Can You Renew Your Vermont Loophole Plate?

Vermont Vehicle Registration Loophole Overview
So you have a vehicle that is registered in Vermont but you don’t live in Vermont. Maybe you used the Vermont loophole so-called loophole last year, the year before, or sometime in the past. You have your Vermont registration, you have your Vermont license plate, maybe you actually put it on the car and were driving around in your state. You weren’t supposed to, but some people do. Now what do you do? Well, you may have successfully renewed that registration a couple of times in the past. Well, now all that’s coming to an end.

New Changes in Vermont DMV Policy
You probably have seen the news if you’ve been watching our channel, watching our website. We’ve been talking about this for years that it’s going to happen, but now it did happen. Here’s the important things to remember. You see the document on the screen, out of State registration certification in concert with other jurisdictions, meaning that other states put pressure on them. The Vermont DMV now evaluates all out-of-state transactions based on your home state laws. To that end, the department will not process these transactions unless the owner of the vehicle can establish a connection to the state of Vermont. Effective immediately, you have to complete this form to process your transactions.

Home State DMV Certification Requirement
What is that transaction? You basically have to get the Department of Motor Vehicles in your home state to sign certifying that the home state laws do not require them to register the vehicle there. It says right here, “To be completed by the Home State Department of Motor Vehicles or a comparable agency.” Some states call it something else: PennDOT in Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Either way, whatever government agency issues titles in your state has to sign this. By my signature below, I am certifying that the state of whatever your state is does not require residents to register vehicles in their state. Authorized representative name, email.

DMV Verification Process
So when you send this form in to renew your registration or get a new registration, the DMV is going to verify this with your state. So what states allow you to register out of state? Almost none. There’s a few states that allow dual registration, for example, if you were a snowbird and you go to Florida and you have a vehicle that you leave in Florida. You can register it there from another state. It’s not intended to be used in another state from Vermont. So what’s going to happen is when you go to renew your Vermont registration license plate, it’s going to get rejected.

Steps to Take with Current Vermont Registration
So what do you do? That’s the big question. What do you do about this? First of all, if you have a current Vermont registration that’s not expired and a license plate, what you can do, which you should have done when you first got it, is transfer it to your state to get a title in your state. How does that kind of work? Well, let’s go through the instructions, what the details are. We’ll also talk about what happens if maybe your registration is expired and what are you going to do if your state rejects Vermont registration.

State Rejections and Ban on Vermont Registrations
Many of the states that were behind this ban being enacted don’t take Vermont registrations anymore. I’m going to zoom in right, let me zoom out a little bit here. In concert with other state jurisdictions, that’s the key. For many years, other states hated the Vermont loophole because they were losing out on tax revenue, registration, all kinds of things. Nobody in other states liked this, but they had to do it because Vermont allowed it. So some states were rejecting it. Most recently, the state of Florida put a big note on the door: “Don’t come to us with your Vermont license plate.”

Grace Periods and Transition Instructions
So you may find that you take your Vermont registration, your Vermont license plate, you bring it to your state to exchange for a title, and they kick you out. Some states are giving you a little bit of a grace period right now because they know now that they’re going to get these vehicles. Some states are out of spite saying no way. But what you should do first, and I’ll give you the details and instructions, you can also check out our website, cartitles.com. We have a whole section on this. We give you instructions on how to do it yourself. We also have a service if you’d like assistance with this. We can help with that too.

Title Application Process
Okay, so first thing you want to do is get a title application for your state, an assignment form to assign that registration from Vermont to you and your state. You apply to your state to get a new title using your Vermont registration as proof of ownership. Switch it over and you’re good to go. One of the problems that may come up is if you have used your Vermont registration for more than one year. If the date on your Vermont registration is longer than 12 months from now, you might have to pay tax again. You paid sales tax in Vermont, you might have to pay it again to your state.

Potential Tax Implications
And it gets worse. Most states will charge you tax on your bill of sale, whatever you say you paid for. But see, here’s the problem. Now you’re bringing them a Vermont registration, which is your proof of ownership. That Vermont registration is now going to have a value on it because Vermont doesn’t use bill of sale; they use book value. So when your state sees that registration, you need to give it to them because that’s your proof of ownership. If you don’t give them that, you have no proof of ownership. We’ll talk about another way to do it that might not have the same problem.

Issues with Vermont Registration Value
But now you bring them the registration, and it says book value $10,000. You only paid $1,000 for it on your bill of sale, right? So if you had switched it over before, you can go by your bill of sale. But now it’s been more than a year, they’re going to reassess it. They’re going to go by the $10,000 on the Vermont thing. Boom, $600-$700 in taxes. You already paid that to Vermont. Now you got to pay it again, but that’s what you might have to do.

