I'm working on getting a title for a 77 Cruising Wagon I brought home from Illinois this past spring. After discussing the situation with the BMV in Columbus I was directed to the local clerk of courts as the next logical (!) step in the process. I didn't hear anything back from my message for a couple of weeks and was preparing to go down to the courthouse and take advantage of my First Amendment rights when a call came into my office. It was an investigator from the Clerk of Courts and all this guy does is check out issues for the courts, primarily auto related. Eventually we met out at the house and he looked at the Pinto in question and is checking to see if it is stolen or if he can locate the last titled owner. Then he will tell me what to do next to get a title, more than likely involving either what is termed a "friendly lawsuit" where I sue the Clerk of Courts, or going back to the BMV in Columbus. If I can't get a title, I can't sell the car, at least according to him as it is illegal to do so in Ohio. So, if this doesn't work out, I'll be parting out the 77. Anyone encounter this kind of thing before? I know there can be issues with titles, and I tried to get both the county sheriff and the highway patrol to check if the thing was hot, but they wouldn't. He works at the title branch here locally and he can and will do it for free. Go figure. I would say only in Ohio, but somehow I have a feeling that may not be true. I'll post again when I have more info...
i bought a '77 comet with no title. i had to get a noterized bill of sale from the guy i got it from then take it to a state police officer thats on duity at the DMV. he then runs the tags and vin to see if its stolen or wanted for a crime or things of that nature. It came back clean so i took that paper work over to the head guy at the DMV that handles titles and it was his job to trace it back to see if the car doesnt rightfully belong to someone else. for example, to make sure im not trying to buy grandma's car off her grandkid without her knowlege. he couldnt find any history and after a month he decided to give me a title (although it says Ford Comet...) :wow: in the mean time i was still able to get a temp tag and leagaly drive that car.
getting a new title is all handled diffretly state to state so i cant say that it'll be that easy out there.
good luck
When you start crossing state lines with missing car titles...EWWWWWW (where's the sick icon?)
You'd think that it would just be twice as hard to title the beast. NOPE! It's 4x as hard!
I've owned my SVX for 2mo, I STILL don't have the title back. I dunno why. I'll let TN & KY do thier thing till after the holidays before I start going postal. :devil:
When I bought my 85 Omni GLH Turbo off a buddy of mine it was never retitiled when he bought it from South Carolina. Took 4 months to get everything straightened out so I could take delivery of the car. I live in Reynoldsburg, around the corner from Columbus, so I know what idiots they can be. Come to think of it, that's all the Ohio BMV employs. It's so stupid we still gotta have actual titles for the older cars out here in Ohio, but I guess we gotta be different. lol
I bought an '89 Cadillac from an individual in Illinois this summer, and when I tried to title it in Missouri I was informed that the VIN on the Illinois title was one number off from the one on the car, which had been verified by the shop that performed the MO safety inspection. I had to take the car to the MO Highway Patrol "inspection station" where they verified the VIN on the car, and checked to see if it was stolen or not. It was actually pretty painless - just one more form to get filled out - and I had plates on the car because they gave them to me when I applied for the MO title the first time. Of course, I had a properly signed Illinois title in the first place.
Ironically here in California I had..., shall I say..., no problem. I was given a 1961 Corvair station wagon with no plates or pink slip, just a bill of sale. The story is that the car was driven to Calif. from Michigan where it promptly died and was left to sit for over 20 years. The car was never registered in Calif. It "changed hands" a few times and then I got it.
Thus, when I went to the DMV they treated it as if it had "just" been brought into the state even though it sat here for over 20 years. I paid I think $15, they verified the VIN and the car was placed on "Non-Op" status where it still resides after 12 years.
In another case I was given a Datsun 510 (yes, I run an auto orphange) that was previously registered in Calif. However, since it had been 16 years it was off their books.
The trouble I ran into was the 510 was so modified that there was no dash. The DMV required the VIN tag be on the dash even though it was stamped on the firewall and a riveted plate in the door jam. It took me 2 years to find a dash before I could register the the car! Oh, thankfully the owner had put the dash vin plate on the key ring, otherwise... .
Calif. has a law where the buyer is liable for back DMV fees for up to 7 years with a near 200% fine each year. Hence, you can buy a car that has sat in a driveway for 6 years and 11 months and as far as the DMV is concern you owe them the back fees. Thus, even a $1 car can be liable about $400-$600 dollars in fines before you can register it. All this can be avoided if the owner puts the car on On-Op status for a $15 one time fee.
When I recently bought my Pinto an important attraction was that the car was already registered even though it was proported to have sat for 12 years.
Tom
Quote from: Wittsend on November 30, 2007, 03:59:11 PM
Calif. has a law where the buyer is liable for back DMV fees for up to 7 years with a near 200% fine each year. Hence, you can buy a car that has sat in a driveway for 6 years and 11 months and as far as the DMV is concern you owe them the back fees. Thus, even a $1 car can be liable about $400-$600 dollars in fines before you can register it. All this can be avoided if the owner puts the car on On-Op status for a $15 one time fee.
I also heard they can hold your state income tax return for back fees, but not positive
Calif. has a law where the buyer is liable for back DMV fees for up to 7 years with a near 200% fine each year.
California has to try and balance the state buget somehow. Last I head it was 5 years so this is good to know. Also this is another incentive to keep old cars from being put back on the road. Instead they will be junked or crushed. This is what the California wants to see happen anyway.
Quote from: CHEAPRACER on November 30, 2007, 11:03:16 PM
I also heard they can hold your state income tax return for back fees, but not positive
I don't know for sure about the hold on your tax return (although it wouldn't surprise me) but they can garnish your wages for the back fees. I have a friend here in Orange County that this happened to. And the car wan't even drivable at the time!
Bob