How To Get A Clear Title For A Vehicle

So what is a clear title on a car? What’s a clear vehicle title? Well, a title as you probably know is a government document issued only by a government agency. It’s actually a documented piece of paper. There are some efforts to try to make titles paperless where it’s digital. That hasn’t happened yet, so for the time being titles are all paper documents. Make sure that if you’re buying a vehicle not only are you getting a piece of paper but it’s also a clear title.

Importance of a Clear Title
What does that mean? It means it doesn’t have any liens on it. It means it’s not stolen, means it’s not a salvage or parts only, that there’s no back taxes on it. If somebody doesn’t hand you a piece of paper without any stamps on it or any liens on it, you might be buying a vehicle that you could have a problem with later. You don’t want to be in that position. If you have a vehicle that you’re purchasing and there’s any kind of reference to a lien on the title or salvage, you could have problems switching the title to your name. A clear title is incredibly important to make sure that you’re not buying something that you’re not going to be able to own, that the money is going away.

Checking for a Clear Title
There is a series of things you can do to check on that. Don’t try to do anything online like an online VIN check, Carfax, VIN Checker, VIN audit. Those are not accurate at all. They may tell you some basic information, but they don’t have anything about liens. The salvage information is questionable at best and it’s not going to tell you anything about prior owners or back taxes. The only way you can check is by getting the information directly from the government agencies and you have to do that in person. They won’t do it over the phone, they won’t do it by email. You may be able to mail them a paper document for them to mail you a printout, but you’re not going to be able to do it in a way that you think is going to be convenient by calling them up or emailing them.

Steps to Verify a Clear Title
What you have to do is you have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles in the state where the car was last titled, not in your state, in wherever the car was last titled to ask them, are there any liens on the vehicle? Because let’s say if a car came from Texas and you’re in Alabama, if you go to Alabama DMV, they won’t have the information about Texas liens at the Alabama DMV, so you have to go to Texas. The next thing you want to do is make sure it’s not stolen. You might think, well, the DMV should know that, right? Well, they might not. The only people that know about that 100% is the law enforcement. If you go to the local police department in the county where you live or for the city where you live in person, they won’t do it over the phone. You have to bring your photo ID so they can know who you are, bring the VIN number, they can run it through what’s called NCIC, National Crime Information Computer, and they will be able to tell you if there’s an open active stolen on that vehicle. Online’s not going to give you 100%, DMV won’t give you 100%.

Additional Checks
Then what you want to do is check the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) to make sure it’s not a salvage or parts only. There’s some design on a title that could make it impossible to ever get a new title if it’s considered junk or considered a certificate of destruction. It has nothing to do with the condition, the car could be in great shape, perfectly new, it still could have a junk title because of the insurance company’s liability. The last thing you want to do is check for any back taxes. Whatever state it was last registered in, if there’s any back taxes owed or past due fees, they could hold up the title unless those are cleared. And there’s only a few that do that: California, Illinois, a couple other states. But you also want to make sure that it doesn’t have anything about it that would keep you from getting a title. So a clear title is important, that’s how you’ll find out. Don’t take the easy way in just running a $15 Carfax. It is very likely going to miss a lot of things that could keep you from getting a title and that’s not going to be good if you spent a lot of money for that vehicle.

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Drive Through Scanner Diagnoses Cars

Gearheads and Car Enthusiasts
So most of you watching this channel are Gearheads car nerds you love to work on cars you love to know about cars so what do you think about this little invention dealers are now using an AI scanner to diagnose cars and so here’s what it looks like see this Loop speaking of loop it’s a it’s a loop of a video but we’ll get rid of that in a second so it doesn’t annoy you all you got to do is drive the car through this Loop and it diagnoses the car well how does it work according to the provider it’s a high-tech vehicle inspection system that’s in 300 dealerships customers drive through the scanner gets a full Condition Report with defects and it does physical defects and also mechanical defects very straightforward you will be back in your video in just a few seconds.

Expert Consultations
In the mean time remember that actual human.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 video drive-thru large scanner takes photos including the underbody and it spots def defects but it also does potential issues of mechanical issues finding things that technicians might even fail to find described as an MRI scan for automobiles.

Is This the Future?
I don’t know what do you think this picture here was taken at Chevrolet dealership you can see U there’s a Cadillac dealership called Finlay I believe they’re in Nevada so as somebody who knows about cars what do you think about this is this is this worth it is this going to work is this going to be the wave of the future or mechanic obsolete I don’t know you tell me if this kind of technology is good for identifying repair issues on vehicles.

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Zombie Car Title Liens From Old Records

Now this article may seem like it has to do with real estate loans but it actually has a lot in common with car title leans. If you have a car title lean on your vehicle, maybe what’s called a zombie lean, where it’s disappeared, it’s gone, they’re not getting the car, they’re not contacting you and then all of a sudden it pops up later when you’re trying to get a title. Does that sound like you? Do you have a vehicle that has a lean that’s long since been gone? The lender hasn’t contacted you, maybe they sold it to a collection agency, maybe they did a charge off and all of a sudden now you’re trying to sell your car and this lean is blocking you on your title and it’s showing up on your title record. How do you get rid of it? How do you deal with it?

