The Expert Podcast

…So here it is 2023. And we're coming up on 20 years of our company doing car titles for our clients We do titles for dealerships auctions lien holders, and consumers. And a lot of times the question comes up. What is the best way to get a title when it's a tough situation A very hard complicated situation Look. If it's an easy title process you could do a bonded title Some people like to do the Vermont loophole which we don't recommend but some people just want to do it. or you could do a duplicate title, but if you have a tough title problem how do you solve that What is the best way to go A lot of times, the inquiry comes from a dealership where they took a trade in and there's some complications with the title or there's a consumer that has an unpaid lien on the vehicle or a lien on the title record. How do you solve these Well let's take a look at three methods you can use to solve. The most difficult title problems. The first and remember. As you hear these there might be something about these methods You don't like well I don't want to do that I don't want to go through all this That's fine but you're not going to get a title unless you solve the title problem titles Don't just magically appear. A title is a legal government document issued only by government agency. You can't buy one from a company You can't download one from the internet. You have to get it from the government and the government doesn't hand them out just on your request or with a bill of sale. If there is a problem with that title, you have to solve that problem before the government's allowed to give you one. The DMV or department of transportation or whoever in your state gives out titles. They can't hand you one just on your say So you have to have proper documentation And if you don't, they're going to reject you So here's how you solve those problems. The first method that we recommend to try is simply to get it signed by the prior owner or lien holder if you have a block on a title because there's a prior owner showing up in the system, or there's a lien holder showing up in the system. All day have to do is sign one form and you're off the hook You can't sign the form. The DMV can't sign the form. Nobody in the world can sign the form except for the person listed in the title record. So how do you do that Well I'll tell you how not to do it. Don't call them up and say Hey, sign this form for me or…get rid of this lien or sign over the ownership. They're not going to do it. The lien holder or the li the owner or the probate whoever it is has control over that title. They have stuff to do in their life They're not going to drop everything to solve your title problem. So make it easy for them. You fill out the form. You prepare all the documents and mail it to them. In the mail in an envelope old school. We'll put a little arrow sticker saying sign here I…put a return envelope. With your name and address and a stamp. So now what does that person have to do? All they got to do is sign their name, put an envelope and put it in their mailbox. If you do that, your chances are pretty good That don't help you look. Most people want to help. solve your title problem. If you make it easy for them, if you start demanding things and cop an attitude and, you know calling them up instead of sending them in the mail, you're going to get rejected. Why don't you want to call them up Well think about it. If you were just sitting around whatever you're doing right now watching this video watching TV eating dinner, and somebody called you up and said, Hey…Fix my title problem for me. Get rid of my lean. Who are you? I haven't had that car for years I don't really care about you I'm not going to jump through hoops to help you I don't even know how to do it. You're telling them to find the form fill it out, pass They're not going to do it. So do the work for them. So all they have to do is sign it now instead of getting some intrusive call barging in on their life, they get an envelope with a professional letter and a form. Asking them to do you a favor. Now there's a different story especially if you make the approach this is how we do it. Write a letter saying look I'm trying to get the car out of your name so you don't have liability. Most people are willing to help you especially if you show them you're looking out for them. Right. That's number one may not work. They might throw that in the trash might go to the wrong place They might not want to help you. Number two. Is, you can do. A court order title, and anytime. Customers hear that phrase A lot of times, I don't want to do court It's too sounds too complicated Well it is complicated, but what's more complicated doing that or not having a title. How complicated is it that you don't have a title for the vehicle? It's not going to magically show up on your desk one day. It's even not that complicated. All you have to do is you have to file three forms with the court where you live You don't have to go anywhere else You don't have to go to Vermont other states anywhere…You file a petition for ownership. You file a letter of non-interest and you file an affidavit of facts. Three forms you sign them. You submit it to the court. Where you live local. you your county…The court will give you a date, usually a week or two in advance. or after you send them the forms, they're going to tell you to submit to them a couple of things maybe a copy of your license. Maybe if you have a bill of sale, maybe if you have some kind of receipt. You submit those forms to them. If everything