Replace a missing vehicle title before it's registered?
November 30, 2010 4:02 PM Subscribe
Just bought a used car last week with cash and received the title and other paperwork at time of purchase. Now I can't find the title and I need to get the car registered. What do I need to do?
Right before Thanksgiving my wife and I purchased a used car from a dealership in Missouri. We paid cash for the car and received the title, release of lien, and other paperwork at the time of the sale. We then drove the vehicle back to Illinois, our home state.
We weren't able to get to the IL DMV until today because of the holiday and our schedules. However, today I couldn't find the envelope that included the title and other paperwork. We've torn the house apart looking for it, but still can't find it. We had family over for Thanksgiving so it's possible it got misplaced or thrown away.
We've called the dealership, but haven't heard back from them yet. We've already transferred insurance to the car so we're covered there.
What do we need to do? Is it OK to still drive the car until we get this sorted out? Any help would be appreciated, we're pulling our hair out.
Right before Thanksgiving my wife and I purchased a used car from a dealership in Missouri. We paid cash for the car and received the title, release of lien, and other paperwork at the time of the sale. We then drove the vehicle back to Illinois, our home state.
We weren't able to get to the IL DMV until today because of the holiday and our schedules. However, today I couldn't find the envelope that included the title and other paperwork. We've torn the house apart looking for it, but still can't find it. We had family over for Thanksgiving so it's possible it got misplaced or thrown away.
We've called the dealership, but haven't heard back from them yet. We've already transferred insurance to the car so we're covered there.
What do we need to do? Is it OK to still drive the car until we get this sorted out? Any help would be appreciated, we're pulling our hair out.
Response by poster: Thanks, toodleydoodley. We heard back from the dealer this morning and your answer hit the nail on the head.
posted by John Frum at 7:58 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by John Frum at 7:58 PM on December 1, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
You should be ok-ish to drive the car, since it's insured, and your liability coverage should follow you in any car you drive. if the ownership of the car is not in dispute (ie the dealership wouldn't dispute it sold you the car) then it shouldn't be a problem.
furthermore, the car is currently titled and tagged in the dealer's name, which is in the custom of lending cars. if, heaven forbid, you got into an at-fault accident, the dealer's coverage would be the first one charged (probably, since they're the owner of record), and then their carrier would recover from yours. if the accident damaged your car, well, if you have physical damage coverage and can eventually show that you did own the car at the time of the accident, you'll be covered.
tl;dr: the dealer should have enough duplicate paperwork to bail you out, so continue to try to follow up with them.
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:16 PM on November 30, 2010