going to talk about mechanics liens and what that means and how to do a mechanics lien if you can because the mechanics lien can also result in a bank loan being removed from a title, right? That can happen. So how do you get a lien release? Well, the first thing you do is you see if you already have it from the lien holder. If you don’t have it, you need to get it from the lien holder. The lien holder, bank, financial institution, whoever, they have to sign that form. You can’t just print it out yourself and submit it. It has to be signed by somebody who’s verified from the lender.
Contacting the Lien HolderSo what we recommend is don’t just call up your bank and say, “Hey, give me a lien release.” Don’t email them, don’t fax them, don’t text them, don’t send them a Facebook message because in most cases, that ain’t gonna work. The bank is either gonna forget about it, they won’t do it, the whoever you talk to on the phone, that’s not their job, and it’ll get lost in the shuffle, fall through the cracks. So what should you do? What you should do is you get that document, that form, print it out. It’s a one-page form. Fill everything in you can. What you can’t do is you can’t sign it. Mail it to the lien holder with a little arrow sticker saying, “Hey, sign here.”
Proper Procedure for Lien ReleaseWe’ve talked about this before, but we’ll go through this again. Put a return envelope so that they have a place to send it back to. They don’t have to do any work. Put a stamp on that envelope to mail it back to you. That way, somebody gets it, all they literally have to do is sign it, lick the envelope, boom, it goes back to you. If they have to do any more work than that, it’s possible and likely that that employee at that bank, at that financial institution, is just going to say, “Well, maybe I’ll do it later, maybe I’ll throw it away, or maybe I’ll pass the buck to somebody else because I don’t feel like doing it,” because all these people are doing some other job. They’re not a lien release department just sitting around waiting to do this.
Handling Charge-OffsWhat about a charge off? Well, if you do that same thing, many times what happens is that employee pulls it up, they get the VIN number, they type it in, “Yep, charge off, sign it, send it back,” now your lien is released because the charge off technically means it’s off their books, so it should be released. They’re not going to take it off the DMV record unless they have an easy way of doing it, so charge off takes it off.
Mailing Method and CautionsIn fact, one of the things you want to do, sometimes people ask us, “Well, should I send a certified mail?” Don’t send a certified mail because that’s going to probably end up going to the legal department of that lender, which means there may be higher scrutiny. It’s going to go to some higher level executive, higher scrutiny. If you just send a regular mail, it’ll go to some clerk, they look at it, charge off, yup, sign it, boom, you’re good. That’s how you do it. That’s how we do it. We send out a couple hundred of these a week for clients. That’s how you do it.
Mechanics Liens OverviewNow, what about a mechanics lien? Change the subject, change gears. Well, a mechanics lien, for those who don’t know, most of you do who watch our channel, is a process where a licensed garage, repair shop, storage yard can file a lien on a vehicle that’s been brought in for repairs, brought in for towing, brought in for storage, and somebody didn’t pay the bill. And that mechanics lien allows them to sell the car to pay the bill, right? And it also clears off any prior liens, even if those liens aren’t paid. So if there’s a lien that’s paid that’s still open with Toyota Motor Credit, somebody owes ten thousand. If the mechanic does it the right way, it removes that.
Fraud in Mechanics LiensHowever, here’s the thing. There’s a lot of fraud that goes on with that, and it’s not something which the powers that be don’t know about. In fact, here, look on the screen. This is from the AAMVA, American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. This is the quasi-government authority. A lot of law enforcement works in this organization that works with the DMVs to prevent fraud, and that’s exactly what this is: prevention of an abandoned vehicle, a mechanics lien fraud. Look, they’re not stupid. They know that some auto repair shops will file fake mechanics liens. Why would they do that? Well, what if your buddy owns a body shop and you say, “Hey man, I got this 2020 Toyota Camry I owe $15,000 on. I don’t want to pay my loan anymore, so do this: file a fake mechanics lien, sell it back to me, I’ll give you a couple hundred bucks, and then I get a free car. I don’t have to pay my loan.” Well, on paper that all sounds good, and the auto shop can file the right paperwork, they can do everything and try to get you a clear title, but here’s what’s going to happen.
