Buying car from Owner with loan(lien) on it (Tampa: for sale, foreclosed)

[Tampaite]

Trying to buy a car from an owner who has lien on the vehicle.

I have always bought from owners who have title on hand.

It looks like I have to pay off the existing loan - wait for the bank to process the loan and issue title which can take 2 weeks and then, receive title.

Has anyone been thro' this process? appreciate your insight.

[jambo101]

With so many cars for sale out there i dont know why you would saddle yourself with a car that has no title.
is it a specialty car?

[Bob_Brasher]

Not a big issue, obtain a notarized Bill of Sale between the owner of record and yourself for an agreed to amount with reference of the original Title Number and Loan number, go with the seller to the bank branch to effect the transaction with your certified funds (either bank check or cashiers check or ACH transfers), also with a notarized Bill of Sale to get a release of title from the bank (a lot of this is done electronically these days), after receiving release and transfer to title from sellers bank (and BOS) go to DMV and apply for your tag and title.


To save time you can call the seller's bank who has the title and ask them how they want to handle payoff and release of title to you, the buyer....but by law they have to file a satisfaction of lien to the state or original title.


It's not THAT big of a deal - might be more of a hassle in registering and applying for title/tag in a different state....you know, stuff like sales tax etc etc

[Tampaite]

Originally Posted by jambo101

With so many cars for sale out there i dont know why you would saddle yourself with a car that has no title.
is it a specialty car?

Your response was unhelpful. Please focus on my question if you are going to respond to my posting.

Originally Posted by Bob_Brasher

Not a big issue, obtain a notarized Bill of Sale between the owner of record and yourself for an agreed to amount with reference of the original Title Number and Loan number, go with the seller to the bank branch to effect the transaction with your certified funds (either bank check or cashiers check or ACH transfers), also with a notarized Bill of Sale to get a release of title from the bank (a lot of this is done electronically these days), after receiving release and transfer to title from sellers bank (and BOS) go to DMV and apply for your tag and title.

To save time you can call the seller's bank who has the title and ask them how they want to handle payoff and release of title to you, the buyer....but by law they have to file a satisfaction of lien to the state or original title.

The problem is the lien is with a bank that doesn't have a physical branch in Tampa so have to do this online or via mail.

I will call the seller's bank and find out - thanks for the direction.

[Bob_Brasher]

Calling is the best

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by Tampaite

Trying to buy a car from an owner who has lien on the vehicle.

I have always bought from owners who have title on hand.

It looks like I have to pay off the existing loan - wait for the bank to process the loan and issue title which can take 2 weeks and then, receive title.

Has anyone been thro' this process? appreciate your insight.

DON'T BUY! Unless the lien is closed. Just watch some shows on TV regarding law and many times you see people who bought a car with a lien become litigants!

You will be at the grace of the sellers of the car to pay off the lien. What if there are more issues.

Why not wait until they can give you clear title as willingly buying a car with a loan means you can't title the car until lien is paid off.

On top of that you may have issues to insure the car and what if this car has outstanding tickets?

The sellers are also at risk if you drive the car and get an accident while the car is not titled in your name.

Just an all round concept for disaster!

[Tampaite]

Originally Posted by Bob_Brasher

Calling is the best

Agree. the bank is closed on sunday will call tomorrow.

Originally Posted by bentlebee

DON'T BUY! Unless the lien is closed. Just watch some shows on TV regarding law and many times you see people who bought a car with a lien become litigants!

You will be at the grace of the sellers of the car to pay off the lien. What if there are more issues.

Why not wait until they can give you clear title as willingly buying a car with a loan means you can't title the car until lien is paid off.

On top of that you may have issues to insure the car and what if this car has outstanding tickets?

The sellers are also at risk if you drive the car and get an accident while the car is not titled in your name.

Just an all round concept for disaster!

Am treading with caution. I think I can insure as long as I have a bill of sale and title transfer is in progress.

With bill-of-sale, seller is not held responsible if the buyer gets into accident etc

If the car has outstanding tickets, it should goto the owner as of the day tickets were issued. right?

[Pragmaticus]

Originally Posted by bentlebee

DON'T BUY! Unless the lien is closed. Just watch some shows on TV regarding law and many times you see people who bought a car with a lien become litigants!

You will be at the grace of the sellers of the car to pay off the lien. What if there are more issues.

Why not wait until they can give you clear title as willingly buying a car with a loan means you can't title the car until lien is paid off.

On top of that you may have issues to insure the car and what if this car has outstanding tickets?

The sellers are also at risk if you drive the car and get an accident while the car is not titled in your name.

Just an all round concept for disaster!

If seller can pay off the loan, they would. But some may not be able to. That's why they sell as is. We do the same for house transaction. I hope you are not passing those who doesn't have clear title. Why do you think so many people trade their car that has still a balance on them? What do you think the dealer does? They pay off the lien. They don't say we won't accept a trade that doesn't have clear title.

I agree with everyone that you should be extra careful but the difference in cost of private seller and dealer can be huge for some cars. It depends on the person who want to do the extra leg work and save big. Some don't want to go through this, and pay "convenience fee" which is understandable. But we can't generalize.

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by Pragmaticus

That's why they sell as is. We do the same for house transaction. I hope you are not passing those who doesn't have clear title.
When we comes across clouded title, the Title company will inform what needs to be done to resolve the issues. In some cases that can be a long a difficult road when prior owner(s) can't easily be found or if that person is diseased. Anyway, caution is strongly advised and therefore always use a title company in Florida or you can opt to use a lawyer. We had an owner who bought directly from other party who had bought is also cash from another owner. The owner we dealt with ended up being foreclosed on as HOA fees were not paid, no estoppel letter payment, and mortgage that two owners prior had taken out, stayed with the house and not as the last owner thought that the mortgage was for the person who signed for the mortgage.

I agree with everyone that you should be extra careful but the difference in cost of private seller and dealer can be huge for some cars. It depends on the person who want to do the extra leg work and save big. Some don't want to go through this, and pay "convenience fee" which is understandable. But we can't generalize.

It is very bad to buy a car before the lien is removed. A private party dealing with a lien on car is a different situation than a professional car dealer who has to deal with a lien on a car as they deal with that daily/weekly.

[Tampaite]

Update; After a little back and forth with the seller - seller called me like 3 hours after we last spoke and said he sold the car and hung up on me. Good riddance!