checks out Okay And you're not trying to do anything. Anything devious or underhanded and the vehicles legitimate not stolen no liens no salvage no back taxes nothing like that. They'll give you what's called the judgment of ownership that makes you legally the owner of the vehicle You could walk into DMV slapped that on the counter. And get a title. Because you're going over the head of the DMV. Right You're going. Beyond what the DMV is allowed to do You're going to the boss of the DMV so to speak. The problem is…Sometimes people feel like they don't want to do that or they shouldn't have to do with their I deserve my title That's great But. And until you do something that solves the problem You're still going to have no title. This is not that hard of a thing to do now. A lot of times people ask do I need an attorney for this You don't need an attorney You can do it yourself. Our website gives you all the instructions on how to do it In fact, most of the time you need to have to go to court Remember courts don't want you to go there. They do everything They can The key people out of their building. In fact if even if you've got a full blown divorce case or…litigation or lawsuit which that that's not what this is, they require you to do mediation negotiation arbitration They do everything they can to keep you out of their court. So if you have something simple to them, like a court order title, they're going to try to do everything remotely. Sometimes they make you walk in the door. To pick up your judgment Sometimes they make you walk in to go to the clerk to raise your right hand and swear under oath that you are making. true statements You're not making anything up. But besides that they want to get you in and out They don't want to have. clogging up their courtroom any more than you want to be there. Right. So avail yourself of that process. Don't overlook it. All the aggravation and run around you Get from DMV. You can bypass that you can short circuit it by just going to the court process. Right It's straight forward. Number three. Is, you can do a surety bond title And a lot of people think well I don't want to do a surety bond because it costs too much money or I don't get a title for three years. It's really. A pretty streamlined process in most states. Yeah you have to jump through a few hoops You have to fill out some forms and signed some affidavits. Again our website will give you instructions on all this or we can do it for you…Remember the cost of a bond is not that much As long as you have a car that's not you know, A Ferrari or some expensive car might only cost you a hundred or 200 bucks for a surety bond. sign some affidavit's submitted to the state and you get a bonded title. Good to go. Now what's the downside Well, not every state does it. There's about 14 states that do not do a bond to title. So if you live in one of the states that give you the privilege of doing a bond to title. Go for it. Right. Yeah those are the three methods that we recommend for very difficult title. situations. Now a lot of people say well can I just do this Vermont loophole Yeah you can. But. I think about it, how much more complicated is that Now you have to deal with two states You have to deal with Vermont, get their paperwork then take it to your state and hope they accept it. Plus you have to pay sales tax to Vermont. Vermont charges big-time tax. It's 6% and it's on the book value not on your bill of sale not what you think it's worth not the condition of the vehicle. It's on book value. So even if you have a car that's. 12 or $13,000. You're talking. Close to a thousand dollars in sales tax Do you want to pay that? And you might think well my car is not worth that much It doesn't matter what you think it's worth What is the book value Say? There's very few cars that the book value is not near 10 grand anymore. Even older cars even classic cars. So you could do that. Plus you pay the tax you pay the registration to Vermont then you have to bring it to your state and pay the registration there and whatever fees are there. And now you're bringing technically an out-of-state vehicle to your state So you might need inspection. It's not all it's cracked up to be. All right So a lot of people want to do this, but they're not really looking at the details. Right. If you're doing it for the purpose of taking that Vermont license plate putting it on your car and driving around with it, don't do that because it's not valid. For you, it's a valid plate and a valid registration but it's not valid for you to use in your state because. You're a resident of another state you're required to register in your state So don't use it for any kind of evasion of inspection or anything any illegal purposes because you're going to get. Jammed up on it It'll cost you more money in the long run People get their cars towed for this all the time If you slap those Vermont plates on the car. use it for what it's designed to be used for. And don't try to use it to get out of anything in your state Like you don't want to get your smog inspected or something else. That's not a good use of the process. In fact many of the same people that say I don't want to have to deal with. The court and do a court order title or I don't want to deal with a bond They're perfectly willing to deal with some other state hundreds of miles away and pay their taxes when that's more difficult than just dealing with. The process and their state. Right. So don't overlook these other things because they work to your advantage either way You want to do