Alternative Title Options
What’s another option? Well, you can actually not use your Vermont registration as your proof of ownership, and you could just do a bonded title. Forty-two out of 50 states allow for a surety bond title, which means you don’t have to use your Vermont registration. You can just go straight to a bonded title in your state. That would be Plan B. If you don’t want to use your Vermont registration, or if it’s expired. If you let your Vermont registration expire, your state probably won’t accept it as ownership. They might, they might. Sometimes they still use expired documents. You can try, but if for some reason that fails, you can do a bonded title.

Misconceptions About Bonded Titles
And I know what you’re thinking. I don’t want to do a bonded title. Well, first of all, look at the reasons you don’t want to do a bonded title. If it’s because you think you have to pay 1.5 times the value of the vehicle, then think again. Because a lot of people have the misconception that when you get a bonded title, you have to pay one and a half times the value of the vehicle to the state. That’s not how it works. If you have a vehicle, let’s say, that’s $6,000, 1.5 times $6,000 is $9,000. People think, “I gotta pay $9,000.” That’s not how it works. You have to get a surety bond in the amount of $9,000, but that’s only going to probably cost you $100. Surety bonds for vehicles that are $10,000 or less usually cost $100. And you can check out our website probonds.com for some ideas on valuation. So that’s Plan B.

Magistrate or Court Order Title Option
Another option you can do is what’s called a magistrate title or a court order title. It’s not a big deal. Don’t get scared about court order. Don’t get scared about court process. It’s not like Law and Order. You don’t have to go for some big court case. All you’re doing is you’re presenting your story to have a magistrate clerk or a court clerk or a judge sign to say you are the owner. You file a petition with the county. You file an affidavit of how you got the car, just like you would tell anybody the story: “I got the car. I bought it on Craigslist. I paid $1,000 for it. The guy gave me a bill of sale.” You take that story, you put it on an affidavit, you attach it to a petition.

Filing a Court Petition
You also include what’s called a letter of not interest that says, “I don’t know of anybody else looking for this vehicle,” right? “No one’s trying to get it. No one claims it. I’m not aware of any other claims against it.” You put the right package together, you submit it to the court clerk. Normally, all they do is they look at it, they read it. They’ll probably do some background checking on the vehicle to make sure it’s not stolen, no liens, and they sign that petition. And now you take that petition that says legally you are the owner, slap it on the counter at DMV, and you get a title.

Assistance and Resources Available
Now remember, we’re not attorneys. We’re not giving you legal advice. There are 3,611 different counties in the country. They all operate a little different. Our website will give you instructions on how to do this. As always, we also have assistance. If you want us to help with this process, we can help with the paperwork. But either way, that’s Plan C. The first thing to remember is hope is not lost. Just because your Vermont registration is expiring and you cannot renew it, you have these options that you can do. Now, you may not want to do any of them. You may just want to sell the vehicle and dump it. That’s fine. You could do that too. But you have options.

Addressing the Expiring Vermont Registration
In hindsight, you might say, “Well, gee, I wish I switched it over sooner.” Water under the bridge. You already did what you did. It’s not the end of the world. You made a decision at the time. Maybe that was the best decision to make, but now that’s not available. Vermont will not renew registrations for out-of-state residents going forward. At some point, we’re still getting some feedback that maybe there’s some still slipping through. But you know, Vermont has been inundated with some flooding. A lot of their DMVs were shut down for a while, so maybe some things were held up and they went through.

Final Recommendations and Contact Information
So the bottom line is that if you get rejected for a renewal, which you probably will, those are your options. Just transfer it over to your state. Make sure you do it before it expires. So if you’re going to try to get the Vermont renewal, do that soon, like do that two or three months before it expires. Don’t wait till last minute because if it expires now, you bring it to your state, they might reject it. If that does not work, which it may or may not, you have bonded title, you have court order title, magistrate title. You can do those things.

Tax Considerations and Legal Compliance
Keep in mind that even if you could switch it over, you might not really like the tax implications. You don’t want to do tax evasion. You don’t want to try to scam out of taxes. But if you are presenting as your proof of ownership the Vermont registration, it now establishes the value at whatever Vermont said, which may not be required under the law of your state. Your state might say, “Bill of sale is allowable. You have a bill of sale for $1,000, that’s your value,” right? So if you try to use that Vermont registration as your proof of ownership, the Vermont registration might say $9,250 is the value because that’s what they put on it. Now they have to use that value. So be careful about what you’re using. You don’t want to overpay taxes. You want to pay the fair right amount of taxes. You don’t want to do tax evasion or get any kind of trouble for that.

