I don't know what the heck to do! I bought my car through ebay last november and brought it down to florida from virginia. I was in the process of moving so i put off the title change and registration for later (since it's mostly a project 7). A couple of months later when i try to get it all resolved i can't find the freaking folder that holds the title!!! Luckily I made a copy of the title and left the jpg on my pc. Turns out that the guy(dealer) that sold it to me, never transferred the title to his dealer's name either, and he bought it from auction from the salvation army. I called the original owners, which luckily still live in the same house, and they told me that they donated the car for a tax benefit. which means the salvation army never transferred the title either!! now, i called up the guy that i bought it from and he's being a total dick. Wants to charge me $200 to have the title changed to another dealers name that he knows then changed back to my name. now this really pisses me off because i found out that to get a duplicate it only costs 10 bucks. but the original owner won't do it (scared of irs), the salvation army won't do it (huge mission) and the dealer is trying to scam me somehow with the whole change to another dealer thing. WTF!!! what should i do? get a salvage title or something? please help......

 

Call the DMV in the county that has the title registered. There are things they can do.
In TN, if you send a certified letter to the registered owner and it comes back rejected, it is proof that you have attempted to contact the previous owner and can be used to sign an affidavit which can then be used to get the title into your name.
However, VA laws may differ, but there can be a loophole such as this to help you.
Good luck!

 

you are eating up the Dealers time for your screwup. It is appropriate for him to want to recoupe the cost.

If he is willing have him do it.


If not talk to the origonal owner again and ask them to file a lost title for you. It will still cost you money.

 

i am in fact a car dealer myself and we run into this from time to time. all you need is a $10.00 dealer reassigment form and an out of state title app with an odometer reading (at least in nj you do). i dont see how $200.00 needs to be spent, seeing as how it looks to be their own fault! when we buy cars from auction, we never transfer the title into the our dealership name. however, when we receive the title after payoff, it always comes with a reassignment form to our name and then we give one to assign ownership to the new owner with a new reassignment form ( in which case you!). my suggestion to you is to either convince the dealership it is their fault, or get some kind of higher authority involved (dmv, 5-0, whatever). hope i helped a little.

 

You misread, He lost the Paperwork not the dealership.

 

oooooh. damn. that sucks. lol. find a parts car with a good title and get the vin plate. otherwise youll have to get the old owner involved most likely (the ones who donated it). just explain the situation to them. if not, get in touch with the dmv hub of the previous owner's state and cry them a river hahaha. jk. good luck to you man, you have much hold time ahead!

 

isnt swicthing vin plates illegal? like **** you in the *** prison illegal?

 

i dont know about all that, but yes it is illegal. are you going to tell on me? the thing is no one would ever know unless you got in a total loss accident. even so, just remove or deface all the other vin's on the car if there are any. i was just trying to save brotha man some money, time and aggravation. and yes, it has been done before with no reprocussions (sp?), so that's how i know.

 

thanks all for your help...i'm gonna try to contact virginia's DMV and try to work something out..