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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