Possible Penalties for Delayed Registration
But if you present something like the Vermont registration that you’ve been using for three years, first of all, you might have to pay the higher taxes. Second of all, your state might say, “You’re going to pay a fine because you used this vehicle in the state for three years. We see you got this registration in 2020, it’s 2023. We’re going to charge you three years’ worth of late fees for not switching it over right away.” See where that’s going? So be careful about doing that and find out the laws in your state. Every state’s different.

Conclusion and Further Assistance
Regardless, for any of those methods, if you do decide you want assistance, our website will give you free help for do-it-yourselfers. If you want to be a do-it-yourselfer, we have free instructions, we have videos, we have all kinds of details. If you want assistance, we have some very efficient ways to do that where we’ll prepare documents for you for multiple ways you can try to switch it over. If that doesn’t work, we’ll give you the documents for bonded. If that doesn’t work, we have an option for court order. So we’ll help you all the way through the process, whatever you want to do, because we know it’s bureaucratic. We know how hard it is to get titles. We know what kind of difficulty it is. We like to try to help people with the DMV, and we’d like to help the DMV. The DMV doesn’t want you coming in with all kinds of paper scattered, handwritten, they can’t read. They want more neat, clean, orderly processes. So we help you make it easier for you and we make it easier for the DMV.

Contact Information and Final Remarks
A lot of times we talk to DMV employees and executives, and they like the fact that somebody is helping make it more streamlined for the consumer. Not all of them, but we talk to some of them on a regular basis, working on files for our clients. So if you have other questions, feel free to email our help desk: [email protected] is the email. If you have comments, put them below. Let us know what’s happening with your Vermont registration. If you’re running into a roadblock, which you probably will, it’s the end of an era. Gravy train’s over. Party’s over for Vermont. So now you have to do something maybe a little different. We’ll make it easy for you.

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Why Is It Hard To Get A Title For A Car?

So you ever wonder why it’s so hard to get a title for a vehicle if you purchase a vehicle and when you bought it if you didn’t get a legal title certificate like this one that has all the vehicle information and ownership information on it you can’t just stroll into the DMV and tell them to give you a title. The reason why is because having the old title is protection that the ownership is legit.

The DMV’s Role in Title Verification
In this article, we’re going to talk about today is one reason that protects you when the DMV is giving you a hard time about getting a title right you might just think well just give me the title how hard could it be why you give me the runaround. Well, the reason is when you have a title printed with your name on it for that vehicle that declares you to be the owner and if anything happened with the ownership of that vehicle before you bought it then they’re not going to give you the title just like once you have the title you don’t want somebody else just demanding a title from the DMV and taking away your ownership.

Fraudulent Title Transfers: An Oklahoma Case Study
Here’s a good example of the kind of things that people come up with the crazy creative ways this happened in Oklahoma where they were defrauded out of a hundred thousand well how did this work well what happened is this kid he’s 19 years old he walked into a car dealership with a vehicle that was worth forty eight thousand dollars the dealership agreed to purchase the vehicle for forty eight thousand dollars but there was a loan on it and the loan was for Seventeen hundred and thirteen dollars okay so the dealership said I’ll give you forty eight thousand we’ll pay off your loan of seventeen thousand and we’ll give you the difference we’ll give you a check you received the check for forty six thousand two seventy two.

The Mechanics of the Fraud
Now before they they gave them the check they verified with the lien holder the bank the lender that was actually Seventeen hundred dollars owed right dealerships do this all the time they contact lien holders they buy vehicles with liens on them all the time and what happened is he also came back to the dealership a couple days later with another car where the payoff amount was 22.44 and the vehicle was worth sixty six thousand so they gave him the difference on that one too but here’s what happened right before he went into the dealership he made fraudulent transfers on the balance for those loans.

The Execution of the Fraudulent Transfers
So what he did was he went into the bank and he owed let’s say sixty thousand dollars on the vehicle and he made a fake wire transfer or wrote a fake check to the lien holder to pay the loan down to pay it down from sixty thousand down to two thousand right so now on the books it looks like there’s only two thousand owed but in reality that transfer that reduced it was fake. So within a few days the bank reversed that payment and now the payoff went back up but by now the kid already got the money right and he ran off so the bank now pays the payoff to the lien holder two thousand dollars and they don’t get the title because the lien holder says no the payoff is sixty thousand well we thought it was two thousand yeah but that was because of a fake transfer.

