The Expert Podcast

so here's the question we get in our car title division easily hundred times a day in fact I was talking to some of the phone reps today in one of them had this exact question come up is is it safe to buy a car without a title if you get a bill of sale now to be fair most of the people to call us up already bought the car with a bill of sale and didn't get a title so it's kind of too late to be asking that question whether it's safe or not doesn't matter at this point you already own it but sometimes we do get people you know like I said seventy eighty times a day that are asking Hey I'm gonna buy this vehicle then on the title only the bill of sale am I good to go well maybe maybe not let's talk about what the scenarios could be you've seen on our website in many places online there are methods that you can use to get a title with only a bill of sale but what you should be aware of is there method you can try to use to get a title with only a bill of sale because there are some scenarios for vehicle that even with the bill of sale you're not going to ever get a title give me the easiest example if the car stolen with a bill of sale you're not gonna title the DMV's gonna punch at vin number in when you apply for title and it's got a red flag in this year not only they're not gonna give you title the probably the call police so there is one example but you might be thinking well I know this cars not stolen there's nothing wrong with it there are many other scenarios where a vehicle with a bill of sale is not eligible for title let's take a look at those so you're aware of them and you don't get jammed up and in the comments below tell us your thoughts on this and tell us your question so we can address these in future videos so when you buy a car with the bills of sale what you're not getting is a legal title certificate like this that legal title certificate is what proves to you that the seller is the legal owner of the vehicle that they have the right to sell it there's no lien on it and that the title has no holds on because there are great many number of vehicles that have something about the vehicle record that make it ineligible from ever getting a title doesn't matter what you do and you won't know that if you just get a bill of sale you had title you could see right on there tell you we're not gonna get a title we talked about stolen is one example another example if it has a lien if the car was purchased with a loan against the vehicle the bank owns that vehicle technically until the loan is paid just because this the borrower where the person making payments doesn't feel like making payments anymore and sells it to you on craigslist doesn't erase the fact that the bank is the legitimate owner of a security interest and the person that's supposed to sell you that vehicle I lean on the vehicle so you're not getting a title what about some other scenarios what about a salvage title or a junk title or parts title I had a conversation with a client Alice in our car title division talk to this client last week was trying to buy a vehicle that the seller didn't have a title for and we have to question why doesn't the seller have a legal title document to give you when you give them good money well the person they got it from the never title so now there's one red flag the seller is not the legal titled owner they got it from somebody else well that by itself isn't a problem well why didn't they get a title for the last owner well it was a recovered theft and there's a part right there red flag okay a recovered theft means that at one point the car was stolen and it was recovered which is fine not stolen anymore but what happens when it's a recovered theft goes like this the car stolen if the missing for thirty days sixty days the owner goes to their insurance company says look my car stolen I'm not wait anymore give me my money and that's what you have car insurance for they pay your car they give you the money for your car so the person gets their money and they go on their way maybe they get another car now all of a sudden a car turns up the police find it recovered but the owner of the car doesn't want the car back there to have the money so the cargoes to the insurance company because they're technically the owner
well the insurance company doesn't need cars they don't want car so they sell the car at in insurance auction the two most common are I. AA and Copart they sell these insurance cars and some of these cars are crash totaled damage cars that the insurance company paid the claim and now they have the title some of them are recovered theft now the insurance company can do one of two things they can say well we're going to give it a salvage title and just sell it as a salvage many times though they issue what's called a parts only title or a junk title in Florida it's called a certificate of destruction and the reason they do that is because if that car was back out on the road and there was something wrong with that that the insurance company didn't know about because they're not going to go through the car with a fine tooth comb they don't care if somebody gets hurt whoever gets her is gonna go back and sue that insurance company for letting that vehicle go back on the road so the insurance says look we don't want this car on the road let's just give it a junk status or parts only status that way nobody can ever get a title nobody can ever get a license plate nobody can ever get a registration we're not to worry about it end of story so the people that buy those cars really just use it to take the parts off and sell the parts
but a lot of unsuspecting consumer victims end up with these cars either they buy it directly from Copart or some unscrupulous broker or vendor or maybe somebody else bought it on copart found out they got stuck with the untitle-able car and then they pondered off you on Craigslist or Facebook or offer up wherever now you're stuck with it so there's a reason that car would no title even with a bill of sale could be a problem now what about salvage well technically tactically a salvage title can be tough ourselves vehicle could be titled if you the vehicle get a safe for the road and you might say well this vehicle fix it's all done or I fixed it great when you go to that salvage inspection here's what you'll expect any notice I said inspection just because you fixed it doesn't mean it gets an automatic title the vehicle has to be inspected before at the salvage title can be going back on the road what they do is a first look at the inspection and say Hey is this car safe yep the airbags are good breaks are good just frames not bent nothing unsafe about it then they're gonna say okay we're all your receipts for the repairs you need to show us the receipts from every part of the purchase the fix this car
