In today’s exploration, we’re diving into the world of VIN checks or VIN searches, unraveling the mysteries of what information you can uncover and the legalities surrounding obtaining hidden or private records for vehicles that may elude online searches.
Protecting Privacy: The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA)
Let’s start our journey with a crucial aspect—the legal shield safeguarding driver’s records, known as the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA). Enacted over three decades ago in 1994, the DPPA ensures the privacy of state motor vehicle records. This federal law prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing private information by merely having a license plate or VIN number. The DPPA emerged in response to alarming incidents, including the stalking and tragic murder of actress Rebecca Schaefer. Instances like these highlight the importance of protecting personal information to prevent potential harm.
Embarking on a VIN search often begins with a basic history report. Our website offers a convenient link for running this report using a VIN number. This basic search provides essential details such as the year, make, model, and the state in which the vehicle is titled. Understanding title records becomes pivotal, offering insights into whether the vehicle has a history of accidents, theft, or damage, among other critical details.
While basic searches offer valuable insights, the quest for more detailed information, like the owner’s name and lien holder’s data, leads us to the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. Federal law prohibits the disclosure of such private records without a permissible use. To embark on an advanced VIN search, understanding and adhering to the permissible uses outlined in U.S. Code 2721 is crucial.
Here’s a glimpse into the process of acquiring advanced records under the DPPA:
Delving deeper into the legal landscape, it’s essential to grasp the permissible uses defined in the DPPA. Common examples include usage by legitimate businesses, involvement in Motor Vehicle Safety matters, civil and administrative proceedings, and research activities for insurance fraud investigations.
As we conclude our exploration, remember that responsible VIN searches not only protect your interests but also uphold the safety and privacy of individuals on the road. Visit our website for resources on running VIN searches, ensuring you remain within the legal boundaries while satisfying your curiosity about a vehicle’s history. VIN records are private for a reason—to safeguard personal information, ensuring a safer and more secure road for everyone.
Embark on the journey of VIN searches with knowledge and responsibility. Stay informed, stay safe, and discover the secrets of vehicle histories without compromising privacy.
In the realm of vehicle ownership, obtaining a title is a crucial step, granting you the legal recognition as the owner of your prized possession. However, the road to acquiring a vehicle title is not always a smooth ride, as exemplified by the recent challenges faced by vehicle owners in South Dakota. In this blog post, we explore a notable example shedding light on the reasons behind delays in vehicle title issuing and offer insights into how individuals can navigate this unexpected obstacle.
Understanding the Situation in South Dakota
Recent news from South Dakota has highlighted a significant hurdle for vehicle owners eagerly awaiting their printed titles. The South Dakota Department of Revenue, responsible for handling motor vehicles, has faced disruptions in its usual title-printing process. The cause? A shortage of paper, the essential material used for crafting vehicle titles.
The paper used for titles is no ordinary material; it incorporates built-in security features comparable to those found in currency notes. These security measures are integral to preventing fraud and ensuring the legitimacy of the title. However, due to the paper supply issues, the South Dakota Department of Revenue has made the decision to temporarily cease printing paper titles.
Impact on Vehicle Owners
For those in need of a vehicle title in South Dakota, this development translates to extended waiting periods. The news article suggests that the pause in printing titles will persist until February of 2023. Considering the timing of this information in early November, vehicle owners are faced with a wait of approximately four to five months before the resumption of title printing operations.
Security Measures Resembling Currency
Understanding the gravity of the situation requires acknowledging that a vehicle title is not a mere document printed on ordinary paper. Much like currency notes, the paper used for titles is chosen for its security features. This ensures that the title holds a level of authenticity and cannot be easily forged. The stakes are high, as the person named on the title is recognized as the legal owner of the vehicle.
Government-Issued and Unavailable Elsewhere
Crucially, a vehicle title is a government-issued document with security features akin to money. Unlike other documents, you cannot purchase or download a vehicle title from the internet. It is a unique security instrument exclusively issued by a government agency. Consequently, if the South Dakota Department of Revenue faces delays, there are no alternative avenues for obtaining a legitimate vehicle title during this period.