The Risks of Fake Transfers
And these fake transfers can be made a number of ways you can write a bogus check you can do a fake wire transfer that doesn’t clear you can do an ACH that is invalid there’s a lot of ways to do it and in the meantime the dealership is holding the bag the same thing could happen to you as a car buyer you could have somebody say look I want to sell you this car you pay off my loan give me the difference and you’ll be the owner and you call the bank and you verify the payoff and you send that much and same thing happens.

The Importance of Verifying Title Authenticity
There’s another reason why it’s not good to buy a car without a title even if you do get a title you want to verify it if somebody hands you this title and you give them the money what if you find out later that that title was a duplicate title and they got a fresher newer title since then that they signed over to somebody else many times what these sellers will do is they will get a duplicate title they’ll keep the old one they’ll say they lost it but they keep the old one they’ll take the new title and transfer it to another state that way if you contact your local state it’s still going to be in that person’s name but you won’t know that another state has it because it takes several weeks or months for other states records to come back to your home state.

The DMV’s Protective Measures
So there’s a lot of ways that titles can be scammed so unless you’re handed an actual legal title when you buy a car and you can verify that that title is the most active one with the DMV you’re at risk and that’s why the DMV goes through a lot of steps to verify these things before they hand you a new title it may seem like a pain in the neck it may seem like they’re giving you the runaround a lot of red tape in some ways it is but it’s there to protect you because if later on down the road you own that vehicle fair and square and somebody else does one of these funny business with a title now you’re out your vehicle.

Titles as Valuable Assets
So there’s a reason that titles by definition are difficult to get it’s kind of like if you walked into the bank and say hey just give me ten thousand dollars well they’re going to verify that you actually have ten thousand in the bank and verify your ID because handing you a title is just like the bank handing you ten thousand dollars whatever the value that vehicle is when somebody gives you a title with your name on it that’s like giving you the value of that vehicle and you might say well the vehicle is not worth that much doesn’t matter they take it one thousand dollar vehicle just as seriously as a ten thousand dollar vehicle or a hundred thousand dollar vehicle because to somebody that money is real money.

Final Advice on Title Verification
So be aware that when it comes time to get a title for a vehicle from the DMV the fact that that government agency is kind of being a little difficult about it is there because they’re considering that to be a serious thing when they give you that title they’re granting you legal ownership and if you don’t have the right proper paperwork just a bill of sale they don’t know who signed that bill of sale they don’t know if it’s the actual owner they don’t know if maybe the owner signed it over to somebody else so a bill of sale normally is not sufficient to get a title by itself and that’s why they make you jump through some hoops.

Solutions and Contact Information
There’s solutions to these problems don’t despair if you bought a car without a title as long as it’s legitimate no liens no Salvage no no stolen you can get a title for it just remember it’s not going to be as easy if you got the title like you’re supposed to in fact in most States it’s actually illegal to buy and sell cars without titles no people do it all the time so don’t worry about the fact that it’s going to be a big deal unless there’s something wrong with the history of that vehicle. So if you have other questions you can reach our website cartitles.com or email or help desk help car titles.com is the email.

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Dealer Closed Vehicle Title Problems

So you’re probably thinking if you buy a car from a licensed dealership you’re in good shape, you’re safe as far as the title is concerned. Well, not so fast. Here’s another example of where a dealership closed and went out of business, and this is no small dealership mom and pop store. This is a large chain primarily out of Florida called Off Lease Only. Off Lease Only originally started out as purchasing lease buybacks and selling those to the public, but they branched out into other types of vehicles and they filed for bankruptcy and suddenly just fired all their employees, shut down all their locations.

Consumer Impact of Dealership Bankruptcies
So what does that mean for consumers? Well, there could be a lot of repercussions that recent buyers may not be aware of that have to do with vehicle titles. How does that work if a dealership goes out of business? How do the titles work for the cars that were recently sold? Well, first you have to look at what happens when you buy a car from a dealership. Three things happen. First of all, they take the title that they had for that vehicle and they sign the back of it over to you, and a title, as you know, is a certificate that looks like this and that title is then assigned to the buyer.

Title Processing and the Role of Dealerships
The dealership then takes that title along with the title application that you signed as part of that transaction, and they send it to your local titling authority. So in most states, that agency is called the Department of Motor Vehicles. In some states, it’s called the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. A few states call it the Department of Transportation. In Illinois, it’s called the Secretary of State. That government agency is who issues titles. Remember, you can’t buy a title from a company, you can’t download one from the internet. It is a legal government document issued only by a government agency.