Real Estate Parallels
So we’re going to look at this article that has to do with a mortgage on a house, but all of the same things happen with a lean on a vehicle title. And The Story Goes Like This: imagine the shock a homeowner’s second mortgage, long believed to be paid off or forgiven, comes back from the dead in the form of a letter from a debt collector. Repay the loan now or face foreclosure. Now you probably didn’t get a letter, but you don’t have to get a letter. If you try to get a title from the DMV, the DMV is going to be the letter. They’re going to say you can’t get a title because there’s a zombie lean on your car title. In real estate, they call it zombie mortgage debts on properties that homeowners believe are long dead through settlement, loan modification, foreclosure, or even charge off. Many homeowners are being blindsided by notices demanding payment. You were probably blindsided by the DMV telling you there’s a lean on your vehicle that you thought was long gone.

Borrower Confusion
Borrowers believe their mortgages were modified, discharged, or forgiven as they received no further communication for years. We hear that a lot. People have not heard from their lean holder, not heard from their bank, and all of a sudden now there’s a lean on their title. Debt collectors were buying these debts for cheap without the consent or knowledge of the borrower and then pursuing the amount. Now pursuing the amount is one thing, but blocking your title is something else. So what can you do about this if some long dead zombie car title lean is showing up and blocking your title?

Sending a Lean Release Package
Well, the first thing to do is to send a lean release package to the original lean holder. Forget about the debt collector, forget about the collection agency. See if your original loan was through, let’s say, Chase Bank. Send a lean release package to Chase Bank. Here’s why: they’re the only one that can sign off on releasing the lean with the DMV. Now remember, we’re not attorneys, we’re not giving you legal advice, but the DMV is not allowed to accept a letter from a debt collector collection agency. Even if you paid a collection agency, they can’t sign the lean release because they’re not the original lender.

Legal Nuances
In fact, when the original lender sold that lean or sold that debt to the debt collector, it’s possible that they no longer are allowed to keep the lean on your title record. Again, that’s a legal question that sometimes courts will say no. If you charged it off or did a write-off or sold it to a debt collector, you can’t keep the lean because you’re charging it off. Some have decided the other way. But if you do send a proper lean release package to the lean holder, we have other videos that explain exactly how to do this. If not, you can click our website cartitles.com or leanrelease.com, a separate website, that will give you instructions on how to do this. We also have a title service if you want assistance with it.

Procedure and Documentation
If you send it to the lean holder in the right way, the right format, the right procedure, chances are some clerk is going to pull up that title and say, “Yep, that’s a charge off, that’s a write off.” They sign it, and they send it back to you. Now you might say, “I already tried to call them, I already tried to email them.” Forget call and email; that doesn’t work. You have to do it with a proper package of physical paper documents. You can’t do it by email, you can’t do it by phone; it’ll never work, never work. Plus, if you do it with documentation, now you also have the option if for some reason they’re out of business or they don’t show up or they don’t send it back, you can then file it with your County Magistrate to have the magistrate sign it in alternate to the lean holder.

Importance of Resolution
The important thing to recognize is these zombie car loans, these zombie title leans are blocking many people from being able to get their title, and it’s creating a problem for well-meaning vehicle owners. You may have bought it from somebody, maybe you charged it off a long time ago from being able to sell their vehicle, renew their registration, move to another state. A lot of these things are becoming big problems. So it’s important to get that zombie lean off of your car loan as soon as possible.

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How To Get In Trouble Flipping Car Titles

Common Inquiries in Sales Department
People ask us in the sales department here all the time if you ever get in trouble for doing shady stuff with car titles. If you’re trying to avoid taxes, if you’re trying to avoid inspection, or other types of requirements. Certainly, it’s kind of like a game of Russian Roulette; you don’t know if you’re going to get in trouble, but it does happen.

Example of Title Jumping and Tax Evasion Case
Here’s a perfect example. A title jumping tax evasion case has reached its end. Sentencing of a 37-year-old found guilty of violation of the Nebraska certificate of title act and willful evasion of sales tax, both felonies. This defendant argued that nobody was harmed, right? Nobody was a victim, but he still was sentenced to a felony. The prosecutor says he was avoiding paying required taxes and failing to fill out portions of the title. Basically, he did title jumping. He had a title, he didn’t put it into his name; he flipped it to somebody else. Apparently, he was not sentenced to prison but he does have to provide a DNA sample and has a felony conviction. It made its way to court after an investigation showed he attempted to sell a motorcycle after he purchased it and failed to pay sales tax. How much could it have been, right?

Common Practice to Avoid Sales Tax
He said it’s a common practice for those attempting to avoid paying the tax on a vehicle. The approximate amount of sales tax owed on the purchase would have been about $83. So, if we’re trying to save $83, he’s now a convicted felon. He had to go through this court case that probably cost him thousands in legal fees.