Best Practices and Identifying FraudLook, this best practices for preventing fraud, this came out in March 2020. That’s more than three years ago. They’ve been on to this for a while. What they’re going to do anytime a mechanics lien shows up at a DMV, they’re going to look and see if any of it fits this profile of mechanics lien fraud because they know this happens and the banks are on to this too. A lot of times people will try to send, because one of the steps you have to do for a mechanics lien is send a notice to the bank and prove that you sent them a notice. A lot of these scammers will put a letter to the bank with blank paper in it so they don’t really get a notice, but they can show certified mail, “Look, we mailed it to them, they signed for it.” Well, that ain’t going to work because they’re onto that. So the mechanics lien fraud is something you don’t want to get caught up in because even if you file the paperwork and you get your title clear, if they come after you, look at this: evidence of crime rings using mechanics lien fraud. Do you want to be part of that? Do you want to be part of a crime ring, even though you’re not trying to do that?
Legal ImplicationsIf your name shows up on the title and you get caught with a fake mechanics lien, you may get pulled into this. So it’s not something you want to do. So I know we get questions, “Hey, can we use a mechanics lien for that?” The answer is, technically, can you? Yeah, you could file the paperwork, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that because they’re onto it. It’s something which is more common than you think. Look, every year millions of titles change hands in the US, millions. Every week there’s probably 20 or 30 mechanics liens done in some states. Well, they’re not stupid. They know what’s happening. So do the lien release if you can. If not, there’s other ways to get a title and it’s not something which is recommended to do.
Contact Information and SupportIf you have questions, give us a call. We’re glad to help. We can walk you through the proper ways of getting a title, how to remove a lien, what to do with a charged off lien, how to get the paperwork signed. And by the way, if you have a lien from a bank that went out of business, right, we get this all the time. “Hey, what if a lien holder went out of business?” Same thing. You get that document, fill it out, and you send it to the successor, and we can help you find who that is. If it was from back in the financial crisis of 2008, a lot of banks went out of business. If you need help, give us a call. We’re glad to help you with any vehicle lien questions or title problems you have, and we can give you the right answer for how to do it and not get in trouble.
Vermont Vehicle Registration Loophole OverviewSo you have a vehicle that is registered in Vermont but you don’t live in Vermont. Maybe you used the Vermont loophole so-called loophole last year, the year before, or sometime in the past. You have your Vermont registration, you have your Vermont license plate, maybe you actually put it on the car and were driving around in your state. You weren’t supposed to, but some people do. Now what do you do? Well, you may have successfully renewed that registration a couple of times in the past. Well, now all that’s coming to an end.
New Changes in Vermont DMV PolicyYou probably have seen the news if you’ve been watching our channel, watching our website. We’ve been talking about this for years that it’s going to happen, but now it did happen. Here’s the important things to remember. You see the document on the screen, out of State registration certification in concert with other jurisdictions, meaning that other states put pressure on them. The Vermont DMV now evaluates all out-of-state transactions based on your home state laws. To that end, the department will not process these transactions unless the owner of the vehicle can establish a connection to the state of Vermont. Effective immediately, you have to complete this form to process your transactions.
Home State DMV Certification RequirementWhat is that transaction? You basically have to get the Department of Motor Vehicles in your home state to sign certifying that the home state laws do not require them to register the vehicle there. It says right here, “To be completed by the Home State Department of Motor Vehicles or a comparable agency.” Some states call it something else: PennDOT in Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Either way, whatever government agency issues titles in your state has to sign this. By my signature below, I am certifying that the state of whatever your state is does not require residents to register vehicles in their state. Authorized representative name, email.
DMV Verification ProcessSo when you send this form in to renew your registration or get a new registration, the DMV is going to verify this with your state. So what states allow you to register out of state? Almost none. There’s a few states that allow dual registration, for example, if you were a snowbird and you go to Florida and you have a vehicle that you leave in Florida. You can register it there from another state. It’s not intended to be used in another state from Vermont. So what’s going to happen is when you go to renew your Vermont registration license plate, it’s going to get rejected.
Steps to Take with Current Vermont RegistrationSo what do you do? That’s the big question. What do you do about this? First of all, if you have a current Vermont registration that’s not expired and a license plate, what you can do, which you should have done when you first got it, is transfer it to your state to get a title in your state. How does that kind of work? Well, let’s go through the instructions, what the details are. We’ll also talk about what happens if maybe your registration is expired and what are you going to do if your state rejects Vermont registration.