Title Submission and Associated Fees
So once that dealership takes the title from the last owner, signs it over to you, they send it along to the titling authority. So a new title certificate is issued in your name. Along with that title, they also submit the fees that went to getting that title transferred. In some states, you have to pay sales tax on the vehicle, you have to pay the title fee, the registration fee. Those are all collected by that dealership at the time that you purchased a vehicle. As part of your sales contract, they collected all of those fees, so they have to send those along to the titling authority, the Department of Motor Vehicles, with all your paperwork.

Dealership Bankruptcies and Title Processing Delays
So what happens if a dealership goes out of business? Well, first of all, they may not have had the title yet. Many dealerships have purchased vehicles recently from places like auctions, or in the case of Off Lease, some of their cars came from leasing companies. They may not have those titles in their office by the time they sell the vehicle. They want to sell them as fast as they can, so instead of waiting for the title, which may take a month or two, they sell it right away, and when it comes in, then they forward your application to the Department of Motor Vehicles. What happens if they shut down? Remember, the car dealership closed its doors for good, laying off hundreds of workers. Well, what if your title hasn’t been processed yet? What if it hasn’t been sent to the Department of Motor Vehicles yet? They don’t have any employees, they don’t have any locations, everything is shut down, so that may impact you getting your title.

Financial Institutions and Title Issues
Even if you finance the vehicle, you wouldn’t have received the title in the mail from the titling authority directly. That title would have been sent to your bank to finance your vehicle, and that bank may have been one that the dealership set up, it may have been your own credit union, but they would have received the title. Well, what happens after a few months when your bank doesn’t get the title? They’re going to start bothering you and saying, “Hey, where’s the title for this vehicle? We financed it, we need the title.” If you do not get them the title, they can actually convert your loan to a personal loan and increase your interest rate. They can even call your loan to say, “Look, if we don’t get the title, you have to pay us all the money back that you paid for the vehicle.” So the bottom line is that you have to make sure that your title gets from the dealership to that lender.

Ownership and Title Issues Without Financing
If you didn’t finance it, you would have the title in your hand, so you’re the legal owner. Well, if they didn’t actually get that title yet or if they didn’t send it to the Department of Motor Vehicles, that could be a problem. There’s other trouble that could come up. What if when they went bankrupt, they don’t have any more money? What if the money they collected from you for tax and registration and title fees is gone, right? This particular company literally went bankrupt, filed for bankruptcy. When a company files for bankruptcy, that means their funds are frozen until the bankruptcy trustee releases them for whatever reason. And they probably will, if the money’s there, they will release it, but that may take a few months. In the meantime, you’re driving without a title, and your registration may expire, your temp tag.

Worst-Case Scenario: Unpaid Vehicles
Here’s the worst possible scenario: what if they never paid for the vehicle? In many cases, when a dealership purchases a vehicle from an auction, from a bank, from some other source, they put it on what’s called a floor plan line of credit. They have a line of credit just like everybody else does; it’s like a big credit card. When they buy cars, they put the car on that line of credit. That lender holds the title for that vehicle. So when the dealership calls up that lender and says, “Hey, we sold that 2024 or 2023 Honda Civic,” the lender says, “Okay, give us the money for that car, and we’ll give you the title.” And they pay them off one at a time as they sell them. Well, what if they hadn’t paid for the car yet? Now your car is owned by that lender, floor plan lender. So until they get paid, they’re not going to release the title. Your money for that car already went to the dealership, and they went bankrupt, so that lender is never going to get paid. So that creates a problem. In many cases, those things work out through the courts, but it’s something you want to be aware of.

Steps to Take if You Bought from a Bankrupt Dealership
So what do you do if you’ve recently purchased a vehicle from a dealership that’s gone out of business or you financed the vehicle and that dealership went out of business? Well, first thing you want to do is start the process early. Start making filings for getting your vehicle. Most states have a victims’ restitution fund, where if you’re a victim of a scam from a dealership, and dealership going out of business qualifies as a scam, you can file against that fund, file a complaint with their licensing board. Second thing you might want to do is start filing for a court-ordered title to have the court declare you to be the owner of the vehicle by court order so that you can get justice and get your vehicle title in your hands with your name on it.

