In most cases, it is not safe for you to buy a vehicle with only a bill of sale. This includes buying vehicles from family, friends, and strangers. The certificate of title is the official document that proves you own the car, and without it, you will have major problems. In some cases, you won’t be able to register your vehicle with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
The bill of sale and the certificate of title are two similar, but very different documents. The bill of sale is the record of the transaction of the vehicle, think of it as your receipt of the purchase. The bill of sale only proves that you purchased the vehicle from the seller. The certificate of title assigns legal ownership of the vehicle and is produced by the motor vehicle division or secretary of state.
Some vehicles are sold without a title because they are not eligible for one. If a seller is having trouble obtaining a title for the vehicle, they may choose to sell it without one to avoid the hassle. Oftentimes these vehicles are salvaged, junk, parts-only, or have a certificate of destruction. You won’t know any of this until you have the original certificate of title in your hand or get denied a title by the DMV.
If the vehicle has a salvage brand, it may be eligible to be rebuilt in some states. A salvage title brand means that it was deemed as a total loss by an insurance company. If your state allows for salvage titles to be converted into rebuilt or reconstructed titles, you may be able to use this process to get a title in your name. States that allow for the conversion of a salvage title have very specific and rigid requirements for inspection. Since the insurance company stated the vehicle is not road safe, you must provide receipts for all used parts and undergo a salvage inspection before you can obtain a title.
Alternatively, the vehicle may have a lien title that indicates the vehicle has an unsatisfied loan from a bank or lending institution. The DMV is not permitted to issue any certificate of title for a vehicle that has an outstanding loan. On the same note, if the previous owner owes back taxes on the vehicle, you could be held liable for those back taxes as the new owner or purchaser.
As stated above, if your state allows for the conversion of a salvage title to rebuilt or reconstructed title, this may be a good method to use if you’ve already purchased the vehicle and plan to fix it up. If your state does not allow for salvage titles to be converted, you will not be able to get a title for your vehicle.
If the vehicle is not a salvage, parts-only, certificate of destruction, or lien title, there are a few methods you can use to obtain a title:
A bonded title is a title brand that requires the vehicle owner to purchase a vehicle title bond to secure their claim to ownership. In the event of ownership discrepancy, the title bond keeps the DMV from being liable for the error. The bonded title brand typically will stay on a vehicle for only 3-5 years before it can be removed. A bonded title is a very popular and common method used to obtain a title when proper ownership documents are unavailable, however, not all states allow for this method.
The Vermont title loophole can be used by any US citizen in any state to title a vehicle that is 15 years old or older using only a bill of sale. Vermont is the only state to allow for this type of title method. Vermont does not issue titles for vehicles that are 15 years old or older, instead, they are issued only a registration. This registration is Vermont’s legal certificate of title for vehicles of this age and can be transferred to a vehicle title in the owner’s home state.
If you are able to contact the prior owner, try contacting them to get you a duplicate title to sign over to you. If you already had problems with your seller and the title at purchase, this recommendation may not work. Additionally, if the seller is not the prior owner, they will not be able to obtain a duplicate title. Only the last registered owner of the vehicle is able to obtain a duplicate title.
This situation is risky for both parties involved. If a title has not been issued, it means that the vehicle was either never titled or was lost at some point. It might also mean that the vehicle was not sold to the individual trying to sell it to you. In some cases, the title might be clean but the car isn’t, so be careful when dealing with private individuals who are selling a vehicle that they own personally.
CarTitles.com takes the hassle out of applying for a title for your vehicle. Our team of title experts can help prepare your paperwork for any title method provided.
Looking for support converting a salvage title in your state? Our partners at JunkTitle.com can help you through the process.
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The vehicle certificate of title is the only document that proves ownership. Many people confuse the bill of sale or the registration card as proof of ownership. Your bill of sale will show that you made the transaction, while your registration card shows that you are authorized to drive this vehicle.
Motor vehicle records are considered private information under the driver’s privacy protection act. You cannot look up the owner of a vehicle online or call up the DMV and ask. The only way to find out the owner of a vehicle is to look at the title or to submit an official DPPA request form.
The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) was passed in 1994 to protect the privacy of drivers from having their information disclosed by government agencies without consent. The DPPA does not apply to private entities such as insurance companies, banks or other financial institutions, credit card companies, or any individual person who wants to find out about someone else’s driving history. It also does not apply to law enforcement agencies investigating traffic accidents or criminal matters involving a motor vehicle.
