How To Legally Get A Vehicle Title

Vehicle Title Fraud

Here’s another video in our series on vehicle title fraud and this has to do with properly signing over titles. Look, if you have a vehicle title that needs to be signed by the owner, sometimes it’s tempting for a person to say, “Well, I’ll just sign their name on the back.” In some cases, the signature is not immediately verified. But many times, what will happen is if there’s not a supporting notarized bill of sale or notarized transfer form, the DMV will then reach out and contact that owner to ask them, “Did you sign the document?”

The Risk of Forged Signatures

Even if the new title’s already issued, they might do this after the fact. So you could find out later that your title gets revoked and you’re prosecuted for fraud because the DMV knows that fraud is a growing problem. Since they don’t verify the signature at the time of sale, what happened in this story is there was a tree company that had a bunch of trucks, and somebody fraudulently got a duplicate title by forging a document. So, let’s say you are a person or company that owns a vehicle, and that vehicle is in your name, you have a title in your name, and somebody forges a signature to get a duplicate title and then transfers it to themselves. Now they own the vehicle.

Challenges in Obtaining Duplicate Titles

A lot of times, you may run into some frustration, wondering, “Why can’t I just get a duplicate? Can I just call up, fax something over, or do it online?” The reason they don’t do that is because they want to make sure that the person getting the actual duplicate title is really the person who’s the owner. They don’t want to just be giving out your titles to anybody, and they do it for protection.

Understanding DMV Bureaucracy: Protection Over Convenience

It does make it a little less convenient for you to get a new title for your vehicle, but it does protect you from having problems with the vehicle later. So, the next time you’re complaining about how hard it is to do vehicle title paperwork and how much the DMV gives you the runaround, don’t despair. It’s made difficult for a reason. Yes, they are a little bit bureaucratic, but they’re also doing it to protect vehicle owners to make sure that there’s no title fraud and nobody is losing their vehicle.

The Importance of Title Transfer Restrictions

Look, you wouldn’t want it to happen to you. If you had your car in your driveway, and one day you come home and find out that the title’s not in your name because somebody forged a title, you’d wish for more complex restrictions on title transfers. So, it does make it a little harder when you have to do it legitimately, but it also protects you from title fraud.

Ensuring Proper Title Handling

Make sure if you are doing anything with a vehicle title—getting a new title, or a title recovery—that whatever is being done is done properly. If you’re not doing it yourself, if you’re hiring somebody or paying someone to do the title work for you, ensure you totally understand what they’re doing. Make sure you check on your own that it’s legitimate, legal, and appropriate for your scenario. Don’t take anybody’s word for it or a website’s word for it that what they’re doing is legal. Make sure you double-check it yourself and match up that what they’re doing is correct for your scenario so you don’t run into a problem later where you have legal issues or your title gets revoked.

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