Additional Resources and Precautionary Measures
You can look at our links below; we have some more videos coming up about the court order title process. You can visit our website, cartitles.com. It’s something you can do yourself for free. We have all the instructions. We even have a couple of videos that will give you the details on how to do all that, but you may want to start that process early because the faster you start it, the faster you’re going to get your title. It’s not going to be quick. It’s not going to be within a few days, and you don’t want to be the last one in line to get a title from that out-of-business dealer. So be cautious.

Final Recommendations
What we recommend doing anytime you buy a car from a dealership, even if it’s a legitimate dealership or a larger dealership, before you give them money, before you sign on the dotted line, make them show you the title, right? They can’t give you the title because you haven’t purchased it yet, but have them at least flash it. Have them show you the title, make sure they have it in their hands, they’re not waiting for it to be paid off from a floor plan line of credit. If they can show you the title, at least now that’s one possible risk that’s been removed from your vehicle purchase decision. Do you have any questions? Reach us on our website, cartitles.com. We even have a help desk email. You can email [email protected]. As an email, we’d be glad to be of assistance.

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Court Ordered Title: Stop Getting The Runaround

So you ended up with a vehicle with no title, and you’re trying to get a legal title certificate. You’ve probably gotten the run around or no answers from the DMV or your titling authority, and you’ve been scrambling to try to get a title. It may have been weeks or months; sometimes, we have clients that have spent years trying to get a title.

Bonded Title and Loopholes
What do you do? Well, in some states, you could do a bonded title, but a lot of clients don’t want to do that because you have to buy a surety bond and your title is branded as bonded. In the past, people have tried to use some loopholes with, you know, Vermont or South Dakota or West Virginia, which always turn out to be rejected by your state, have a lot of fees, or sometimes flat-out been canceled.

Court Order Title
So what do you do? Well, the most powerful kind of most authority title option is a court order title. Now, I know a lot of times when people hear court order title, they don’t want to do it because they don’t want to go to court; they don’t want to deal with a lot of hassles. Well, court order title is not like Law and Order, Jack McCoy big courtroom scene where you’re battling it out. It’s usually done with paperwork, and even though it’s a little bit kind of a secret hidden method, all the information is available.

Courthouse Procedures
Here’s the thing: if you walk into your courthouse and say, “I want to do a court order title,” they’re not going to know what you’re talking about because they don’t do titles; they do court procedures. It’s kind of like walking into a court and saying, “I want to do a dog bite lawsuit.” They don’t categorize their cases based on what’s in the case, right? However, there’s a couple of clues you can use, and we’re going to look at a few counties that have very specific court-ordered processes.

Florida Example
First of all, we’ll look at the State of Florida. In Florida, there’s actually a state law; it’s section 4426 administrative order 2021-13. It says Florida law requires a purchaser of a motor vehicle to obtain a court order directing the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a title when such individual does not receive a title at the time of purchase. It’s right there; Florida law requires a court order title when you didn’t get a title. Now, Florida does have a surety bond process available, but it’s very limited. The vehicle has to be from Florida originally with the last title from Florida. It has to be within a certain year range, but other than that, it’s required that you do a court order title, and it has uniform procedures to ensure the DMV is made a party for the procedures.

Required Documents
So this is pretty common. This is a bulletin; it happens to be from Broward County, but this is the state law. What do you have to have? It goes through what all the documents you need, how to categorize them, how to fill them out, right? You need a petition, an affidavit, a letter of non-interest.

County Examples
And let’s take a look at some of the counties that have this. Here’s a complaint for declaratory judgment, right? Filed with the clerk’s office, here’s the complaint. You need a summons; you need to serve to the defendant, right? And in Hernando County, same thing: vehicle ownership information sheet. This is instructions for a court order title affidavit, vehicle title application. It tells you how it works, right? There’s ten steps. So it’s not something which is a hidden or secret or made-up process. However, if you walked into the clerk of court and said, “I want to do a court order title,” even though they have this, they may not be familiar with it. You have to walk in with all these forms completed, all these documents done, and probably a few other steps from their checklist just to show it’s not a made-up thing.

Ohio Example
This one happens to be from Ohio: “Insufficient evidence, let us help you make your court order title as simple as possible.” This is right from the county clerk, right? And they have about the same thing: eight or nine steps you have to do. Visit the clerk, visit the BMV, you have to do all these things. Step-by-step guide to apply for a court order title. This is Highland County: step one, step two. How many steps do they have? Four, five, six, eight. It’s almost like there’s always eight steps, right? It’s always the same thing: obtain a court order title for a motor vehicle.

Pennsylvania Example
Yeah, what county is this? This is Luzerne County. This is actually in Pennsylvania. Here’s another state that has it: scheduling order, petition. You notice there’s always a petition; there’s almost always an affidavit, and it’s a step-by-step process.

