CharlzO

I'll try to keep it short

I live in NY, and recently bought a car that had been last titled/registered in PA. The PA owner, we'll call JC. He had sold it to a fellow Yorker, JB. Well, JB never titled the car, but had all the paperwork from JC to register it here in NY, including the title being notorized, etc. So all the paperwork is still in JCs name. I've bought/sold cars that way before, so I didn't really think anything of it. So far, so good.

Until I saw that JB had started to fill his name in on the back of the title before he decided to sell it. He only got his name down on it, and that was it. I called the DMV quick, and they said that all I have to do, is get JC to get a duplicate title from PA, and re-do it for me. So I managed to track him down (god bless the internet), and told him. He was very understanding (though as confused as I was as to why the other guy never registered it, though with NY's retarded titling fees and increasing fees for everything else, I can sorta see it).

The question is: Is he going to have trouble getting a duplicate title issued, after the original has already been notorized? Or is it just a matter of going in, getting a dup. issued, and having it re-notorized? I'm HOPING it's that simple.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've already determined that my purchase price of the car has increased slightly, to cover the costs that might creep up with this...

5SPDCHK

This. The only people that know the title has been notarized are the person that notarized the title and the person who got the title notarized (JC). As far as the state is concerned, JC owns the car. If the car is stolen from JB and the person that steals the car decides to rob a bank with it and deserts the car - JC is on the hook for bank robbery until he can prove otherwise. Never, ever sell a car and simply hand over the title like that. I've seen it happen too many times where the seller assumes the buyer is going to head right to the DMV and transfer the title but never does.

Slight ramble there and you're not the "seller" or "buyer" in my story. Regardless, there should be NO problem at all getting a title reissued. Simply fill out the forms and say he lost the title.

CharlzO

Well that's a relief to hear. I'll get ahold of him and see if he's had time to do it. I'll pay for the Dup title if there's much to it, just wanna get it done. But yeah, I know what you mean. There have been times though, where I've bought a car from someone, knowing I was going to just sell it shortly, or sold cars to people who were going to do that. Last car, I traded to a guy who was going to sell it to someone else, so we just kinda skipped the middle step. Yeah, technically each owner is supposed to title it. But NY is such a pain in the **** to do that with, titles take forever to get, and even if you do everything interim, it's still money spent for NY's sake. I mean, if I buy a car that I know I'm going to sell to a friend or something in a month, why would I want to spend more money to title it in my name just for the paperwork's sake. Usually it's not a problem. I just didn't catch it this time.

Thanks again

5SPDCHK

I totally agree with you. I have a title sitting on my desk right now that I haven't taken to the DMV to title yet. I bought the car almost 2 years ago. It's a 63 Nova replacement body for my race car and I just haven't gotten around to getting the title. When I sell a vehicle to someone, I accompany the buyer to the tag place to transfer in my presence. I don't want to get a knock on my door in the middle of the night arresting me because my car (that I no longer own) was involved in a hit and run and the person took off by foot...

Pampered-Z

Just FYI, when I bought my car trailer from the midwest (no title) PA required proof of the serial number, I had to send a picture of the serial number plate along with the title request. So you might just want to get one to JC in case he needs it.