DMV question...related to someone passing away. (living, law)

[samiis]

I'm trying to help a family member who has had a spouse pass away. Their car (paid off and owned in full) was titled only in the deceased spouse's name. There is no will nor an estate ...and because the death unexpected they did not do anything in advance to take care of this car title issue.

Apparently SC has the dumbest law in the world, and the car can't not just be re-titled in the surviving spouse's name...no matter what marriage certificate, death certificate or any other paper work there is to prove the relationship.

Instead it has to go through Probate court.....JUST for the car....there are no other goods or monies in question about who it belongs to.

So a few questions I am thinking about:
1. Does anyone know if SC DMV system knows if someone has passed away? Meaning could they look up the deceased person's name in DMV system and it automatically alerts the worker that the person has passed?

2. What if one were to just sign the title and pre-date it prior to the deceased person's passing....as if they had signed the title over to their spouse shortly before they passed? I mean, yes, I get the legalities involved here...but that being said..if all the paperwork is in order...and it all looks legit...would the DMV even think twice about it? Sometimes ya gotta go around the system when the system is dumb. What am I missing on this thought process (besides the forgery thing .)

Someone help me out here, please .

[UpstateJohn]

While its tempting to do #2, its better to just go through probate. I will assume the spouse will be made Executor of Estate, the the spouse can pretty much do whatever needs to be done, He should get a paper indicating hes EOE, and take that and the title to the Hwy dept.

[myrc60]

Originally Posted by UpstateJohn

While its tempting to do #2, its better to just go through probate. I will assume the spouse will be made Executor of Estate, the the spouse can pretty much do whatever needs to be done, He should get a paper indicating hes EOE, and take that and the title to the Hwy dept.

Do it the right way. Living spouse goes to probate court and they will walk her/him through filling out the forms. When my dad died without a will it took nine months for the court to award everything to mom.

On the other side, if there had been a will, you would file for probate after 30 days and the court would have awarded everything according to the will immediately. I've done it both ways now. Having a will is the best way.