Additional Examples
What’s this one? This one is Lake County. I believe this is Ohio. The process is as follows: one, two, three. They probably have about eight steps, right? So the court order title process is not something that is imaginary. It’s offered by the state in order to get you a legal title certificate. This is what you want, right? You want a title. You don’t want just a car in your driveway with keys and possession but no title. You want to get an actual legal title. This is how you do it.

Alternatives and Recommendations
You can play around with a lot of other things: bonded title, trying to contact the prior owner, trying to get a lien release, trying to do some loophole from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Vermont, Wyoming, right? You can play around with those all you want, but they’re always going to take longer and jump through more hoops than doing a court order title. Don’t be afraid of the fact that you hear the word court, right? You’re not gonna have to normally go through some big long jury court case. It’s usually done by mail. In fact, when we do it, we recommend to the client, when you have all these documents completed, don’t bring them to the courthouse in person. Send them by mail because when you bring them in person, the clerk who’s there might still not even know what it is, and they might tell you, “We don’t do this here. I don’t know what to do.” If you mail it, they have to put it on the docket. It’s given to a magistrate or given to a judge for them to take action on it.

Completing the Process
So what do you have to do? What are the steps you have to do? Well, the most important thing is getting the paperwork right. If you get the paperwork and forms right initially, that’s 90% of it. After they’re filed, the court is going to do some background check on the vehicle, make sure it’s not stolen, make sure there’s no open liens, people are looking for it, make sure there’s no other owners that want it back. Once they make sure your vehicle is legitimate and you have a clear vehicle, now they’re going to check you out to make sure that you have a good story, right? How you purchased the vehicle, where you got it from. Do you have any bill of sale or not? Do you have any receipts? Do you have any text messages? Once everything’s checked out, they’re normally just going to sign that judgment of ownership and give that to you to bring to DMV to get a title.

Additional Requirements
Now, if your state requires things like an inspection of the vehicle in order to get it titled or registered, you still have to do that. This doesn’t evade any other requirements. It just gets you a legal document so that you can get one of these, right? You can get a title, and you don’t have to pay a bond, right? Sometimes bonds are one and a half times the value of the vehicle. There’s probably some court filing fees you have to pay. If your state requires sales tax on the vehicle, you have to pay that just like you would if you had a title. You probably have to show a copy of your license to the court. Sometimes they’ll want to have you take a photo of the VIN number to prove that you’re in possession of the vehicle to make sure you’re not just getting a title for something you don’t have. But normally, that’s done by mail. Sometimes at the end of the process, they want you to come in to the lobby of the court, raise your right hand, and swear everything you said is true. But that’s usually once everything is done. It’s not like, like we talked about, a big Jack McCoy courthouse thing, Law and Order.

Conclusion
So consider the court order title. On our website, you’ll see instructions for how to do it for your county. We even have title consultation if you want some discussion with a title agent. You can even pay us to do the paperwork for you. So court order title is a good option when, as it says, if you did not receive title at the time of purchase, and even if you did, if you’ve lost it, it’s the same thing, right? Every county in the country—there’s 3,611 counties—has some type of process to do this. They may not call it court order title; they may call it something different, but at least you have the option as a backup. Remember, going to the court is like going over the head of the DMV. It’s like going to their boss. The DMV has certain limitations. If you bring them the old title for the vehicle, they can give you a new one. If you don’t have one, they’re not allowed by law to give you one, period. Even if they like you, even if they say, “Yeah, your story’s good,” they have to have something more than just your word and a bill of sale. So consider it. Look at all the options. Our website will tell you some other methods you may have. If you have any questions, reach us at cartitles.com or our help desk, [email protected], for email.

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Classic Car Title Crackdown & Vermont Loophole

So fans of this channel for years have been aware of the so-called Vermont loophole and going back probably 10 or 15 years it’s been a very common method to get a title for a vehicle if you’re missing some paperwork. In fact, at one point, magazine articles called the Vermont DMV America’s DMV because they titled so many vehicles all around the country.

The End of the Vermont Loophole
Well, as everybody knows now, that Vermont loophole has ended and even a couple of years ago we started to warn consumers about using this loophole. Many states looked unfavorably about this loophole going back even 2020 or 2019, so we recommended against it as a method of getting a title. Well, now that’s officially over. What do you do about getting a title? How do you get a title if you can’t go through the Vermont loophole and you’re missing documents?

