Vehicle title concern (sale, transfer, DMV)

[ATPJOE]

I bought a bike from a young guy who inherited it from his grandpa who passed away years ago. It has a clean title, but the problem is the title is still in his grandpas name, but it is signed by the deceased. I am worried that I wont be able to transfer this to me because from what I've read, the DMV checks the name out and if they're deceased that shows up and opens a can of worms. Especially since he died in 1996 and I bought the bike a week ago, that looks kind of fishy to them I'm sure.

So my question is, am I worrying about nothing? Or am I going to have to hunt down the seller and force him to get a death certificate? I'm sure I can't obtain it myself being unrelated.

Could I date the date of sale on the title to a date prior to his death? Would this create a truckload of fees/red flags?

Note to self: A clean title isn't always so clean!

Any advice is appreciated. The seller wasn't a sketchy guy so I am hopeful if this is a problem we can sort it out, although it'll probably take FOREVER.

[linicx]

It is time consuming but it won't take forever. The heir will probably need to be involved since he stored it for 17years. The State may decide enough time has passed the heir is the legal owner as it was a gift and grandpa signed it. .

[ccjarider]

I would just go through process and not even divulge info.

When I lived in IL, it seemed to have a very disfunctional govt. More than likely the bored bureaucrat working your paper will not care or notice anything.