I’m trying to sell my car, and I seem to have lost my title (yes, I’m an idiot). I think that I was living in Washington state when I bought this car, now I’m living in New York. I was assuming that I needed to get a new title from Washington, but I just donwloaded their form from the DMV, and it needs to be notarized within Washington state - not especially practical. Can I just apply for a new title from the NY DMV? How does that work?
To add to the confusion, the car is registered in Maine.
Does the form actually require you to be present in front of the notary to get it notarized?
I once heard of a situation where a person signed a document in front of a notary in state A. Then the notary sealed that document in an envelope, and stamped his notary stamp across the flap of the envelope. All this while on the phone to a notary in state B, and describing to her what was being done. Then that sealed envelope was put inside another envelope, and sent via certified mail to the notary in state B. When she received it, she verified the seals, opened the envelope, and notarized the document. Then it was submitted to the government office.
Obviously this was more trouble and expense than usual, but less than making a trip back to the other state to do this.
I strongly suspect that you have a Maine title. I think you would have had to get a title tranfer before you could register it.
I don’t think he’d need a Maine title. A fellow I know has a title from one US state, license plates (registration) from a 2nd state, and the registered owner is based in Europe.
In the 8 US states I’ve registered cars in I’ve never had to move the title ; I just kept it with the original state. Come selling time it can make life easier if you pay the extra couple bucks to re-title locally a few months before you intend to sell; a lot of potential buyers are suspicious of out-of-state paper.
My advice: call the WA DMV & ask them what to do. You are not the first person in this sitauation today, much less ever. They have a procedure, you just need to know what it is. The website only explains the common procedures, not all of them.
I very strongly doubt that NY will issue you a fresh title w/o you giving them a valid one from WA or wherever. But with modern computers, perhaps all the state DMVs are talking to each other now & NY can validate the WA title without the magic piece of paper. So call them for advice too.
Although not specifically stated on this page, Maine Title Requirements I’m 99% sure that in order to register in Maine, the original title had to be transferred to a Maine title. Check with them, they can certainly tell you if they have one on file.
Well, I called the Maine DMV and they said that, yes, they had issued a title for me in 1995. However, they won’t issue a new one since my car is now officially so old that it’s exempt from titling requirements. They will, however, send me a letter that says that they refuse to send me a title, which will confirm that I’m the last person who registered the car. Good enough, I guess. All for the bargain price of $5.
Thanks, everyone!
How old is the vehicle?
This page details what you have to have in NY to register a car with regards to titles/bill-of-sale.
The car is from 1986, which means it is title-exempt in Maine. I guess it’s not title-exempt in New York, but it’s not registered here, so I think the Maine rules apply. I’m not sure what state the new owner will be in, so he’ll just have to take a bill of sale and the Maine official letter there to get a new title, if he needs one.