Bought a 1950 chevy 3600 in ma am I screwed???

I was on a cross country trip and bought a 1950 chevy 3600 off of a guy who builds hot rods in ca. This is all original and in real good shape so he didn't feel right chopping it up. I bought it. He never registered it because it just sat in his yard for a while. Then he sold it to me with a bill of sale. So if I'm thinking correctly he wasn't the previous owner according to the dmv so is his bill of sale worthless to the DMV?

 

Oh and he bought it off of the previous owner but never had it registered so my guess is the DMV will look at his name on the bill of sale and say he wasn't the previous owner. Am I correct?

 

Sounds like a pass through sort of thing
So this guy may have sold you a car that he doesn't actually own ?
I suggest you get to DMV ASAP - tame a smile and explain to them what was what. I hope it works out but if not he defrauded you and then its po po time

 

The idea that cars/trucks/motorcycles/trailers which require titles in most if not all states don't require titles, especially when sold out of the seller's or buyer's state, just keeps rolling on, doesn't it?
If the paperwork doesn't match the vehicle, title or bill of sale, you have a titleless vehicle and a vehicleless title, don't you?

 

had to deal with this same exact thing before and it was a b****. its going to sound weird but the best thing to do is hope like hell that the truck is out of the system, which takes 12 years i believe. if it is, you can pretty much start over and say he was the owner, since there's no real record of it, there isn't much you can do. where you may run into problems (like we did) was past taxes and registration, we had to pay those since the "owner" didn't. it took afew months, but according to our paperwork, our uncle john sold us the truck, oddly enough we sold him his Harley to

 

Old plates on the truck or an old registration slip in it. If there are papers in the truck I'd go through them one by one and see what I could find. Who knows you might even the title in there somewhere.

It must be Saturday because we seem to get one of these threads every Saturday or the trolls show up every Saturday to throw out another don't have a title what do I do thread.
I'd search though the dmv info from your state and find out what you need to do to lay claim to the truck in your state.
You might be able to do it with the bill of sale only or you might be able to claim it because it was "abandoned" on your property.

Checking the application for title http://www.mass.gov/rmv/forms/RMV1_fillable.pdf It looks like the bill of sale might be enough. But figure it out before you spend a bunch of money on the truck.

 

V recognizes a bill of sale previous owner may not have registered or had a pink slip either. You should be fine I did the se with a ute from Aussie land and had no problems


Sent from Chick's iPhone using TJJ

 

Wow you guys are fast! Glad I joined the site. It does have plates from 67 so that was over 12 years ago. Meaning it might be out of the system? I can only hope so. If I try to register/title it in mass and they say I can't should/can I title it in Maine then next year transfer it to Mass? On another note I guess according to the DMV he might have sold me something he doesn't own because he never registered it like someone said. In case you haven't noticed I'm new to the whole DMV thing I'm 21 and never had to deal with them except to renew my license. Also new to he owning of an antique. So I appreciate any ideas/help with getting it on the road.

 

I bought my 29 C/C Pk Up from a guy in several states away and had it shipped to me sight un seen. Paper work was OK and I was driving it legally for a few months. One day I got to cleaning it inside and was cleaning out the two metal boxes on both sides of the cab. Well on the passenger side I found some thing stuck in the box and when I fished it out, there was the old regristration form from a former owner, insurance papers, inspection papers, and other stuff. I was able to get in touch with him and got a lot of history that went back 50 yrs. The guy I got it from was suprised that I knew so much about the truck that he did not even know, and was suprised that the papers were in the truck for so many years. Get noisy. Iceman

 

Go to the Registry. Find out what you need to do. It's not impossible. Oh, yeah, and pay the sales tax. It probably won't be much on the truck. Apply for a title.
A friend of mine just went thru this on a 1937 Chevy roller he bought 20 years ago here in Mass. All he had was the bill of sale. Local police dept. had an officer verify the Vin. and bill of sale.
That was all he needed to do.

 

You guys are giving me hope I thought I was gonna be screwed as the title says. Hopefully it's that simple. I'm home in 4 days and the DMV is going to be my first stop (as unpleasant of a homecoming as that sounds).

 

Ask to speak to a supervisor, and get as much as you can from them in writing. Everytime you go to the DMV you will get a different answer. Be patient and polite (it does go a long way) and expect to make a few trips. Good Luck!

 

First thing I would do is ask the Massachusetts DMV to check the serial or VIN number to make sure it isn't reported as stolen anywhere. If it checks out ok then you could contact the CA. DMV with the serial or Vin number to see if they can identify to whom the truck was last titled to in that state ( if at all ).

Of you could move to a state like Maine that only requires a bill of sale .

Good luck.