it You have you have those options. Our website gives you…all the different methods you can use to get a title Another thing you don't want to do is you don't want to do an abandoned vehicle. Right. In most states and abandoned vehicle is not finder's keepers You don't get to just keep any vehicle You just find somewhere that you think is abandoned. Even if you know it's been there for years, you don't automatically get to keep it. Most times when people say abandoned it's not really abandoned It's just that you don't have the title Somebody sold it to you. Somebody let you store it That's not abandoned. The reason is as soon as you start calling something abandoned and you file paperwork with that word on it. In many states the state seizes the vehicle and they auction it off because abandoned means everybody's abandoning it Nobody wants it. Right. And that's going to void your claim to the vehicle. If it was sold to you and you have a bill of sale or somebody gave it to you, that's not abandoned That's a tree improper transfer. And as soon as you start using the word abandoned, you might be waiving your rights to that vehicle So be very careful about abandoned. Another thing that comes up as mechanics lien. Or you want to slap a mechanics lien on it That's great. If you are a licensed automotive facility. You can do a mechanics lien…You have to have a repair order signed by the owner You have to have a legitimate repair bills, legitimate documentation You have to have a license to do business. If you don't have that you can't do a mechanics lien. And I know what you're thinking Well my buddy has one all to make them do it. If they are doing it for a vehicle that they didn't legitimately process it's going to get caught. The government that does mechanics liens. They audit these, they know that a lot of people. Thinking scheming, I'm going to use this mechanics process to get me a title They're not stupid at the DMV They know that there's a lot of fraud with mechanics liens so they audit them and if they find out it was illegitimate they'll pull the title and no I'll find the person who did it. Happens all the time and you can look it up on Google. But…you can do What's called a civil lien. A civil lien is for a civilian. Who's not a licensed automotive facility. To claim ownership of a vehicle. Guess what. civil lien is it's a court order title. Right. So it's the same thing that we talked about before. It's the same process as a mechanics lien In fact, it's actually easier than a mechanics lien. A court order title or civil lien is an easier process than a mechanics lien So if you're thinking I want to do a mechanics lien. Make life easy on yourself do in court order title. Cause it's it's an easier process It's the same thing without all the requirements of a mechanics lien, where you may not have to send certified letters to owners and lien holders and have a repair bill and have a license and have a sign on your. on the wall showing your storage rates you don't have to have all that for a civil lien or court ordered title. Right. So. You'll see in the link below this video. A link to a separate website We have called lean titles.com which compare the two court order title, civil lien and mechanics lien So you can see the difference. there's so many people that want to do this that we've created even more resources for you to do it Remember all of these things you can do yourself for free You don't have to pay anybody to get you a title If you don't want to you can do it all yourself for free. You just pay the title feet to the state. If there's taxes due you pay those. That's it. The only time you have to pay anybody is if you want somebody else to do the work remember. No title company not us Not anybody else can do anything magic They can't do anything that you can't do yourself. Now we may know about things that you might not know about, but there's no extra authority that any title company has that you have. Great They can't magically do something that you couldn't do on your own. It might be easier You might be wanting to pay somebody That's great, but don't think that a title company has any extra authority of getting you your title. So what we do is we give you all the ammunition We give you all the info you need as an informed consumer. If you want to do it yourself certainly we'd rather have you pay us That's what we're here for, to do business with people that want to have assistance with titles. So go ahead. Order from us if you want. But you don't have to And more importantly even if you do order from us, We recommend. That you read through what the process is that we're doing So you know exactly what it is that's being done on your behalf So you're not surprised. Of how your title gets produced how your title gets obtained. Because sometimes people. end up. Hiring somebody to get them a title and they didn't know how it was getting done And that's not how they wanted it. So you can get full transparency from our website. It'll give you all the details that way you will know what you're getting into and you will know if it's worth you doing for some people, you know their money's worth more than time So they want to save. Couple hundred bucks and do it themselves You'll know how to do it. Some people their time is worth more than money So they'd rather pay either way We're happy to be of assistance. Use our website as a resource or just pay us to do it for you We're glad to help. If you have questions you can also email our help desk help@cartitles.com and we're glad to be of assistance.