Car Title Question
 

i'm about to take delivery of a 2000 chevy prizm. problem is the owner sold it to his son(same household) and never submitted the title to the state of florida. so, are we going to run into problems at the DMV tomorrow? thank you to anyone who might have such knowledge and advise me.

If the son signed the title but never submitted it then run away! Tell them you will talk to them when they have a proper title, if you have not gotten another vehicle by then.

If the son never signed the title then you are probably fine. Dad is still the owner in the states eyes and can sign it over to you. Get a bill of sale with the current date on it and signed by both parties if the title was already signed and dated by the dad (you want some evidence that you did not own the vehicle while the kid was driving it).

I know here in NY they are very picky about titles. My dad had to apply for a duplicate title when selling his car once because the signature was done on the wrong line and they would not accept it crossed out or corrected.

If the title shows the name of the father who owned it on the front, and his signature as the seller on the back, with no buyer's signature on it at all, then there should be no issue. It would be as if you bought it from the father instead of the son, in the eyes of the DMV anyway. However, if the son did indeed sign it as buyer, then more than likely he'll have to get a duplicate title for it. I'm guessing he never registered the car in his name because doing so would have caused the DMV to issue a new title in his name. If the title is no good, it will be up to the owner's name on the front of the title to get a duplicate.

This is, of course, never seeing a State of Florida title, only going by what I know here in NYS.

front/back signing depends on the state and style.

If the son signed on the buyer line, date or not, you have 2 options: run away, or get a paper from the DMV that all 3 of you sign saying they went back on the deal and he wants to sell it to you instead. I've done it before up here in IL, no guarantee the same thing is in FL but probably. With the car I've got now I had to go through something similar but the original seller was unavailable and my friend (original buyer) signed the back on the dealer sales line which was a whole new level of wrong. I ended up having to pay an additional 'I F'ed up the paperwork' fee but it wasn't too bad

And I thought the NYS DMV was the only one with one of those fees!

thanks, all of you. yes, the son DID sign it. after considering what you've said, my course of action is as follows:

go to my local DMV/tag office to inquire about the legalities of the situation. the car is ~an hour away, so i do not want to drive that again for nothing.

also, ask the seller to do the same in case there is room for interpretation or difference of county laws, etc.

hopefully this will help me decide whether to drive to get the car or wait until a new title is issued.

If the title was registered in the dad's name, and you are buying it from the son. You might be able to have the father and son go with you to the notary, and have no trouble with it. That's how it would work here in PA where you can't just sign over a title without a notary, but I would check with the notary close to you first. Good luck.

If the son signed it as the buyer, but never sent it in to get it in his name, there are two ways that you can gain leagle onership of the car, have the son finish filling it out and get the title in his name so he can sign it over to you, you can get the dad to go in and get a replacment title in his name (cheaper) and sign it over to you.
if you use white out, cross out anything, or alter anything they will rip up your title and ask you to leave the DMV office, if you bring in a letter explaning what happend they will most likely laugh at you and tell you have the people you are buying it from to fill out the paper work properly.
I've delt with stuff like this with motorcycles, and cars, one car I was helping a friend buy, and the seller wrote my name on the title as the buyer, not my friend who was buying the car, so both of us went in to the DMV office to explane that my name was not the correct name, even tho I didn't sign as the buyer but because my name was written in they required that it be transferd ito me, then I could "give' it to my friend, but they really wanted every bit o paperwork filled out, and all the fees paid.

ok, went down to the tag office in my county and inquired about the situation. was told that the owner(person on title) would have to sign an affidavit and that would clear me to take possession of car w/ a new title to be issued in the mail.

met at the owner's tag office and did just that. bottom line, got the car :thumbup:

thanks again for your help everyone.

I'm glad that you had everything work out for you, they now reconize me at the DMV because of the weird questions that I ask them, as I've tried to get titles for vehicles that were sold to me with just a bill of sale, with partly filled out titles, even to get my drivers license they had to scrach their head and crack open a book to see if they were alowed to do it, mostly because I got a motorcycle license 3 years befor a normal automotive license.
bottem line is, if a vehicle title isn't straight forword, it's worth making a phone call or a trip to talk face to face with the person who will be handling your paper work, because in the end they are the ones desiding if you own the vehicle or not.