What do I do if I lost my car title? I want to get a new car soon and can’t very well sell my current one if I have no title.
Here’s what happened. I had a vehicle loan (my first one) and of course you only get a memorandum title. I paid off the car and was told they would send me the actual title. At this time the bank that gave me the loan sold the loan to another bank. Apparently they sent me the title but since I forgot about the bank selling the loan I accidently threw it away not realizing that the letter from the new bank was my title! ARRRRRRRRRRGH…so I’ve got to rifle through stacks of papers to try to find the name of the bank and get the old account number…(haven’t been diligent about my personal affairs of late you see) Is there another way I can get a copy of the title or do I have to try to track down this bank?
It may vary in your area, but here in Texas we have Title Companies that exist soley for your situation (sometimes they are the same as the Title Companies you use to close a real estate deal, but often they specialize in auto title only). You go in and give them relevant details and they should be able to get you a copy of the title in short order.
I’m pretty sure my wife has done this. Maybe I can get her to give some details.
Step 1: Go to your local DMV & request a DUPLICATE TITLE
If you’re lucky, the bank will have notified the state that their lien has been released (meaning they no longer have an interest in the car) Step2: Look at the title. It will show the name of the last bank to have a lien on the car (because they will NOT have notified the state that they no longer have an interest in the car…Murphy’s law and all) Step 3: Contact the bank listed on the front of the title and ask for a LIEN RELEASE Step 4: Take the title & lien release to the DMV and have them issue you a CLEAR TITLE
'course, different states do things a bit differently, etc…but this is the general procedure for a no hassle transfer of ownership. If you total the car, you’ll have to do all this anyway…before you get paid. FYI.
Have fun!!! MMmmmuuuaaahhahahahahahahaha!
Sorry. Hope all goes well for you.
Here in TN the title is registered at the county court house. County Records office. For a small fee ($25) they will give you a certified copy. I did this about a year ago. All you need is 2 forms of ID and it took about 5 minutes.
In PA, you can go to a tag place and fill out the appropriate forms, have them sent away, and a new title will eventually appear. Maybe.
Or, you can go to PennDOT in Harrisburg, stand in lines and converse with clueless State employees who don’t give a rat’s ass about you or your problem, to the point you’d like to hurdle the counter and do a beatdown.
When and if you do actually get the title, and find it to be free of errors, the encumberance (not the thing you wear around your waist with a tuxedo-that’s a cummerbund) may or may not have been cleared by the leinholder, as explained above. If the bank is local, I’d take the title to them in person, for sign off and a Notary seal.
Good luck. If all else fails, drink heavily and weep. :eek:
Ah, excellent point. If the title *does * get issued to you, and if the process was a headache that you don’t care to repeat…and there is an error in the spelling of your name (pray to ALL the little gods that the VIN & vehicle description are accurate!) don’t sweat the error. Just remember when you sell the car to pretend that the DMV is right and that you have been wrong al your life. It’s just easier that way.
The nice thing about bureaucracies is that they have procedures for just about everything you can imagine. When I lost my car’s title one time, I simple went to the DMV(*), asked what I needed to do, then got the appropriate forms and filled them out.
(* = Okay, I went to their web site, but it’s the same idea )
Ohio BMV title information may be found here: http://bmv.ohio.gov/tit_info.html There’s an e-mail address at the bottom of the page where you may direct more a more detailed question. And a phone number.
Hopefully the DMV will be there to help you. A similar (yet not so similar) thing happened to my little brother. He managed to flip his car while his license was suspended AND to loose the title somewhere along the way. With the flattened car parked on his back lawn my father tried battling unsuccessfully with the DMV for quite a few months (the title had some lien which was never properly removed or some other nonsense) before he finally had it declared as an abandoned vehicle so a tow truck could legally come and tow it away.
Of course who knew if my brother ever had the title in the first place (stranger things have happened)
Not to make you hyperventilate any more, especially with all the paperwork (hopefully) going to the DMV from your leinholders, I’m sure they will understand your situation and help you get it straightened out. This whole title and registration thing is what the DMV is there for, right?
Part of the reason for my sarcasm:
[hijack] Friend moves out of state, leaving her car and asking me to sell it. She signs the title. I find a buyer, but the tag place won’t process the ‘open title’ as the signature wasn’t done in their presence. That’s OK. Rather than an extended drive, I have my friend complete a simple POA, which I can then use to apply for a replacement title at PennDOT, as she would then be selling the car to me.
Once we’ve jumped the requisite hurdles at PennDOT, they approve the whole thing, but won’t give me the title. WTF??? Per their regulations, it has to be mailed to the new owner, which happens to be ME, holding an operators license with the same address as ME, and a picture that looks remarkably similar to…you guessed it-ME.
The first time was moderately annoying, but when PennDOT conspired with the US Postal Service to lose the title and the entire process had to be repeated I was not the happiest of campers. [/hijack]
:eek: 
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