in almost every state has a requirement that you have to prove receipts for the repair because they're trying to prevent stolen parts being used to fix other cars number you see about chop shops will chop shop used to steal a car you can't sell the stolen car so they would chop it up into pieces and sell the parts off two people fixing up damaged cars you don't hear about chop shops anymore as much because salvage vehicles need receipts now to get inspected so if you don't have the receipts for all those repairs can't get a title doesn't matter what you do does matter what good bill so you have in fact keep this in mind many states DMV N. comment on here if you have this experience I know a lot of our clients have this happen all the time you bring a vehicle for salvage they're going to go over with a fine tooth comb they're looking to find something to fail you for they're not trying to pass your vehicle at the inspection they're trying to fail it they're going to find anything they can as an excuse to fail your salvage inspection correct me if I'm wrong if you're a vehicle repair or investor or flipper the buy salvage cars to fix him up you tell us put a message in the comments you tell us about your experience with salvage title inspections again the only way we have to know about this is from what our clients tell us we talk to seven hundred people on the phone every day and we hear about salvage title inspections third their nightmare they try to fail you on purpose yeah so there's another reason that the bill of sale is not going to get your title every time what else could happen what about back taxes
you know many states now have a at the annual tax sometimes called a property tax or ad velorum tax on the vehicle you paid every year or a registration renewal fee California is famous for this if you don't pay your renew your vehicle and let it stay parked on the road off the road and not driving for some period of time they'll build up penalties in some states those penalty stay with the vehicle even if the vehicle sold so you go to try to register title it later it's gonna come up as a red flag elders back taxes you got to pay it or the other way you're not getting a title remember when somebody selling a vehicle without a title they know that they're going to have to take less money for car without a title because it's it distressed vehicle distress sale so if it was easy to get a title that person would probably do it because they'll get more for the car if they could just get another title for a couple of Bucks then why not just do it and get thousands more for the car the reason they don't is because it's not that easy most of the vehicles sold without titles are sold that way for a reason because there is a problem with the title that they're not gonna tell you about because they're trying to take your money get you to buy the vehicle so that's another reason couple other scenarios that are less common but do come up a lot of times when a vehicle so without a title it's because there is an owner is deceased last owners dead and the seller things nobody else wants his vehicle however many times it's a relative or neighbor or somebody involved with the family that claim the vehicle cells that come to find out there's a relative that wanted that vehicle Hey my grandfather died I'm supposed to get their old car how come I didn't get it then they run the title search and found out somebody sold it and then they go revoked the title that happens for it's a creditor meaning that if somebody dies and they owed money on their credit card they'll five thousand a credit card the assets for that estate for that that person is supposed to go to pay off the bills first before they go somewhere else and that person as a car the car supposed to go to pay off the bills of the person that divorce is supposed to pay child support that kind of thing so you'll find that people who are owed money will run asset searches on people if they find a vehicle vin number in their name they're gonna find out where the vehicle is and find out why it was transferred without a title the moral of the story is if you buy a vehicle without a title there's some things you can try you can do bonded title the Vermont loophole many things you can try to get a title most of the time they work seventy eighty percent of the time it's going to work but you are at risk of not having good results in some cases and isn't until you get that actual title transfer in your name all the money you pay for that vehicle is at risk and we have to look at this this even if it's a ten thousand dollar car and somebody selling it to you for six thousand you might think well that's a deal I'm said I'm saving four thousand dollars I'm making four thousand well until you get a title in your hand with your name on it you're not saving four thousand you're putting six thousand at risk because if you put six thousand dollars out there without a title in the and you can't keep the car you're not saving four thousand you're dangling six thousand dollars over the cliff you could loose how do we know that we see it every day you know of the seven or eight hundred people that we talked to there's probably a good ten percent of them fifteen percent of them that their scenario they're never getting a title ever not because we don't want to it's because it's illegal the DMV can't give him one even if they wanted to even if some rogue DMV employee says you know what forget about the rules I'm gonna give you title when they go to push press under computer second a print because there's a flag in the system so getting a bill of sale only with no title most of the time there's a way you can get a title but there is a significant percentage of scenarios that never going work leave your comments let us know what you think