In a message dated 00-05-04 09:47:24 EDT, arabian@allegronet.com writes:
<<
I am transporting my untitled basket case 51 TD to maryland to finish
putting it together. What options exist for re-titling a car that
basically doesnt exist in paperwork anymore? A title was issued in '51
and was lost in the intervening years, and the transfer to me was just a
friendly purchase of a beat up hulk. According to the state of
Maryland, I have to get the title re-issued, but thats kinda tough based
on the availability of the person I got it from in the first place.
Anyone have any experience with this? I'm wondering what the procedure
would be if I had pieced it together from a bunch of other cars (which
is basically what it will be by the time I replace everything that needs
replacing).
>>
Sorry to say this, but my Maryland experience won't cheer you. When I had a
title problem with my Mustang about 5 years ago I was essentially told: "Go
away." On second thought, that's exactly what they said. No help at all.
I discovered my only course of action was to track down the entire history of
the car, getting title copies from the states the car lived in until I could
assemble a 12-owner history linking my car with the original bill of sale.
This required an endless number of phone calls and dives into the telephone
books the library keeps, and calls to all neighboring state DMV. In the end
the car had moved from Virginia to New York to Maryland, back to Virginia, to
North Carolina to Virginia and then to D.C. The story is longer but I'll
leave it there.
They will allow you to bring it to a special garage at their headquarters in
Glen Burnie, MD, just up the road 20 miles or so from Laurel. There an
experienced team will examine it for traces of a VIN. That, however, won't
help your total lack of title. At least I had a title, it just didn't match
the VIN on the car I had due to a repair of massive front-end damage that put
another car's VIN into the mix.
Try asking you state for the most recent title holders of your car. Perhaps
you can find the person with the most recent record of ownership and he can
sign over to you a copy of the title, which your DMV can also supply. All
this takes a good deal of time dealing with DMV people who have not a clue
what it is you're talking about. Also, you have to give whoever it is you
find some incentive to sign the car over to you.
Jay Donoghue
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