Question about selling a car - I'm stumped..

Alright so heres the deal... I bought a car 2 weeks ago from my cousin, he signed the title over, got a bill of sale... but I haven't registered the car yet.

I'm going to sell the car, and someone is coming over tomorrow to look at it and sounds like they are going to buy it.

How do I go about signing over the title to him? Theres a part on the back after "Assignment of certificate of title by owner" called "1st re-assignment by licensed dealer only".... and then a 2nd and 3rd... but it's for licensed dealers only. So how the hell do I sell this car to a new owner if I, myself have not registered it under my own name yet?

I'm stumped and would really appreciate it if anyone knows how to do this. The guy's coming at like 10am tomorrow morning, and I need to figure this out.

Thanks, Yavuz

If you didn't sign it, just hand him the title. I think it's called "bumping" a title, and not totally legal, but well, meh.

You can't use the re-assignment fields. The way the MA RMV wants you to do it is to title the car in your name before selling it.

Did you fill out your name in the "purchaser" fields onthe title? If you didn't just fill them out with the new buyers info, and make up another bill of sale from your cousin to the new buyer. If you did fill them out, you will either need to title it in your name, wait for the new title to show up, then sell the car, or have your cousin get a notarized affadavit stating that he filled that information out incorrectly, and then list the correct buyer information.

Yeah thats what I was afraid of... The problem is that my cousin is now in california, and he's a complete idiot. I'll have to get a new title under my own name, then try to sell it. Who knows how long thats going to take, and I'm going on vacation after next week... so I doubt this buyer will be willing to wait that long and put up with all this crap.

My cousin also put his name under the purchaser part, and then crossed it off and put mine in there, and I just noticed the part that says that any cross offs void the title... I can see this turning into a massive headache.

This sucks.

Once the first thing was crossed out the only real option left is for your cousin to apply for a new title and do it right. He should be able to do it by mail/FAX though, just give your local DMV a call on Monday and ask for the straight scoop. You might even be able to go in with the title you have and turn it in for re-issue to your cousin, they'll mail to his last address and as long as he has a forward set up it should get to him and he can sign it and get it back your direction.

Theres a "apply for a new title and transfer to a new owner" type of document available from the florida DMV for florida titles. Maybe theres something like that for your situation?

Yavuz wrote: ... I'll have to get a new title under my own name, then try to sell it. Who knows how long thats going to take...

It should take one visit to your MVA/DMV. You're -titling- the car, not registering it. They are two different procedures. I have the title to my track toy but it does not have registration plates.

As for the crossed out buyer/seller stuff, you're going to have to gamble; It may pay off. Either the title clerk will see it was an honest mistake and let you off, or your cousin is going to have to get a duplicate title and watch where he puts his pen.

Yeah I'm going to try my chances on Monday. The (good?) news is that my buyer backed out today, so I no longer am in a hurry to get this done. I'll pull the car off the market, go on my vacation, then try again when I get back.

What makes this whole thing much harder is my cousin gave me the car, then took off to california, where I believe he doesnt even have an apartment yet... he's just living in some hotel someplace.

by law you need to transfer the title into your name in order to sell it. you can most likely go with the buyer to the DMV and do the transfer right there with you paying for a registration, and him paying for ANOTHER registration plus the plates etc... I've done that before. it just costs more and is a pain to do. you may also be able to get a title another way, but I don't post how on public forums. it is a legal method and I've done it a few times.

Way back when in CT you could use the dealer reassignment sections with no problems-theres so many rust buckets that get sold as restorations they were used to it. Plus with state inspections you couldn't get a title without a registration so if you sold the car before it was done you just used the dealer section to transfer. I never had a problem with this but that was years ago.

Went to the DMV this morning and failed miserably... I have to have my cousin fill out an affidavit for correction, sign it, have it notarized and send it back to me before I can get the car titled.

I got some good news though, if we say that he gifted me the car, and he signs another form that I got from them, I wont have to pay any sales tax on the car (which was going to around the tune of $300)

So far this whole thing has been a major pain in the ass, and hopefully it'll all be straightened out soon.

Yeah, I never understood paying "sales tax" on a used car purchase from an individual. So the car changes hands 10 times and the gov't gets their percentage every single time on the same item. Crazy. I lived in Ga for quite a while where it costs like $60 to register just about any car (no sales tax on used cars from individuals). Then I moved to SoCal, bought a $5000 Miata and they wanted over $400 to register it! Talk about shocked! I was lucky as they had just eliminated the $300 fee for bringing in a car from another state.

Back on topic though, I sold a car to friend that I had not registered yet. He just crossed my name off the title, put his name, and forged the initials of the original seller next to the correction. Definitely a no-no and would probably only work in small town Ga.

For the record, I was once charged with "Open Title" which is a Class 3 misdemeanor in VA. It got thrown out of court once I convinced the judge and prosecutor that it was an oversight on my part and there was no malicious intent.

But seriously folks, if you're flipping a car and can't make enough scratch to cover titling & tax, don't do it.