Car is in my name but I will give (as a gift) to my 26 YO son and he will get his own insurance. Son is currently on my policy and he will be getting a new policy in his name alone with the same insurance company from the same agent I use.
I have the title.
I have the net address given by the MD DMV for printing out a gift letter with car info and odometer reading so my son does not have not pay excise tax on the transfer.
I have never transferred a car personally to another individual before in this specific scenario.
So … do I go to the MVA and effect the transfer first? Go to the agent and have him get the policy first?
In the back of the title it has “Assignment of ownership” section and below that an “application for title and registration” section below that. Do I have to fill out both or just the "“Assignment of ownership” section?
What else does my son or I have to do paperwork-wise once he has the transferred title in hand. Will the tags and registration I paid recently still be in effect or have to be changed? Do the license plates stay on the car?
What are the steps here to get this done properly?
Go to the DMV website in Maryland, and there will be a contact phone number for you at their site. You’ll be put on the line with a representative at the DMV, and then explain your situation to said representative.
The MVA in MD is actually pretty easy to work with, IME (compared to places like NJ… grrrr… NJ). This is a pretty simple transaction. Depending on where you live, one of the local offices can probably hook you up pretty easily. Have your son get the insurance first, and then it’s a pretty standard transfer (with fees, of course).
I’m from NY, and I can’t give you specifics for Maryland- but in NY, getting a car as a gift is no different than buying one. And for NY, that means a new insurance policy is the first step and a new inspection, new registration and new plates are needed. But there there might be differences if the transfer is from a parent to a child- I know that when I gave a car to my daughter’s fiancee ( she didn’t have a license) the paperwork was different than when I later gave a car to my son.
Here is the link to the MD DMV site that describes gifting to family members: DMV Link The instructions are pretty comprehensive and straight forward. One thing is, do NOT cancel the insurance you already have until you receive a “Release of Plates” or something of the sort from the DMV showing that you no longer have plates in your name. Then keep that receipt with your records (to avoid ludicrous insurance fees by not having insurance on a car you have plates to).
If you happen to belong to AAA, you might check with them. The local offices here in PA helped me with a fairly complex (to me) set of transfers and yours may offer the same services.
In my case, I was buying a car from my parents, who live in AZ. I live in PA, so we had to do the title transfer in two segments separated in time. At the same time, I was giving what had been my current car to some friends in NJ. Two cars, 3 states, 1 car loan … it got interesting. But they stepped me through it piece by piece and wrapped it all up on a Saturday.