A clean title means that the vehicle title does not have any liens attached to it and the owner is able to do whatever they want with the vehicle. This can include selling it, trading it in, or even donating it.
A bonded title is a type of vehicle title that is obtained by securing a surety bond. The term bonded title will stay on the title for a period of a few years, but the owner will be listed on the front. A bond is not the same as a lien.
A lien title means that the vehicle title has the owner’s name and the lienholder’s name because the loan has not been paid off in full. Once the loan is paid off in full, the owner can request a lien release from the lender.
Before you can establish that you are the legal owner of a vehicle, you must understand what qualifies as legal ownership. Generally, in order to legally own a vehicle, you will have to be listed on the title and have the right to sign off on any deals.
It can be frustrating waiting for your car title to come in the mail. However, it is something that you have to wait for. The length of time it takes to get your paperwork in the mail depends on many factors. Some of which have nothing to do with you, but others that may determine how long it takes to get your title include who you purchased the vehicle from, where you purchased the vehicle, and how you purchased the vehicle. In this article, we will discuss each of these to understand what might affect how long it will take for you to get your car title.
If you financed your vehicle through a lender and you live in a non-title-holding state, your car title was sent directly to your lienholder. In non-title-holding states, the title is sent to the lienholder, aka lender, until the loan is paid off in its entirety. In these states, the title is considered to be a lienholder title or a lien title because it will be issued in the name of the lienholder as well as your name. Once your loan is satisfied, your lienholder is supposed to stamp your title as paid and send it to you in the mail. Unfortunately, many lienholders will put this responsibility on the vehicle owner.
If your loan is paid off and you still haven’t received your title from your lienholder, check out our article How To Get A Title From A Lienholder.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin
Title-holding states will issue the vehicle title directly to the owner of the vehicle, not the lienholder. The lienholder will still be listed on the vehicle title until the loan is paid off, but the title is kept by the vehicle owner/operator. These titles, although in possession of the owner, still require a lien release to remove the lienholder from the title once the loan is satisfied.
What states are title-holding states?
Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, Oklahoma, and Wyoming
Sadly, this happens to more people than you may think. Oftentimes when dealerships are experiencing financial difficulties or they are planning to go out of business, they’ll first try to sell all of the vehicles they don’t have titles for or cannot obtain a title for them. This way they avoid paying additional registration and title fees with the DMV. The dealership is hoping that this will now be the buyer’s problem.
Are you waiting on your car title because the dealership is out of business? Check out our article Getting a Title From a Closed Car Dealership.
If you know that the seller needs to obtain a duplicate title or they are in the process of obtaining a duplicate title, it may take a few weeks for the application to be complete and the new title to be issued. Once the new title is issued, the duplicate title will be issued to the seller, not you as the buyer. The seller will need to sign the new duplicate title over to you and you will need to take the signed title to the DMV to transfer the title to your name. Remember, only the registered owner in the DMV records can apply for and obtain a duplicate title. Until you give the DMV the signed prior title, your name is not in their records for that vehicle. If this situation matches your scenario, make sure to keep good contact with the seller of your vehicle during this process.
We advise against purchasing a vehicle without a title, even if the seller provides you with a seemingly reputable reason as to why they don’t have it. However, if you did purchase a vehicle without a title from a private seller and haven’t received it in the mail yet, reach out to them in all forms of contact that you have. Create a paper trail or digital trail of communication regarding the vehicle title. If the seller is unable or unwilling to send you the prior title or get you a duplicate title, you will need to seek an alternative method of title recovery.
If you have a vehicle without a title, you may be able to use a bonded title process, court-ordered title process, or the Vermont title loophole method. These are legal methods of title recovery recognized by DMVs across the country, but not all states allow for a bonded title. Before using this method, consider out-of-state bonding alternatives or other alternative title recovery methods.
There are a lot of other reasons why your car title hasn’t come in the mail yet that have nothing to do with these factors such as inclement weather impacting mail delivery or slow processing times at your local DMV. The most important thing to remember is that your vehicle title assigns legal ownership of your vehicle. If your title is missing, lost, or stolen, it’s important to address the issue immediately. Until the title is in your name, you are not the legal owner in the eyes of the law.
Are you a licensed automotive repair shop or a storage facility stuck with an abandoned vehicle? If so, you may be eligible to file for a mechanic’s lien or storage lien to recover the costs of repairing or storing an abandoned vehicle.
