PO won't give me car title
 

I bought a car and the SOB won't give me the damn title. How hard is it to get a new one?

9mm?

Considering you can't even prove you own the car that is pretty difficult. Unless you have bill of sale that is notarized or something similar. Everyone I talk to says rebuilt titles are a PITA.

+1

If you handed him cash and he gave you the car with no written bill of sale/title then he can pretty much say that you stole it since you have no proof of ownership and he does. Also, he has to sign a paper to transfer the title to you, so I wouldn't get too fussy with him just yet.

I bought a car off my friend and then he was shipped out because he was in the Navy. It was a HUGE pain in the ass to get the new title.

I had to have a police officer come out and run the vin # to make sure it was ok. He had to do a full inspection to make sure it was road worthy. Then I got a certificate to take to the SOS. I had to pay out the ass for a new title, then plate it and tag it. Then I towed that damn car to the junkyard and scrapped it. It was a 92 MX3 that I wanted to swap my GTX engine into, never happened.

Do anything you can to get the title from him. It sucks to get a new one.

wow, robert, please do tell more of this story, i see why you would be pissed

WHY won't he give you the title? I don't get it.

I once bought a car with a lost title. This was from a family friend though.

The purchase was done at a notary public's office with an official Bill of Sale from the DMV. If you have no proof you bought it (hopefully you do) and the guy wants to screw you over he can just claim you stole the car.

Hope it works out

Why didn't he hand you the title when you got the car. I know in this state the loaner holder has the title until the loan is satisfied but I seriously doubt that guy had a loan on that car, right?

never hand money over, without getting the the title.

no excuses


for now, talk to the guy, tell him u cant drive it until he gives it to you

In this state it doesn't work that way since the title is held by the loan holder. Makes it touchy buying a car with a loan on it as you have to deal with the PO paying off the loan so you get the title. BTW, I don't think he can drive it anyway. He cut it to pieces to make his trailer!

Details:

The car was on CL for $400. I paid cash for it and got a bill of sale. The guys son sold it to me and signed the bill of sale (not notarized). He said his dad would have to get the title to me sometime. No big deal since I was going to cut the car in half anyway and knew I would not need the title. Five months later and many phone calls and I am still no closer to getting the title. The guy says the bank will not give it to him (some problem with the paperwork or something). I don't know if he is just giving me the run around on that or not. I heard from his son's friend (the guy who posted it for sale on CL) that the dad is extremely lazy and not very professional about stuff like this. He has been bugging the son to get his dad on the ball as far as the title is concerned. Larry (04 Miata) tells me that I need the title to get my trailer registered. I had no idea it was needed so I didn't think it was a huge deal until now.

You might be able to DMV to work with you on this by claiming you built the trailer from scratch but you are still going to have to answer where the body part came from. Might be worth the call to Columbia to see what their position is going to be on this.

When my friend built his street rod he had to show the title for the original car that the body came from but they eventually sent a State Trooper to his house to inspect the car and fill out the paper work to make a VIN for the car since it no longer had the original car chassis. Not sure what they are doing these days, this was ab out 4 years ago.

You know the other thing you might do is call they guy up and tell him your going to report him for committing fraud by selling you the car and refusing to provide the title and see if it kicks him in the ass about doing the right thing.

We could also go pay him a visit in the middle of the night and leave a Miata bumper in his bed!! :naughty:

Does this car still have a lien against it? If so, that's bad for you as the BANK is the rightful owner. Not the "seller", and not you.

Laws vary state to state. Here in GA, small trailers don't get titles, and are registrable with a BoS. Your saving grace may be that you are registering a "homemade trailer" and not a car. It's no one's business what the trailer is constructed of ;)

When I bought my 14' open trailer for the Miata the guy who made it had to provide a "certificate of origin" for the trailer so the DMV could generate a title for it.

leave the car back in his front lawn with his copy of your civil suit in it.

no title = not your car.

I'm curious as to the PO saying "the bank won't give it to him"... did you really buy a $400 car that somebody had bought on a loan?

The next message you leave needs to mention something about legal action. Having a lawyer draw up a small claims court document would probably be enough to get him off his fat ass. I don't know what it would cost though, maybe a couple hundred bucks. I don't even know if you'd have a case in SCC for this though... maybe just being served would be enough to motivate him.

If it's got a lien against it, you're screwed. The bank obviously release the title until the lean is satisfied. I'm also pretty sure that the kid would have mentioned to you if there was a loan involved. My impression is that the old man is a lazy asshole.

Dammit, didn't I just say it was a state to state issue? In my state, there are no titles for trailers.

Minor detail -

We don't know whose name is on the title. As far as we know, the title could be in the dad's name. In that case, the kid/son gave you a BoS that is now null and void because his name isn't even on t he title. Now if His dad co-signed a loan for the car, you'd have some ground to stand on. You need to find out. If the son's name IS on the title, you need to get the BoS notarized ASAP!! That way there is record of the owner (not lien holder) selling you the car.

Yes, I can read. Since Robert and I am in the same state I was mentioning what happens here.

Ahh cool, I didn't realize you were both in SC.