The Expert Podcast

…Every week we sit down with our customer service representatives and our sales staff. And ask them what are the most unusual questions that we've heard from callers or inquiries to our company? And this week one of the ones that came up was what do you do about notifying a sale or forcing a sale of a vehicle that you sold but the buyer hasn't transferred the title. This comes up a lot where if you sell a car on Craigslist or eBay or some private sale and you give the title to the buyer. If they don't put it in their name right away some sellers worry that they have liability or they can get in trouble at the cars used in a crime or gets in an accident or gets parking tickets. So it is important that you want to get that transfer done Now the buyer by law. It's supposed to apply for a new title in their name within a certain period of time. But what if they don't do it? Right What if they don't follow through on what they're required to do? How does that affect you Do you have liability? Can you get in trouble? Cause technically. As far as the DNV is concerned And if the police run the VIN number…Then it's it's on you, right? So here's some suggestions on how to make sure that your vehicle transfer doesn't come back to haunt you First of all, when you sell a vehicle. In most states the license plate does not go with the vehicle. So you want to take the license plates off the vehicle? Li uh, title and registration are two different things. The title is the owners. the registration or the license plate is what allows you to drive it. So if you're in a state that the license plates don't stay with the vehicle make sure you take them off Don't let the person just say Hey, I want to use it to drive home and I'll send them back to you because now you're giving that person your license plate to drive around with If they get tickets they go through red lights. They go through toll booths. The ticket's going to come back to you. So take off your license plates. A few states the license plate goes with the car. We'll deal with that momentarily. The second thing to do is make sure on the back of the title. That you actually sign. And put the name of the buyer Don't sign an open title…A lot of times the buyer will say well I'll just sign it and I'll put the name in later Cause I might put it in somebody else's name. don't sign an open title. Put the name of the buyer on that title. In fact, most states require that you do this it'll say right on the title you have to put the name you can't sign it blank…In addition. Look at the ID of the person that's buying it, make sure you write down their name and address So you know who actually is buying the car from you So you have a record of that…Prepare a bill of sale. Of the transfer. You sign it have the buyer sign it. Keep a copy. Maybe make two. You keep one they keep one, or if you only make one, take a picture of it and make a photocopy whatever you want to do. And make sure you have a copy of the front and back of your title…At the time of transfer. that's all you can do. License plate. Bill of sale Copy of the title. Write down their ID. Now. Once the sale's completed you next want to go in your state and get a notice of sale or notice of transfer or affidavit of transfer…Here's an example of that form from the state of Missouri, every state or most states have a form like this. Where you can submit this form…To get the vehicle on notice that it's no longer yours. So God forbid anything happens with that vehicle Somebody uses it in a drive by or a bank robbery…The police or the DMV is not going to come looking for you because they've already been made aware that the vehicle is not yours. So what says right here is if you sell a transfer of a motor vehicle you must submit this notice within 30 days Well guess what In this state it's required, whether the buyer puts it in their name or not as a seller you're required to make a notification. Complete the section sign the notice. Mail it to the address at the bottom Keep a copy for your records. Failure to complete the required blocks will result in it not being processed…The reason you want to do that. Is because first of all some states it's required by law. But more importantly it puts…the department of motor vehicles or in this case, DOR department of revenue whoever issues titles. Puts them on notice that you are no longer the owner of that vehicle You sold it. If the new owner puts it in their name or applies for a title or not, not your problem. Sometimes buyers don't even get a title They go out of state. Maybe your buyer is moving to another state or they go to another state. If you don't file this notice your home state will never know you sold the vehicle…So find that notice of transfer. Make a copy of your bill of sale Submit that with it…If you can't find a form for your state, go down to the department of motor vehicles in person. Don't try to do it by phone. Don't try to do it by email. Go in person with your photo ID, with the bill of sale with your VIN number and tell them look I sold this vehicle. How do I get out of my name? Because. You want to avoid liability? If you're concerned about what your liability might be you may want to contact an attorney We can't give you legal advice or, you know give you lawyer. type instructions. But you do want to make sure that any vehicle ownership is disclaimed by you. Once you don't have control of the vehicle You don't know where it's been where it's going what it's doing well, Liability or costs that's incurring. So you want to make that notice public. And put it with the DMV…That's the most common question for this week Look for future videos and put your comments below. If you have questions about unusual title scenarios that we can answer for you…