State Rejections and Ban on Vermont RegistrationsMany of the states that were behind this ban being enacted don’t take Vermont registrations anymore. I’m going to zoom in right, let me zoom out a little bit here. In concert with other state jurisdictions, that’s the key. For many years, other states hated the Vermont loophole because they were losing out on tax revenue, registration, all kinds of things. Nobody in other states liked this, but they had to do it because Vermont allowed it. So some states were rejecting it. Most recently, the state of Florida put a big note on the door: “Don’t come to us with your Vermont license plate.”
Grace Periods and Transition InstructionsSo you may find that you take your Vermont registration, your Vermont license plate, you bring it to your state to exchange for a title, and they kick you out. Some states are giving you a little bit of a grace period right now because they know now that they’re going to get these vehicles. Some states are out of spite saying no way. But what you should do first, and I’ll give you the details and instructions, you can also check out our website, cartitles.com. We have a whole section on this. We give you instructions on how to do it yourself. We also have a service if you’d like assistance with this. We can help with that too.
Title Application ProcessOkay, so first thing you want to do is get a title application for your state, an assignment form to assign that registration from Vermont to you and your state. You apply to your state to get a new title using your Vermont registration as proof of ownership. Switch it over and you’re good to go. One of the problems that may come up is if you have used your Vermont registration for more than one year. If the date on your Vermont registration is longer than 12 months from now, you might have to pay tax again. You paid sales tax in Vermont, you might have to pay it again to your state.
Potential Tax ImplicationsAnd it gets worse. Most states will charge you tax on your bill of sale, whatever you say you paid for. But see, here’s the problem. Now you’re bringing them a Vermont registration, which is your proof of ownership. That Vermont registration is now going to have a value on it because Vermont doesn’t use bill of sale; they use book value. So when your state sees that registration, you need to give it to them because that’s your proof of ownership. If you don’t give them that, you have no proof of ownership. We’ll talk about another way to do it that might not have the same problem.
Issues with Vermont Registration ValueBut now you bring them the registration, and it says book value $10,000. You only paid $1,000 for it on your bill of sale, right? So if you had switched it over before, you can go by your bill of sale. But now it’s been more than a year, they’re going to reassess it. They’re going to go by the $10,000 on the Vermont thing. Boom, $600-$700 in taxes. You already paid that to Vermont. Now you got to pay it again, but that’s what you might have to do.
Alternative Title OptionsWhat’s another option? Well, you can actually not use your Vermont registration as your proof of ownership, and you could just do a bonded title. Forty-two out of 50 states allow for a surety bond title, which means you don’t have to use your Vermont registration. You can just go straight to a bonded title in your state. That would be Plan B. If you don’t want to use your Vermont registration, or if it’s expired. If you let your Vermont registration expire, your state probably won’t accept it as ownership. They might, they might. Sometimes they still use expired documents. You can try, but if for some reason that fails, you can do a bonded title.
Misconceptions About Bonded TitlesAnd I know what you’re thinking. I don’t want to do a bonded title. Well, first of all, look at the reasons you don’t want to do a bonded title. If it’s because you think you have to pay 1.5 times the value of the vehicle, then think again. Because a lot of people have the misconception that when you get a bonded title, you have to pay one and a half times the value of the vehicle to the state. That’s not how it works. If you have a vehicle, let’s say, that’s $6,000, 1.5 times $6,000 is $9,000. People think, “I gotta pay $9,000.” That’s not how it works. You have to get a surety bond in the amount of $9,000, but that’s only going to probably cost you $100. Surety bonds for vehicles that are $10,000 or less usually cost $100. And you can check out our website probonds.com for some ideas on valuation. So that’s Plan B.
Magistrate or Court Order Title OptionAnother option you can do is what’s called a magistrate title or a court order title. It’s not a big deal. Don’t get scared about court order. Don’t get scared about court process. It’s not like Law and Order. You don’t have to go for some big court case. All you’re doing is you’re presenting your story to have a magistrate clerk or a court clerk or a judge sign to say you are the owner. You file a petition with the county. You file an affidavit of how you got the car, just like you would tell anybody the story: “I got the car. I bought it on Craigslist. I paid $1,000 for it. The guy gave me a bill of sale.” You take that story, you put it on an affidavit, you attach it to a petition.
