my son found a 77 camaro (no motor or trans) and it came with a complete parts car (body was junk) the good car has no title but the parts did. the court house told me it was reg. in 2002 in ft dodge iowa but I cannot locate the previous owner. what are my options?
here is the vin-1S87U7L561436
thanks for any info I can get

Get your money back is the best thing to do. This will be nothing but headaches.

Don't spend a dime on the car with no title, someone else could then claim the car or it could get impounded by police if something it not legal.

Check back with DMV, they should be a way to declare the vehicle abandoned but the person you got from my have to do that? Don't know, each state has their own laws.

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Mike

2002 Trans AM WS6 build #3124 - Pewter
2004 GMC E. Cab SLT Z71

There is something NJ residents can do, I don't know about IA. Check out my posts in http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000192.html
It outlines the process for obtaining or correcting title certificates in NJ. People in other states have lost/damaged/incorrect titles, so I would think each state has a process for getting title papers. Only thing is it might be a real PITA.

But thats if you are the owner. He bought a car without a title so he does not own it. He just has possession of it. For all he knows someone sold it out from under the owner.

Kids are the ones the get screwed on deals like this, they want it so bad they think everything can be fixed. Many times it not worth the trouble.

There was a guy on another board white a similar thing with a 1st gen Camaro. He had the car for years with no title, got it from a friend who got it from a friend etc restored it and then went to get a title. The police impounded the car because it was a stolen car many years ago. Somehow is disappeared from the junk year where the insurance company had it stored. Now when the police ran the hidden VIN its came back being totaled by insurance company and was owned by the insurance company. So he lost his car. But the short story was that he did not own the car, he paid money for it and got screwed. Trying to get the insurance company to give it to him was going to take a act of god. They did not want to assume any responsibility for the car and it they did let him have it or buy it, they would be legally responsible.


Thats why I say, get your money back. This can turn into a big PITA. Cars without titles are not worth it. Even if you should get a title, it could be a salvage title or some other special title that could make getting insurance more costly.

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Mike

2002 Trans AM WS6 build #3124 - Pewter
2004 GMC E. Cab SLT Z71

Possession is 9/10's of the law (joke). The laws I refer to in the other post do allow for the issuance of a title to be received when the title papers are lost. I know NJ DMV (and assume that other states) have the ability to do national look ups to trace the registration from one state to another. They can check to see if a "salvage" or "junk" title has been issued for the vehicle. A vehicle that was stolen and then scrapped upon recovery would (in NJ anyway) be issued a "junk" title.

My understanding of the law is that its written to allow people who are not trying to break the law to lawfully title cars for which the paperwork has been lost. Under these circumstances, a regular title is issued, provided that a "salvage" or "junk" title has not been issued to that VIN prior to the application for the new title papers.

In the post I also state the person should copy down the VIN and go to the police and have them check to see if its stolen. The key to doing this would be to do it prior to handing over any cash.

I agree it could be a real PITA, but if your aware of the laws you could pick up a good project car for little money.

I agree with what you say.

My point is that just because his son paid money for that car does not make it his car without the title in his name. Thats what I was trying to get at. I have a friend who bought a M/C from the supposed owner. The guy said they title was home and he would have to send for. My Friend gave him the money, then the guy took off. Turns out there was another name on the title (kids dad from years back) event though it was his bike. Had a PITA time to get the record owner to sign off (was in another state and was ignoring all requests) on because the son and the old man were not getting along. He could have lost the bike and his money if it was not for that fact it was only worth $500 and the dad was not about to come 1000 miles to get it. Just would not send him the title. I seem to recall this went on for better than a year till one of his customers (ran a gas station) who was deputy sheriff took over the case as a favor and was able to find the title records and up pops a lien on the bike. What a mess, he then has to contact the bank in another state to clear that. Lucky for him, the loan was payed off but the title they got was not cleared of it. So he had to wait for a paper from bank to apply for a title in this state. A couple of phone calls from the police got they old man to give up the title, it was either that or warranty was going out for his son.

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Mike

2002 Trans AM WS6 build #3124 - Pewter
2004 GMC E. Cab SLT Z71

[This message has been edited by WS6 (edited July 29, 2004).]