Avoiding Tax Evasion Consequences
So anytime you’re thinking, “Well, let me try to do something to avoid taxes. Maybe I want to title it out of state. Maybe I want to switch the VIN number. Maybe I want to do a flip title.” Use whatever actual title process is available to you: bonded title, court order title, prior owner contact, any one of the legitimate methods offered to you. Sure, it may be a little more paperwork, it may be a little harder, you might have to pay some taxes, but if you do that, you’re never going to have to worry about something coming out of the woodwork later and jamming you up on a criminal prosecution. Once you have that, you know you get another one for something else; now you’re going to be looking at jail time.

Importance of Following Legal Procedures
Be aware that you might not think a vehicle title is a big deal, but there are people out there looking at it. There’s a task force. We talk to them all the time. People call us up asking about what we know about the market. Are there ways that can be used? We’re a member of EART, so you want to make sure you’re doing it right. You don’t want to be doing anything shady—no fake mechanic’s liens, no flipping cars to LLCs. You don’t want to mess with any of that junk because all it’s going to do is make you not be able to sleep at night over saving like $83 or avoiding an inspection.

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How To Get A Guaranteed Vehicle Title Liens & Salvage

Ensuring a Title for Your Vehicle: Key Steps
Okay, here are the top four things you can do to guarantee to make sure you’re going to get a title for your vehicle. If you have a title problem and you want to be guaranteed of getting a title, here’s what you need to do to make sure that happens.

Check Vehicle Eligibility
First of all, make sure you have a vehicle eligible for a title. If you have a vehicle that has a stolen active report, you’re not getting a title. Stolen cars don’t get titles. If you have a vehicle that is a junk or parts only or certificate of destruction, something where that VIN number has been compromised and canceled, you’re not getting a title. That’s a permanent cancellation, so you want to make sure you have a legitimate vehicle. Also, you want to make sure that if it’s a salvage or if it has liens on it, that you know how to properly make sure you extinguish those. We’ll talk about those in one of the other steps, but first, make sure you have a legitimate vehicle.

Use the Proper Process
Number two is to make sure that you’re using the proper process for that scenario. For example, if you have a lien on a vehicle, you can’t do a bonded title; you might have to do a court order. If you’re not the legal, if you’re not the name on the existing title record, you can’t do a duplicate title, a replacement title; that can only be done by the person whose name is in the title records. So pick the right method. There’s five or six different ways you can get a title; you have to use the one that matches your scenario. Do you have a bill of sale or not? That might affect it. So number two is making sure you use the right process. Many times, we get calls from people that said somebody tried to get me a title and it didn’t work. I tried to get a title, and I got rejected. Well, why did you get rejected? Well, because of this. Turns out they used the wrong method. All they have to do was do something different, right? Do the right method. You have to do some research on making sure you’re doing the right thing.

Written Communication Only
Number three is to make sure you’re not trying to do anything over the phone with the DMV. You’re not trying to do it by phone or by email. You want to do things in writing. Anytime you try to get a lien release by phone from a bank or you call up the DMV to get answers, you’re not going to get good, solid, accurate information. We talk to DMV 50, 60 times a day. Working on files for our clients half the time, what they tell you is incorrect. Not because they’re lying to you or trying to mislead you. Many times they misunderstood what you said. They don’t know the whole story, or the person answering the phone might just be a clerk or a receptionist that doesn’t really know about complicated title methods. You want to go in person if you’re doing it yourself and get a printout. Don’t even let them tell you verbally over the counter what it is that you’re allowed to do. Make them give you a printout so that way you have it documented. So if you go back later and say, “Here I am,” they can’t say, “No, you can’t do that,” because they already told you in writing that you could.

Follow Through All Steps
Last but not least, number four is to make sure you follow through all the steps. If you have to get an inspection, if you have to get a surety bond, if you have to send out notices, don’t skip any of those. Many times a person is right there, so close to getting a title, but they just get lazy and don’t want to send out a letter or they don’t want to sign a document or get something notarized. Make sure you do all the steps. Half the people that call us up that tell us, “I didn’t get a title for my car,” the reason is because they didn’t do something very simple they could have done. Maybe they didn’t feel like it or they don’t like doing that thing, but if you don’t do it, you’re never going to get a title. You can’t make that go away. So make sure you follow all the steps in that process. Whether you’re doing it yourself or we do it, don’t throw away your title. Don’t waive your valid title rights because you didn’t do one small thing. And maybe jumping through a few hoops, it may be annoying, but that’s the difference between having no title and having a valid legal document that could be worth thousands. So that one small step could be worth a lot of money.

Conclusion and Further Help
So make sure you have a legitimate vehicle—not stolen, not parts only. Make sure that you’re using the right process. You’re not picking the wrong process, and you could do a consultation with us to find out the right process. Then, make sure that you’re doing everything formally—not just phone calls, not just asking somebody online, not just asking your buddy at the swap meet. Getting true answers from the horse’s mouth. And then follow through. Do all the steps. Get it done. Get a title so you can sell your car.

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