Do Vehicle Titles Expire?

Today we’re going to answer five common questions about vehicle titles. The questions are: Do car titles expire? Second question is: What is an MSO or CO on a car title? Third question is: Should you carry your vehicle title in your car with you? And the last two will keep a secret.

Do Car Titles Expire?
So first, does a car title expire? Well, a vehicle title is a legal certificate, a government document issued by a department in a state. For example, the Department of Motor Vehicles is the name of that agency in most states. Some states call it Department of Transportation or Secretary of State; different states have different phrases for it. They issue a title proving the ownership. It’s not like a registration which is renewed every year; it’s a one-time issuance. Now, if the title is lost, damaged, or stolen, you can have a duplicate title reissued, but the original title has no expiration date on the actual title. However, if there is no activity on a title for a certain period of time, meaning that the registration is lapsed and doesn’t renew itself, or there’s no transfer, or just no activity on that title record for either five, seven, or ten years (depends on the state; some states do it in different intervals, usually seven years), the title record will be purged from the system at the titling division. Now, that doesn’t mean that the title is expired; it just means that the record is no longer active. Sometimes that record can be reactivated or re-established, but the record usually goes into archives. The title itself does not have an expiration date.

What is an MSO or CO?
Second question is: What is an MSO or CO on a vehicle? An MSO stands for Manufacturer’s Statement of Origin, or a CO is Certificate of Origin. Those are documents which look exactly like a title issued by the manufacturer. Guess what the word is? Writing the name when they first build a vehicle. So, when Ford builds a brand new Ford Mustang at the factory and they ship it to the dealer, there is no title for that vehicle yet. They will issue a Manufacturer Statement of Origin or Certificate of Origin that says Ford Motors built this vehicle, here’s the VIN number, here’s a description. It was sold to XYZ Ford dealership. Ford dealership now has that MSO or CO, called different things by different manufacturers. And when they sell the vehicle to a consumer, that MSO is given to the Department of Motor Vehicles along with a new title application in the name of the buyer, and that’s what creates the first title. So, MSO, the easy answer is, it’s like the birth certificate for vehicles before the title is issued.

Should You Carry Your Title in Your Vehicle?
Third question is: Should you carry your title in your vehicle? The answer is no. There’s no reason to carry the title in the car. You don’t need it to prove ownership. Your registration is what you need if you’re stopped by law enforcement, or you have a speeding ticket, or you have an accident (God forbid). That’s what you need. Your title is needed to transfer ownership. If you sell the vehicle, if you trade it in, the title is what transfers ownership. So, you don’t want to have it in the vehicle because if somebody steals your vehicle, now they have the title too. If it’s in the glove compartment, they stole your car, now they not only have your car, but they have your title, which means they could forge your signature and transfer it, which is probably not what you want to have happen. So, where should you keep your title? Well, you want to keep it in a safe place. If you have a secure document location, like a safe or file cabinet, hopefully it’s fireproof and waterproof because if it gets damaged, the title’s no good. Put it in your house where you keep a lot of cash equal to the value of your car. If your car’s worth ten thousand, think, “Where would I put ten thousand dollars worth of cash?” Because that’s really what your title is worth—the value of the vehicle. Now, the difference with cash is you can replace your title, you can get a duplicate title, but it’s a pain in the neck to do so. You don’t want to lose it if possible. Also, a title, since it’s not used every year to renew like your registration, a lot of times it gets lost. So put it in a place where it’s less likely to get lost. If you have a file in your file cabinet for important documents, like your birth certificate, your insurance policy, your passport, put your vehicle title in that same area. Maybe put a different file folder with a different tab on it, but keep it where you keep your safe documents so it doesn’t get lost. A lot of times people will just throw it in a pile in their junk drawer with stuff, and then when they go to sell their car, they can’t find it. And there are reasons and circumstances where getting a duplicate might be difficult or impossible, so you don’t want to lose it if you can avoid it at all costs.

Can You Have a Car Loan in a Different Name Than the Title?
Next question has to do with car loans. This question comes up a lot in our vehicle title division: Can you have a car loan in a different name than the title? And the short answer is no. The car loan is given to you using the vehicle as collateral. Usually, the car loan is to give you money to buy the car. So the bank is going to put a lien on the car title, guaranteeing they’re getting their money back. So if Joe Schmo’s name is on the title but Sally Smith wants to get a loan, the bank is going to have a hard time getting collateral of an asset in somebody else’s name. There may be some documents, power of attorney, some subrogation agreements that you could do to make that happen. Most banks don’t want to deal with the trouble. Most of the time, what you’re going to need to do is put both names on the title and have the loan in one of the names. So it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to have a name on a loan that’s not on the title, or at least one of the owners on the title. There are a few exceptions to that, but it’s not really what banks want to do, so you’re not going to find anybody that’s going to want to do that.

Can You File for a Lost Title If the Vehicle Is Not in Your Name?
And the last question is: Can you file for a lost title if the vehicle is not in your name? And the short answer is no. When you file for a replacement duplicate title, only the person listed on the title record can sign and file for a lost title. And think about it—you don’t want anybody to file for a lost title unless they’re the owner, because otherwise anybody could file for a title for your vehicle and take the car away from you. So for your protection, and really, it’s the law, only the person listed on the actual title record can apply for a duplicate title, and that’s good practice for vehicle ownership security.

Conclusion
So those are a couple of common questions about vehicle titles. In the comments, leave examples of questions you have so we can put those on future videos, and put your comments or reaction to these questions so we get a sense for what type of things you deal with regarding vehicle titles.

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