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 ParallelsSo 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 ConfusionBorrowers 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 PackageWell, 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 NuancesIn 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 DocumentationIf 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 ResolutionThe 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.
Visit Our YouTube Channel for more insights and discussions on various topics. Consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. Click here!
Common Inquiries in Sales DepartmentPeople 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 CaseHere’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 TaxHe 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 ConsequencesSo 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 ProceduresBe 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.
Ensuring a Title for Your Vehicle: Key StepsOkay, 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 EligibilityFirst 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 ProcessNumber 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 OnlyNumber 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 StepsLast 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 HelpSo 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.
So how’s this for a big piece of news in the electric vehicle Market: the Tesla Model Y was the top-selling vehicle in the world for 2023. Beat Corolla, beat F-150, beat everybody based on registrations.
China’s Manufacturing MilestoneNow the other piece of news is China, as a manufacturer, was top for the first time ever as a country. So a lot is going on in the transition of the automobile market, both in what types of vehicles are being sold and where they’re being produced. Electric vehicles, gas vehicles, hybrid vehicles.
Live Expert ConsultationsYou’re going to see more and more of these evolutions where more and more vehicles will be electric, and more of them will be coming from China. It’ll reduce the price. We expect that used Teslas will be at $10,000 in the used car market within the next year. So it’s going to make for a much different used car market down the road.
Future of the Used Car MarketEven if you didn’t want an electric vehicle, if you wanted a used car and a gas car is going to be $25,000 or $30,000 and a used Tesla is going to be $10,000, you might say, “Well, I’ll just buy one of these every couple of years. It’ll be cheaper than buying a used gasoline vehicle.”
Share Your ThoughtsI know you have thoughts about this. Put them in the comments. Let us know what you think.
So what has been going on with EStart and digital vehicle titles? As you know, we’ve been a member of the EStart Coalition along with many other professionals like DocuSign, TrueCar, Adessa Auto Auctions, Carvana, and many other automotive and digital platform participants. And so far this year, in 2024, we’ve had a lot of success in getting certain states to transition to electronic titles.
Legislative RecapHere’s a breakdown of what EStart has done so far and we’ll look at some of the specific documents as well. Legislative recap: modernization. Still a few states with legislatures in session. Most of the states have already concluded for the year. Here is a recap of the legislation and the outcome that impacted from the EART Coalition.
Colorado and ConnecticutColorado adds lease vehicles to electronic titles. Before, they had electronic titles but only for purchase vehicles. Connecticut, impacting existing electronic document processing, authorizes making electronic notifications for title records. So that’s good news.
Mississippi and South DakotaMississippi requires electronic notification of lien satisfaction. This is great because lien releases are notoriously a problem and having that done electronically is good. South Dakota allows remote notaries. That’s a really good advancement, so that way you don’t have to go in person to a notary.
Tennessee and UtahTennessee requires, the keyword is requires, electronic lien and title system by June of 2026. So this is a full transition to electronic titles. Utah, again, remote online notaries, establish electronic title system by the end of next year. This is crucial.
VirginiaVirginia secure power attorney. This is something that’s not a big deal, but it’s helpful.
Human Consultation ReminderYou will be back to reading in just a few seconds. In the meantime, remember that ActualHuman.com offers you live one-on-one private video consultation with an expert in this exact subject. We want to listen to your story, hear your questions, give you expert advisement of your options, and tell you what we know about your particular situation. Now, back to your reading.
Massachusetts and New JerseyStill in process: Massachusetts has a very good e-signature bill that’s in process. It’ll probably get passed. New Jersey, to establish electronic lien and title, and that’s pretty much a done deal that just has to get signed off on.
North CarolinaNorth Carolina establishes a print-on-demand temporary tag system. So that’s a big deal; you can print your own tags, license plates, temporary tags.
National PoliciesFor EStart, a few other policies that are in the works: you have the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) which has an interpretation. Massachusetts’ electronic signature and lien was one of the ones that was initially done, one of the first test cases. As you can see in this one, we’re a signature car titles, one of the main signatories of it along with Carvana, Adessa, and a lot of other providers of these technologies.
GeorgiaAnother big one was in the state of Georgia for online notaries. Again, we signed off on this one. Car titles right here along with DocuSign. DocuSign was a big promoter of this because it’s online notaries. It was a right to the governor of Georgia in Atlanta to allow remote online notaries. This is a big deal. This is one that will set the stage for a lot of progress on online titles.
The Future of Electronic TitlesThe more these rules and regulations start to be promulgated in the various states, the more it will catch on like wildfire. It only takes a few states to get it done, and then the other states will see it, and we can use it as a model to transition to electronic titles. Gone are the days where you have to sign papers, wait for bulky titles to come in the mail. Lien releases and all the different types of title and registration processes will be a lot more streamlined, cheaper, and easier to do, and you won’t have to wait as long.
Tell us about your vehicle and we'll direct you to a title recovery method that matches your scenario.
"*" indicates required fields