 

or vermont and i think new hampshire

 

1972 and older in NY have no titles and me and other guys here know it's routine to get a vehicle with zero prior paper work registered. I believe NH has similar laws.

 

like was said ,be polite and have all your papers,if you can get a notorized bill of sale from the guy you bought it from i think that will help.even if it wasnt reg to him 1967 was a long time ago.you might even try a state police barracks to check your vin first. good luck

 

o ya if your gonna stick around do an intro,theres also a mass hamb.

 

almost all states are different in their requirements. IN my state, if you don't take a title with you to the DMV with VIN that matches the VIN on the car, you're screwed.
That's why I'm VERY careful to only buy vehices with good titles. Also, here if the title has not been signed-off by the name of the person on the title or if somebody other than you has already signed on to the title...you're screwed.
Gotta find the previous owner to sign off the title [or do it yourself] or if somebody else has signed-onto the title, it has to be put into their name [by them] and then they have to transfer it to you by signing off their shiny new title..it's a big mess.

 

I called the local police and they wouldn't check the vin because I didn't own it. That didn't make sense to me. Once I get home my first stop is the insurance company I was told they deal with it more than me so I'll see what they say. Then to the DMV again and again with a smile on my face a yes/no ma'am response and a thank you sir/ma'am response. That's about all I can do and hope for the best. Thanks everyone. And I'm gonna stick around once I get home I'll do the intro page and all that jazz but for now I'm just on my phone.

 

Friend of mine bought a Corvette many years ago, found out a prior owner, got in touch to learn history, next thing he knows the cops come and confiscate the vehicle previously reported stolen.....

 

A lot of people THINK they're screwed when they aren't. Especially with old stuff. "In my state this, in my state that....." (no offense to anyone that actually said that). Quite honestly, it would be worth doing the legitimate research yourself, in your state to find out. Most states are the same, and most are pretty reasonable if you go through the right channels. The first thing to do IMO is call the state police and get a confidential VIN check. The will set up an appt and send someone out to you to inspect the vehicle and give you the forms, or at least tell you what to do next. The BMV is a starting point as well, but in my experiences, the BMV is the right place, but the BMV employees aren't the right people.

I bought a 64 Chevelle with no VIN tag recently. I went through the above steps and now have a VIN'd, soon to be titled car. It's an MVIN, but it's legit. In the packet of forms I was given, there was also forms for title applications as well. I would imagine that if I had a VIN tag and no title it would have gone pretty much the same way. Infact, I will be receiving a new title with the new MVIN on it as soon as I send in the police inspection with the new VIN inspection.


As for it being stolen or not, well I guess that's a crap shoot. With bill's of sales I make it a habit to get the seller's ID and put their DL# on the bill of sale. This covers your ass. If it's the guy's actual name and signature, he'd be responsible to pay you back the amount you paid for the vehicle.

 

bring it to a friends house in new hampshire, and leave it there,, have them register it. a state troopoer will come to there house and verifie the vin.. (the car has to be in nh) once that is done have them sell it back to you with the n.h. registration. your all set!!! pm me if you need more info.. ive done it im in peabody.. dave

 

Thanks got h20 hopefully if I'm polite enough and nicely jump through the hoops/proper channels it'll work out. If all else failsI'll give you a message dave. I have an uncle in nh so I might just do that. But try the ma way to not inconvenience him with the DMV.

 

oh man being polite wont help you at our registry!!! trust me, and save yourself alot of aggrevation!!! they dont care, believe me ive been ther and tried to do it there way!

 

got-h2o, no disrespect but you clearly have never done business in mass...

oh, and the polite thing was sorta tongue-in-cheek! Every time I smile they think Im doing something illegal!!

 

That is correct. In California, it is illegal to sell a car which isn't in the sellers name. A friend of mine is a DMV investigator and he goes after those sellers all the time.

 

Gasseragarage does that mean that the bill of sale is completely worthless to me!? Also...to Dave if you read this...can I use that bill of sale in nh if he (according to the records wasn't the previous owner)?

 

Here is a stupid thought, have the guy you bought it from get the title in ca as it will be real easy for him, then forward it on to you. if he is a "car guy" as you say he will know the easy way to get it through. if you try and do it in your state i see this becoming a bag of worms.

 

The car will be picked up to get shipped to me on Monday so he doesn't have time to get that done. I already asked him if he could but if it gets picked up he can't. Unless I postpone the shipping??? Hmmm I'll call him then then the shipping company tomorrow.

 

Oh by all means, you're right. BUT, it's the same here in IN. After I'd say 100 or more trips to the IN BMV, probably 25% of the time do I leave sucessful. I don't even want to go into detail with what my buddie just went through with his boat. Trust me, it's like pulling teeth here. It's as if they intentionally want to ruin whatever it is you're there to do......one reason I suggested to talk to the state PD first