Submit Your Application Promptly
While delays are inevitable, vehicle owners in South Dakota are advised to submit their title applications promptly. The Department of Revenue is expected to process applications in the order they are received once title printing operations resume.
Ensuring Proper Paperwork
Given the sensitive nature of title documents, ensuring that your paperwork is accurate and complete is paramount. Any discrepancies may lead to further delays or complications in the title-issuing process.
The challenges faced by South Dakota serve as a reminder of the unique authentication process inherent in obtaining a vehicle title. As a legal government document, the title’s integrity is maintained through security features comparable to those found in currency. As vehicle owners navigate these delays, adherence to proper procedures and a clear understanding of the title’s significance become essential.
For those facing similar challenges in other states, it’s a testament to the fact that obtaining a vehicle title is a process governed by stringent rules and regulations. While delays may be a part of the journey, they underscore the importance of meticulous attention to paperwork and adherence to proper channels.
For any questions or concerns regarding vehicle titles, feel free to reach out to the appropriate government agency in your state, ensuring that you are well-informed and proactive in securing your legal ownership documentation.
So what is going to be the game plan for electric vehicle adoption for non-homeowners? If you are a renter somebody lives in an apartment or even a condominium, how are you going to own an electric vehicle and have reliable charging?
Here’s a great article from, the Associated Press talking about the charging dilemma for renters. From the article, here’s a woman named Stephanie Tarell, she bought a used Nissan leaf this fall and was excited to join a wave of drivers adopting electric vehicles to save on gas and reduce the carbon footprint. But she quickly encountered a bump in the road. She doesn’t have a private garage where she can power overnight and the public charging stations near her are often in use with long wait times. One day, she ran out of power on the freeway because a public charging station she was counting on was busy. “It was really scary and I was worried I wasn’t going to make it.”
So here’s the thing. You can look at an app and see where all the charging stations are but unlike a gas station, it may not be instantly available. If you pull into a gas station and there are five cars at the pumps, you might have to wait a couple of minutes for somebody to finish filling up their tank, but an electric vehicle can take an hour or more to charge up. And if the person is plugged in and walked away because you know a lot of people charging electric vehicles are not going to sit in the vehicle for an hour, they may walk over to a store. They may walk down the street to a restaurant to get a cup of coffee. So it’s not like the person might be right there when the car is done charging it might be another 20 or 30 minutes. Until they get back to the vehicle.
So if you’re in a situation like this particular owner and you need to charge up your vehicle, what are you going to do? Sometimes you might have to just park and wait for that to become available and that can affect your schedule. So at some point, there needs to be a plan for people who don’t have daily access to a charger in their residence. There are homeowners without a garage, look a lot of single-family homes don’t even have garages in some parts of the country. Some townhouses don’t have garages. So maybe even some homeowners may run into this. Certainly, there are some rental-type structures like apartment buildings that have chargers, but they probably don’t have one for every single parking space there to be an electric charger in the garage or maybe two, but you might be a hundred cars. They don’t have one plugin charger for every space, at least not yet.
So what’s the outlook for this? Are they going to put chargers for every space in apartment buildings? What about on-street parking? How are they going to charge those vehicles? Because one of the strategies and one of the plans for having people to be able to have electric vehicles and use them on a regular basis is you plug in at night. It’s very convenient, which it is if you have a garage and you own your home, if you are a renter or have an apartment it may not be that convenient. Tell us what your thoughts are on how this is going to play out and what the possible solutions might be.
Want a CarTitles.com professional to do it for you?
For as little as $159 for most processes, we will save you the headache and prepare all of the car title paperwork needed to get you a new title. Simply choose the title recovery method you’d like to use and we’ll get started!
