The Expert Podcast

so can you sell a car that belongs to a family member/. maybe the family members deceased I maybe they moved maybe they're in the military they left the country maybe it's a divorce and the former spouse left you a car. we'll talk about a few stories of title nightmares of family owned vehicles and how it creates a problem. first as you know let's talk about what the title is a title as a legal government document issued only by a government agency. you can't buy one from a company you can't download one from the internet it's a certificate kind of like a driver's license birth certificate passport only comes from the government. now they're gonna have a record in their system of who owns the vehicle. they have a name and address for that vin number Joe schmo owns this vehicle that's it so if you're not the person listed on the title record you can't sell the vehicle it's not yours to sell. you might say well they gave it to me they promise I could have it they died and I own it. that's not how the DMV looks at it they look at it like whoever's name is on the title that's who owns it, period. if you want to sell it on the back of the title there's a space for the owner to sign their name. the owner has to sign their name you can't sign your name you can't sign their name that's forgery. so if you want to sell it you have to get that owner to actually sign the title. can you help them and do it on their behalf certainly you can as long as they're the ones who signs the title. how does it work if the deceased well if the person is deceased there are some procedures you can go through for a deceased owner title transfer. you can find more information on our website about that. you have to come up with a death certificate usually usually something showing you're related to the person maybe a birth certificate showing your the child maybe a marriage license showing your spouse something. they want to know that the person selling is related to the deceased person. you probably all have had to sign some forms that says look this person doesn't owe a lot of money to other places because if the person dies and they owe ten thousand dollars to the credit card you're not supposed to sell the car for cash and keep the cash. their debts are supposed to be paid from the assets. so you have to look into the legalities of selling a deceased owner's car or even buying a deceased owner's car. what about a divorce yeah that client we talked to today who have it has a car that they're looking to sell.
and they've been divorced for eight years and there's a lien on the car when they paid off to lien and they need to get a lien release from the lender from the bank. well we're helping him out with that but turns out the title is also in both names her name and the former spouse the husband's name. well they got divorced and the divorce papers are clear but it says nothing about the vehicle in the divorce so you can't just go to the DMV and says well I'm divorced so give me the car. the dmv doesn't know if the other person was supposed to get the car. they might think that you're trying to get over you're trying to scam the other person on their half of the car. unless the divorce specifically says in it this car goes to someone so the DMV is not allowed to pick sides they're not a referee. they can't take your word for it you know what's supposed to happen in reality even if the person at the DMV you're talking to even if they know really what's supposed to happen they're not allowed to be the judge. they're not allowed to pick a side. they have to go by the law and the law says technically both people on this vehicle so you need to get an autograph signature from that former spouse if you don't get it too bad so sad. you might have to go back to court to get the court to give you document if you didn't get it the first time. and the court can do a court order title to that extent. what about a family member who is just not available maybe they're in the military and overseas maybe their prison maybe they've moved far away and they have and you have a car that is titled in their name that you want to sell you want to get rid of same things apply. you need the signature of that person on the back of the title to transfer. if they're not around if they're in prison you probably have to go on what's called signing day where all the inmates are allowed to sign legal documents every prison have days like that sometimes once a week once a month by appointment where they can sign things they have to sign for outside in the free world. if they're in the military same thing wherever they're posted what their bill is gives them opportunities to sign forms that have to do with life in the civilian world. sometimes you might have a power of attorney or somebody might have one. many people in the military have designated a relative as a power of attorney that can sign documents on their behalf. and that that power of attorney certificate exist somewhere somebody has it do you want to check with that. if they've moved different story you need to contact them to sign that title. well if they don't have to physically come to where you are but they have to sign something. and they could sign it wherever they are living they live halfway across the country they can sign papers and FedEx them to you. so it's a relative you gotta get the signature because they want to protect people because you know just because it's a relative not every relative is much how should I say acting in good faith. I'm sure in your family have one relative you wouldn't trust you know with loaning of twenty dollars. so by letting relatives just sell cars for other people puts people in a bad spot because otherwise they could to sell your car from under you so it that's why you have to have signatures. and make sure if you are a relative selling a car for somebody else did you document all your permissions in your signatures so you don't get in trouble later for forgery auto theft fraudulent conveyance or other types of things. then get good legal advice from an attorney before you take on anything they can create liability.