The Expert Podcast

Many of you have been a victim of this very common title used car scam called curb stoning, although you may not have known what the name of it is. Sometimes you've heard it called title jumping or title skipping. What it entails is when a person is trying to flip a vehicle. They'll find a vehicle that they can buy for cheap, maybe at an auction, maybe from a private seller, and they'll take that title. On the back, it'll be signed over to them, but what they won't do is bring that title down to the DMV to get a new title in their name, pay the fees, pay the tax, and properly transfer it. Instead, they'll just flip it and skip it over to you and sign the back. The problem with that is it voids the title. The only time you can reassign a title is if you're a licensed dealer, and many times these curb stoners, as they're called, will just flip it to you, and now it's your title problem.

You may have received a title that's signed over to you improperly, and you didn't know about it until you went to the DMV. Everything looks good, right? You buy the car, you have a title, it's got the VIN number, it's signed over to you, and might even be notarized. You bring it to the DMV, and they reject it because it's a skip title. Sometimes, they even confiscate the title.

Why do they call it curb stoning? Well, curb stoning is called that because these are dealers who don't have an official dealership license. They don't have a repair shop license, they don't have a business or a building; they just sell cars on the curb. That's why they call it curb stoning. They'll put an ad on Craigslist, Facebook Market, or Offer Up, and tell you to meet them at some intersection or in a parking lot. They take your cash, give you a title that's not going to be usable, and now you're on your own.

This article from Autotopian is a great description of it. You notice the picture says "Buyer Beware." You really have to be careful when doing this because if you have that title, you could actually have the title revoked. You might even find out there are liens on it, or you might find out it's a salvage. Either way, you're going to have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops to get a title. Avoid these cars like the plague. Don't buy a skip title. If the seller is not the same person printed on the front, you have to check their ID. Avoid that car because it's going to be a title problem. Even if it's really cheap, you could run into problems getting a new title with your name on it.

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