Select your title recovery method:
Order Vermont Title LoopholeOrder Deceased Owner Title TransferOrder Bonded Title ProcessOrder Abandoned Vehicle ProcessOrder Prior Owner ContactOrder Lien Release Request LetterPGlmcmFtZSBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vYXBwLmFjdWl0eXNjaGVkdWxpbmcuY29tL3NjaGVkdWxlLnBocD9vd25lcj0xOTQ4ODEyNiZhcHBvaW50bWVudFR5cGU9MjMwNjY0MTAiIHRpdGxlPSJTY2hlZHVsZSBBcHBvaW50bWVudCIgd2lkdGg9IjEwMCUiIGhlaWdodD0iODAwIiBmcmFtZUJvcmRlcj0iMCI+PC9pZnJhbWU+PHNjcmlwdCBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vZW1iZWQuYWN1aXR5c2NoZWR1bGluZy5jb20vanMvZW1iZWQuanMiIHR5cGU9InRleHQvamF2YXNjcmlwdCI+PC9zY3JpcHQ+
So what if you have a car that you own or you purchased, and there was a loan on it but that loan has been charged off, went through a bankruptcy, or maybe went through repo but they didn’t want the car back? What does this mean in terms of ownership if the lender didn’t take the car back?
What this means is that there was a loan on the car, the loan was in default and never paid off, but the lender doesn’t want to physically take back the vehicle. This doesn’t mean that you own the vehicle, it means that they didn’t want to be responsible for disposing of the car. The loan is still on the title record, the lien is still a cloud on the title. Even if it’s a bankruptcy, that’s going to show on the title. To remove this cloud of the title, what you need to do is what’s called lien mitigation.
If you are the borrower of that loan, you’re going to need to contact the lender and have them issue a lien release letter. If you’re the borrower that did not pay that loan back, they might not be as motivated to do it. If you’re a third party that’s innocent that bought this car from somebody and you weren’t the person that defaulted on the loan, the lender might give you a lien release document. Either without costs or for a very small fee of just them doing the paperwork as long as you can represent your an arm’s length away from that borrower. Sometimes just on principle, they don’t want to give somebody a car that didn’t pay their bill.
Remember a charged-off loan, a defaulted loan, or a repo that hasn’t been physically picked up, even if the bank told you they don’t want the car back, does not mean you own the car. That does not mean the lien is cleared, it just means they don’t want to go through the hassle of pain to get that car repossessed, shipped, inspected, and put through an auction because that might cost them upwards of $1,000 or more. If they’re not going to get that much from the car, they don’t really want it back. Now it becomes your problem because it’s on your driveway or in your garage and it’s a nuisance. You need to sell it or get rid of it. It doesn’t mean you own it just because they said they didn’t want it. You still have to go through the lien mitigation process.
If you are an Indiana resident, a bonded title can be an effective way to recover your vehicle title if you don’t have sufficient evidence of ownership.
A bonded title is a type of title recovery method that requires the purchase of a surety bond, also known as a vehicle title bond, to secure the ownership of the vehicle. This is because, in order to receive a bonded title, you must have a major lack of proper documentation. The DMV in your state is essentially taking your word that you are the owner of the vehicle. The vehicle title bond provides security for the DMV to assign the ownership in the event that there is an ownership discrepancy after the bonded title is issued.
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Before beginning your bonded title process, make sure that your vehicle meets the eligibility for a bonded title.
If your vehicle meets the eligibility requirements of an Indiana bonded title, begin the application process by obtaining the Indiana Affidavit of Ownership packet.
Indiana Affidavit of Ownership packet
Complete in its entirety the Indiana Affidavit of Ownership packet. The documents in this packet include:
Seller contact
Before proceeding with the bonded title application, you must first attempt to get the original title from the seller or lienholder. Send each of these parties a letter via certified mail requesting the signed title. If they do not respond, keep the original unopened letters for later documentation.
Written statement
A written statement is required for you to explain how the vehicle came into your possession. This letter should state the seller, the date of the transaction, the purchase price, and vehicle information. This written statement must be notarized. If you already have a notarized bill of sale, you may skip this step.
Document submission
Collect all documents listed and related to the ownership of the vehicle, including a photocopy of your driver’s license. Submit your documents to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles Central Office Title Processing for approval. The Indiana BMV will direct you on how to proceed after submission.
To learn more about Indiana’s special title circumstances and affidavit of ownership, check out their website here.
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