Buying car from private seller... no license plates and other shenanigans...

[ischyros]

Originally Posted by flatbedder69

Scenario- Bought car in Indiana. BMV closed. Need to take car to Minnesota and won’t be back for two moths. Can Minnesota help me get my Indiana plates and registration while I’m there?? flatbedder69@gmail.com

You can do a lot of things online through the Indiana BMV website. www.in.gov/bmv Check that out. I always do my registration online.

[treehick]

Wow - I'm late to this conversation but it bounces around an awful lot.

My typical transaction typically goes:

Seller prints name and signs name and leaves the rest blank.

I fill out the rest of the title when I'm ready to go to the BMV with the same colored Ink.

I had been in the habit of putting a license plate from a previous vehicle, but an officer friend told me that it's better to have a bill of sale and a filled out title with NO plate because you would otherwise be charged with falsifying information.

Correct method, it would seem, would be to:
-Call insurance company before or at the time of the purchase. I think there's a several day grace period with State Farm.
-Fill out title with same colored ink.
-Fill out some form of bill of sale.
-Keep both the title and bill of sale with you while your driving around. I would recommend keeping it with you at all times until you get to the bmv to prevent someone stealing it back or you losing it. If the seller wished - they could file for a lost title and if you don't have a bill of sale, you might have a legal issue.
-Get to a BMV or DMV ASAP

[treehick]

Since my last response I found myself in a pickle.


Last car I sold was to someone I knew through work back in June 2020. He called me up this past March ('21) and told me that the car had been stolen and the cops wanted to talk to me since it was still titled in my name.

I'm friends with one of the detectives and gave him the spiel. No bill of sale (or I couldn't find it at least), gave minimal info on title to buyer, removed insurance day after I sold the car (and had email to prove the request). Officer told me that buyer said that he bought the car in March '21 (first mistake) and filled out title with different colored ink (second mistake). Thought I was good.

A week later, or so, receive letter from towing company and state farm. Towing company lets me know what they've impounded my car (the stolen car) and the insurance company wants to collect info (for the car that the stolen car ran into). I talk with towing company, find out the stolen car rear ended another car and had drugs in the trunk.

Stolen car was considered totalled and I told towing company it wasn't my car and I had no interest in it. Towing company said they'll just scrap it and told me that I don't need to worry about it.

My insurance company was aware of all this from the time the buyer contacted me, so they cleared up the insurance issue.

I relayed the towing company's information to my detective friend and haven't heard back from either of them.

Both my wife and I went to the bmv website and removed all titled and registered vehicles that we no longer have from our accounts. I had 5, I think, that still hadn't been titled over to the new owner.


Different story - but along same: Coworker used to not fill out title either, he was called to court, reprimanded (not sure if there was a cost) and he fills out a title completely now.


Moral of the story - fill out all the information on the title, take a picture of the filled out information, and complete a bill of sale to show the transaction. Keep all that information where you can find it if/when necessary. Remove the title and registration from your bmv account, and remove your insurance the moment you sell it.