Selling your used car can be a hassle in the best of times. If you’ve lost your title or it’s been damaged or stolen, things can be even more painful. Traditional used car dealers don’t want to deal with you, and you’re left to manage things on your own. Not only do you have to deal with listing your car all over the internet, you have to deal with the extra headache of proving the car belongs to you. This is understandable; no one wants to buy a stolen car. But this burden of proof puts another obstacle in your path during an already complicated process. Following a few simple steps will make things easier:
Whether your car has a title or not, you need to make sure it’s actually yours to sell. If you took out a loan to pay for the car, it will have to be completely paid off. This means the title can be issued in your name, without a lienholder. Hopefully your other records are intact and you have a statement verifying the loan was paid. If you have no written records, a quick call to your bank or the car dealer should help clear things up.
If it turns out that you do owe the bank or lienholder any money for your vehicle, you’ll have to pay it off in full before you can sell it to someone else. There aren’t really any exceptions to this. Sorry; it’s the law.
So your payments are up to date. The car is yours, but you still have no title. To sell your used car without a title in San Diego, you’ll need another way to prove ownership. As long as your registration is up to date, this will be sufficient to prove to the State of California that you own the car. If you don’t have a current registration, you’ll need your license plate number, address, and driver’s license to get a new one issued.
So you’ve got your documents together. You have a registration, or you’ve gone to the DMV, stood in line and gotten one. Now you have to fill out another form. This is the Application For Duplicate or Paperless Title, California DMV form REG 227. The good news is that you only have to fill out the top half. The bottom half is for the buyer to fill out, so they can have the new title issued.
If the buyer doesn’t want to have a new title issued themselves, you can always have a new one issued before you sell. To do that, just fill out the rest of form REG 227 and pay the $21 fee. Within 2 weeks, your new title will arrive in the mail, and your car will be ready to sell.
If you have no title but you’d rather not deal with the DMV, there’s another option. You can deal with a national buyer who specializes in used cars. Buyers like Sellmax in San Diego, California are accepting cars in any condition, and will deal with titling issues themselves.
If you’re in San Diego and you’re selling a car with no title, you should definitely visit Sellmax.com before trying to go it alone. They’re currently buying cars in the San Diego area and will make the process as painless as a trip to the zoo.