A mechanic’s lien is a legal right that attaches to real property (in this case, the property being the vehicle) and protects mechanics who have done work on a car. Mechanics are able to file liens against cars after they have performed repairs/repairs on them because they have been damaged by the owner. The purpose of this law is to prevent mechanics from having their work go unpaid by people who abandon their cars before paying for repairs.
A storage lien is similar in nature to a mechanic’s lien, but it is allowed to be filed by storage facilities that do not necessarily repair motor vehicles and requires that you first store the abandoned vehicle before filing for one. The storage lien gives you priority over other creditors who may want to claim their property back from storage facilities.
The mechanic’s lien process starts with your filing a lien claim with the county clerk’s office in the county where the vehicle is stored. To file a mechanic’s lien or storage lien, follow all instructions for notification of the owner and lienholders. You will likely have to post ads in a circulating newspaper and will likely be required to auction off the vehicle at a public auction after the mechanic’s lien process is complete. If you don’t take action within the appropriate time frame, you risk losing your right to collect on your mechanic’s lien or storage lien claim.
A mechanic’s lien or storage lien must be filed within a specific amount of time. Your county will determine the applicable time frame.
In most states, the deadline for filing a mechanic’s lien is 30 days after you’ve been paid in full. If you don’t file within that time frame, you may lose your right to file a lien claim. In some states, the filing deadline is longer than 30 days after payment. You should check with your county clerk or DMV to find out what the deadline is in your state. Some states allow mechanics to extend this deadline if they can prove that they made every reasonable effort to notify their customer of the need for payment but were unable to do so because of an unforeseen event such as fire or natural disaster.
When it comes to filing a mechanic’s lien, there are several steps that you must take. While the exact steps depend on your state laws, you will typically need to file a notice at the courthouse where the vehicle is located, publish a legal notice in a local newspaper, send a notice to the owner of the abandoned vehicle, and place a notice on the car itself. The benefits of filing a mechanic’s lien or storage lien are immense for automotive repair and storage facilities. Before filing, make sure you know your state’s process so you can get the payday you’ve been waiting for.
CarTitles.com takes the hassle out of filing a mechanic’s lien. Get started with us today!
Ready to file a storage lien? StorageTitles.com is the premier provider of storage lien filing support and assistance.
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Can you get a car title with a bill of sale? Yes, you can get a car title with a bill of sale, but only in certain situations.
A bill of sale is proof of the vehicle transaction. The bill of sale does not prove ownership of the vehicle, just that the sale of the vehicle occurred. A bill of sale is a legal document used to transfer ownership from one person to another. It can be used as proof of ownership when selling a vehicle privately or through a dealership. In all states, the seller needs to complete and sign the bill of sale before handing over the title.
For more tips regarding your bill of sale, check out our article How to Write a Bill of Sale.
There are a few circumstances where a state will allow a vehicle to be registered with only a bill of sale. Those circumstances generally are:
The Vermont title loophole, more formally known as the Vermont registration process, is one of the most common ways to get a title for a vehicle using only a bill of sale. While vehicles that are 15 years or older can be registered in Vermont, they cannot be titled under Vermont law. This means that the registration document provided by the Vermont DMV is legally equivalent to a vehicle title in that state. With this legal proof of ownership, you can use this in lieu of a prior title to obtain a new title in your name.
Learn more about the Vermont title loophole!
If your vehicle doesn’t meet the model year criteria for the Vermont title loophole, a bonded title is another valuable way to obtain a title using a bill of sale if your state allows for this method. Currently, only 35 out of the 50 U.S. states allow for a bonded title process. A bonded title requires you to obtain a vehicle title bond, or surety bond, to secure your claim of ownership.
Learn more about the bonded title process!
In some states, titles are not required or optional for certain model-year vehicles. Typically, these model years vehicles are upwards of 25+ years old. For example, in Georgia, you can obtain a vehicle registration that is equivalent to a title for model years 1962 and older. Because titling is not required for these vehicles, similar to the Vermont title loophole, the Georgia registration document is equivalent to a title for that vehicle.
Overall, unless your vehicle meets these specific requirements, it will likely not be possible to get a title using only a bill of sale. But if your vehicle meets this criterion, these are very valuable and reputable methods to obtain a vehicle title. CarTitles.com takes the hassle out of applying for a title for your vehicle. Our team of title experts can help prepare your paperwork for any title method provided.
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