Alternatives to the Vermont Loophole
Well, there’s actually methods of getting a title that were better than the Vermont loophole even when the Vermont loophole existed. We’ll talk about those momentarily, but before we do, keep this in mind too: the Vermont loophole cancellation is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s not just about the Vermont loophole being canceled; it’s about vehicles that are older classic cars being phased out of the population of vehicles.

Georgia and Japanese Imports
What do we mean by that? Well, in Georgia, they’re clamping down on these Japanese Imports, these mini trucks, and you’ve seen them on the roads, these little Kia cars and trucks, and these kind of mini pickup trucks that you’ve seen. The reason why they’re being phased out is because they’re called not safe to be driven on roads, and Georgia isn’t the only state. Many other states are starting to phase this in.

Impact on Classic Car Owners
Many owners of these vehicles counted on the fact that there was a 25-year-old loophole for importing vehicles that didn’t have to go through the same import procedures. That’s true; they don’t have to go through the import procedures to come into the country, but that doesn’t mean that the state has to accept those for registration.

California’s Restrictions on Classic Cars
Here’s another one: California. This is the big one. It’s going to restrict classic cars. Think about that. Let that sink in. California, the birthplace of cruising and the Beach Boys and all the old car culture, is going to ban old cars from driving on the road. It’s looking to institute a zero-emission zone soon, very, very soon. It’s going to allow local governments to gather information about classic cars. They’re already sending out surveys to classic car owners and how their owners use them.

California Leading the Way
We knew this was coming to the U.S. California would be the first, right? So you might say, I don’t live in California, I don’t care. Well, guess what? Like everything else that happens that is restrictive, California is probably the first place it’s going to happen. According to the call report, a survey was sent out to owners of classic cars from 1978 and earlier. Think about that. A 1978 isn’t really that old. I mean, classic cars from the 70s, I guess, but a lot of good cars are not necessarily classic, and asked about how many miles are on the odometer. They’re going to start tracking your mileage to make sure you’re not driving them too much.

Emission Zones and Mileage Tracking
The state should allow local jurisdictions to create zero-emission zones, and in those zones, you will not be able to drive cars that don’t meet current emissions. You don’t think that’s possible? Well, in London, they already have that. In other areas of the UK, they find people daily for violations. Justification for a full ban on older cars is climate change.

Impact on Older Cars
So the way that they’re going to go about doing this is first they’re going to start contacting owners of classic cars, asking them how much they use them, asking them how many miles they drive on them, and they might use that against you. They might create a database. Either way, between these classic cars, these import cheap trucks, the shutdown of the Vermont loophole, older cars or less mainstream cars that aren’t bought new from a dealership are at risk. It may take a few years.

Urgency to Get Titles and Registration
So our advice is if you have an older car, get it titled and registered soon because at some point you might not be able to. Well, how can you do it if you don’t have paperwork?

Court Order Titles
Give a quick blurb about the most powerful process to use, and that’s called a court order title, sometimes called declaratory relief, sometimes called a quiet title. This is from an attorney in Florida, and if you’re in Florida, you can contact them about doing this. We don’t know who they are; we just found their website.

Legal Advice on Court Order Titles
Recently, I have received a lot of phone calls about filing a lawsuit to establish ownership of a motor vehicle. A person goes to the motor vehicle and tells the person that I don’t have a title, and they tell you under these laws 3 19 28 and 86.011, the court can issue you a judgment of ownership. Some counties have some documents you can use for that; some don’t. It says here it’s better done with attorney’s assistance, but like he said many times, people think the value of the property doesn’t match how much you got to pay. Attorneys charge three, four hundred bucks an hour. They might charge eight or nine hours. It could be several thousand to do this with an attorney. Now, you don’t have to use an attorney; it’s not required.

DIY Court Order Titles
But this is the way you do it as a court order title, and you can check out our website. You see the link below about more information on court order titles. But in this day and age of cracking down on older cars, on import cars, and no more Vermont loophole, this is the power play. This is where you get, you go over the head of the DMV. DMV has certain limitations. They give you the runaround. It’s a lot of bureaucracy. If you go over their head to the court, the court can give you a judgment of ownership. You bring that to the DMV, slap it on the counter, and they have to give you a title.

Conclusion and Resources
So if you have more questions, you can email our help desk at [email protected]. We have a lot of great people there that can help you out. Glad to be of assistance, and you can use our website as a free consumer resource. We have videos like this one and instructional videos. We have over 800 documents you can download for free, and it’ll give you a good head start on fixing your title problem so that you can get your car on the road before the big crackdown comes and you can’t drive old, nice classic cars on the road anymore.

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