mobiltec
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I make mistakes so you don't have to...
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Post by mobiltec on May 20, 2015 15:38:41 GMT -8
It is illegal to sell a trailer or motor vehicle without a title in California. If you buy a trailer with a bill of sale only you run the risk of losing it when you try ti register it. If it comes up stolen you will lose it on the spot and possibly go to jail. If it turns up in the system as scrapped, you will have to try to get the last legal owner to get a salvage title on it. You may not be able to find the last legal owner and if you do they may not want to spend the time and they sure as heck won't want to spend the money to get a salvage title. People legally scrap trailers so they don't have to pay for the registration every year and they use them as storage sheds figuring never to have them on the street again. If it turns up in the system and the registration has not been paid in a long time you will have to go to the legal owner who will have to bring it up to date before he or she can legally sell it to you or you will have to bring it up to date which can be very expensive. And if the person who sold it to you is NOT the legal owner..... Then what?
I don't know about other states but when you buy a trailer in California with a bill of sale only, make sure to go to the DMV and look to see if it's in the system BEFORE you pay for it. Might save you a lot of headaches and money. And if it's not in the system, ask what it's going to take to get it legal. You will need the VIN when you go there. It's the only way to find out.
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John Palmer
Senior Member
Hi, From a vintage trailer guy located in Santa Ana, CA. It's good to see lots of activity here.
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Post by John Palmer on May 20, 2015 16:12:36 GMT -8
Or........just simply have it registered by California DMV with an new assigned VIN#.
If you have your paperwork "in order", go to AAA.
If you have a screwed up transaction, ie "no title", "Bill of Sale" only, pay the $25 to $35 fee and go to a privet licensed DMV person. For a small fee they will even come to your location to do the vin# verification, and process the paperwork. This is now how I process my YOM plates.
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mobiltec
5K Member
I make mistakes so you don't have to...
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1954 Jewel In Progress...
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Post by mobiltec on May 20, 2015 16:59:09 GMT -8
Or........just simply have it registered by California DMV with an new assigned VIN#. If you have your paperwork "in order", go to AAA. If you have a screwed up transaction, ie "no title", "Bill of Sale" only, pay the $25 to $35 fee and go to a privet licensed DMV person. For a small fee they will even come to your location to do the vin# verification, and process the paperwork. This is now how I process my YOM plates. Just remember that if you have a new VIN assigned to your trailer, it then becomes a 2015 instead of a 1952 or what ever year you do this in. I use an outside service for everything I do. Have been doing that for 10 years now. A DMV counter worker told me that they only get 2 weeks training before they are turned loose on the general public. The people who own the outside services are usually retired DMV employees so they have seen it all and done it all. They know more than the GM at your local DMV will ever know. Also remember that the outside services also have their limits. There is nothing they can do about a scrapped trailer other than make you go through the same process that the DMV will put you through. |
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Post by Teachndad on May 22, 2015 14:20:27 GMT -8
Hi, Thank you John and Larry for both your perspectives!  I will ditto the importance of researching your trailer before purchase and knowing as much as you can about purchasing the individual trailer you are interested in. I used my AAA office in Woodland Hills, CA for my trailer registration and research. They were awesome. It was convenient and they were well experienced and knowledgeable. I went back there several times to learn all I could about registering a trailer without a VIN. "The ticket" was having the VIN. This particular location does a lot of vintage restorations according to a worker there, so they are experienced in this. The small fee to have an AAA membership pays for itself in convenience, especially. And if it saves you from getting "burned", think about how much you saved... It's really part of the cost of doing business and will get buried in your trailer restoration fund very easily. In my situation, I went out to see the trailer with cash in hand, but the seller didn't know for sure if the trailer had a VIN. The seller had been upfront about not knowing if it had a VIN, from my initial emails. One of the first things I did when viewing was search for the VIN. Online searches on Westerners yielded clues as to the most likely location of the VIN. The frame had been painted a few times, but we did find a partial VIN on the tongue where my research showed it would be. The partial VIN started just before the propane tank bracket and continued underneath. That led me to believe that there was a VIN indeed. Once, I knew that, I decided to go for the purchase with only the Bill of Sale. The key is RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH. It's harder, though when you are Newbie and the excitement of the chase makes it more difficult to make rational and well thought out (experienced)decisions. Cheers Rod |
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