A friend's mother lived in Pennsylvania until her (peaceful) death last year. At some point, he'll want to sell her 2015 Hyundai Sonata with 66K, average condition.
We hear Pennsylvania has burdensome rules involving title transfer? Anyone have any info or suggestions?
My friend and his sister are co-executors and live in California and Texas. Friendly and cooperative estate settlement. No lien on car. Unlikely either will want the car.
What's involved in selling it, either to a car dealer or private party?
Can one of the car-buying services deal with this?
Suggestions from the GRM hive mind?
They aren't so much burdensome as annoying.
Being that the car is coming from an estate, they'll most likely need a copy of the death certificate at the notary office to transfer the title, whether that's private sale or to a company.
The good news(?) a dealership or car buying service should have a notary on staff to handle the transfer if they just want to sell it like that. Private sale you'll have to find a local notary office, not that difficult, but some are more lax than others with the rules and fees.
To bring cars into Pennsylvania you have to transfer the title however they do in the home state, I don't know the rules if they would want to take the car to another state, would have to check there.
Call a tag agency nearby and ask. Death cert and a power of attorney, maybe more. Also, will they want it sold in PA or transfer title to one of them in another state. Easiest thing for them is to give you POA and let you sell it.
ddavidv
UltimaDork
5/1/24 7:02 a.m.
Friend needs to call a PA notary/tag service and they can tell him. I use Donnie Boyer Co in Elizabethtown, and they have never been stumped by any of my weird transfers.
I do Pennsylvania titles all the time, since I flip cars. Any PA title transfer is going to require a notary. It's the painful truth. Anyone who says you can just sign the back or whatever is wrong. My questions are whose name is on the title? What state is the title issued in? If it's a PA title in the dead persons name, they executors of the estate will need a power of attorney over the vehicle issued by a notary. That's how I came to purchase my late grandfathers truck. He died, no one seemed to want the truck and I wasn't listed as receiving it. But I got a power of attorney of it from my mother and transfered the title to myself.
If it's still titled in the mother's name, it may be wise if he transfers it to himself or his sister before the estate is closed out.
My PA-resident MIL died earlier this year. Both FIL and MIL were on the title, he took a copy of the death certificate to a PA tag agency and got the title changed. They wanted to keep the death certificate to send to the state. Not quite the same situation, but a data point.
I would agree to getting it titled in one of the heir's names before trying to sell it, just seems like fewer moving parts.
