Lost Titles

good job on going the extra mile to save yourself and others a lot of headaches and possible law problems! there are a lot more stolen stuff on CL than people think. we had one dude move to NE and brought his car into the state inspection station so he thought he could license it here from PA. we ran the VIN and it was a stolen car out of PA. then as we were cuffing him, he said it wasn't stolen in NE! LOL dumba$$!

Some States are harder than others. Because some of them have figured out it's a revenue generator. Kansas is said to be easiest. In my home State any title work it's just easier to drive to the State capital and walk into the DMV.

After dad passed I needed to change the name on the title for his truck. I was able to do it in one day but it required multiple trips between the bank, the courthouse, the DMV and the lawyers office and then the DMV could not take cash for the fee or tax or whatever it was so I had to go back to the bank and get them a money order. Can you tell this is why Illinois is so screwed up.😬

There's a reason, like DMiller found out, when they don't want to get the title. They either don't know for sure or have a hunch it's either hot or has a lien against it. Then if it hasn't been registered in many years, some states purge it from their records. Iowa purges them from their database when they change the license plate numbering and the registration is more than 3 years delinquent. I found this out when I went to bring my 68 Torino up to date having been delinquent for 20 years. When I inquired about bringing it up to date the color drained out of the lady's face behind the desk and she said without a title my car no longer existed. When I said I still had the title in my name, her color came back as fast as it left. It would be no problem to add it back to the system, only catch is since it was originally titled in Black Hawk co, Jasper co couldn't do it and I'd have to take a day off and drive up there. Then she said let me call them. In the end the lady faxed a copy of my title to Black Hawk, they put it back in the system, I had to pay a small penalty, I paid 3 years back registration fees of $6 a year based on what my last registration was, $10 for new plates, and another $6 for the current year. The total was right about $40 and only took 2 days to do it. I can't imagine what I'd have had to do with no title and not in my name.

State laws vary, but If I am buyin a vehicle, they better have title in hand, or be willing to go to the closest tag/title place, with me, or there's no deal...

Have one of those currently letter sitting WITH the Title.

I see it all the time here too.
I found a fence row 1951 Chevy truck tonight and you guessed it, no title. I want that truck but paperwork isn’t my thing.

 Well I got the other halfof the deal for all you frugal ones. I have a 76 GMC half ton long bed.Just a flat cam like that vintage of small block all seemed to have every so often. Parked at my friends canyon of treasures.  Well the canyon had a little fire burn up it. Sure was nice not having to be so carefull of the wildlife,and snakes hiding in them. But my friend decided  with his wifes help it was time to tidy up the canyon. My wife said  truck could not sit in my front yard, so off to China it went. As a outfit came and did all the work and still payed $50 a ton.

They always seem to find ways to squeeze more out of ya. I wouldn't mind payin taxes as much if they weren't so frivolously wasted.