Filing a Court PetitionYou also include what’s called a letter of not interest that says, “I don’t know of anybody else looking for this vehicle,” right? “No one’s trying to get it. No one claims it. I’m not aware of any other claims against it.” You put the right package together, you submit it to the court clerk. Normally, all they do is they look at it, they read it. They’ll probably do some background checking on the vehicle to make sure it’s not stolen, no liens, and they sign that petition. And now you take that petition that says legally you are the owner, slap it on the counter at DMV, and you get a title.
Assistance and Resources AvailableNow remember, we’re not attorneys. We’re not giving you legal advice. There are 3,611 different counties in the country. They all operate a little different. Our website will give you instructions on how to do this. As always, we also have assistance. If you want us to help with this process, we can help with the paperwork. But either way, that’s Plan C. The first thing to remember is hope is not lost. Just because your Vermont registration is expiring and you cannot renew it, you have these options that you can do. Now, you may not want to do any of them. You may just want to sell the vehicle and dump it. That’s fine. You could do that too. But you have options.
Addressing the Expiring Vermont RegistrationIn hindsight, you might say, “Well, gee, I wish I switched it over sooner.” Water under the bridge. You already did what you did. It’s not the end of the world. You made a decision at the time. Maybe that was the best decision to make, but now that’s not available. Vermont will not renew registrations for out-of-state residents going forward. At some point, we’re still getting some feedback that maybe there’s some still slipping through. But you know, Vermont has been inundated with some flooding. A lot of their DMVs were shut down for a while, so maybe some things were held up and they went through.
Final Recommendations and Contact InformationSo the bottom line is that if you get rejected for a renewal, which you probably will, those are your options. Just transfer it over to your state. Make sure you do it before it expires. So if you’re going to try to get the Vermont renewal, do that soon, like do that two or three months before it expires. Don’t wait till last minute because if it expires now, you bring it to your state, they might reject it. If that does not work, which it may or may not, you have bonded title, you have court order title, magistrate title. You can do those things.
Tax Considerations and Legal ComplianceKeep in mind that even if you could switch it over, you might not really like the tax implications. You don’t want to do tax evasion. You don’t want to try to scam out of taxes. But if you are presenting as your proof of ownership the Vermont registration, it now establishes the value at whatever Vermont said, which may not be required under the law of your state. Your state might say, “Bill of sale is allowable. You have a bill of sale for $1,000, that’s your value,” right? So if you try to use that Vermont registration as your proof of ownership, the Vermont registration might say $9,250 is the value because that’s what they put on it. Now they have to use that value. So be careful about what you’re using. You don’t want to overpay taxes. You want to pay the fair right amount of taxes. You don’t want to do tax evasion or get any kind of trouble for that.
Possible Penalties for Delayed RegistrationBut if you present something like the Vermont registration that you’ve been using for three years, first of all, you might have to pay the higher taxes. Second of all, your state might say, “You’re going to pay a fine because you used this vehicle in the state for three years. We see you got this registration in 2020, it’s 2023. We’re going to charge you three years’ worth of late fees for not switching it over right away.” See where that’s going? So be careful about doing that and find out the laws in your state. Every state’s different.
Conclusion and Further AssistanceRegardless, for any of those methods, if you do decide you want assistance, our website will give you free help for do-it-yourselfers. If you want to be a do-it-yourselfer, we have free instructions, we have videos, we have all kinds of details. If you want assistance, we have some very efficient ways to do that where we’ll prepare documents for you for multiple ways you can try to switch it over. If that doesn’t work, we’ll give you the documents for bonded. If that doesn’t work, we have an option for court order. So we’ll help you all the way through the process, whatever you want to do, because we know it’s bureaucratic. We know how hard it is to get titles. We know what kind of difficulty it is. We like to try to help people with the DMV, and we’d like to help the DMV. The DMV doesn’t want you coming in with all kinds of paper scattered, handwritten, they can’t read. They want more neat, clean, orderly processes. So we help you make it easier for you and we make it easier for the DMV.
Contact Information and Final RemarksA lot of times we talk to DMV employees and executives, and they like the fact that somebody is helping make it more streamlined for the consumer. Not all of them, but we talk to some of them on a regular basis, working on files for our clients. So if you have other questions, feel free to email our help desk: [email protected] is the email. If you have comments, put them below. Let us know what’s happening with your Vermont registration. If you’re running into a roadblock, which you probably will, it’s the end of an era. Gravy train’s over. Party’s over for Vermont. So now you have to do something maybe a little different. We’ll make it easy for you.
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