I’m selling an old beater car on craigslist, I’ve sold lots of boats but never sold a car to private party.
Anything special I need to do? Draft up a bill of sale no different than when I’ve sold boats and sign over the title?
Thanks,
Pete
Two options. Go with the buyer directly to the DMV and transfer title out of your name. Or pull the plates before he drives off. Then take the plates to the DMV to have them cancelled.
You need to get ownership out of your name. Any tickets given to the car while still in your name will be your responsibility.
There are a lot of Dbags out there with no license who buy beaters and drive them until the plate expire. If they get tickets or have an crash, its your butt in the slinger.
-J.
Two options. Go with the buyer directly to the DMV and transfer title out of your name. Or pull the plates before he drives off. Then take the plates to the DMV to have them cancelled.
You need to get ownership out of your name. Any tickets given to the car while still in your name will be your responsibility.
There are a lot of Dbags out there with no license who buy beaters and drive them until the plate expire. If they get tickets or have an crash, its your butt in the slinger.
-J.
I thought about that. I’m assuming a bill of sale would cover me if we didn’t? Suppose there’s still the hassle factor…
There are so many horror stories out there. You don’t want to take the risk.
Here is some more info:
http://www.mncourts.gov/Help-Topics/Car-Title-Problems.aspx
You can also google > car buyer did not transfer title
-J.
At the bare minimum, take a pic of their DL and make sure that it matches what they write on the corner of the title that they sign and give to you. If you check with the DMV and they haven’t changed the registration in a few days/weeks, you can pay $20-30 and do a forced re-registration.
With how screwed up the DMV system is right now, good luck on anything. We bought a new car 2 years ago and still have not received the title. But a bill save at minimum.
Do the trip to the DMV. I sold a truck a few years ago, did the bill of sale and then about two years later I got a call from the guy I sold the truck to. He wanted me to come to Kansas City and get the truck out of impound because he couldn’t. He never transferred the title so the truck was still in my name. I halfway thought about just making the trip and getting the truck back and keeping it but the guy was a convicted murderer (I found that out later). He had done 24 yrs in prison and bought my truck right after he was paroled.
Yup. I don’t care if you sell it to your grandma. Go to the DMV with her. I sold a used truck to a ‘friend’ a couple years ago and came to find he hadn’t gone in to change it over a year later. I was ticked. Then he dissappeared and totally ignored me like I was out of line. I also tried what was mentioned here and paying for a re-registration or whatever and was told by the DMV that they don’t do that in MN or at least not any more. Either way- it was a big hassle. One easy way to get rid of a ‘friend’ though.
BOS doesn’t cover a thing. Take my advise and ONLY meet at the DVS to sell the car. I got burned last summer selling a beater. Guy bought it, never transferred it. Got DOZENS of parking tickets and eventually had it towed from the Olmstead county court house because he left it there when he went to PRISON. The car has been seized and crushed.
The MN DVS cannot, I repeat, Cannot force a title transfer anymore. Did I mention that they cannot force a title transfer? It NEEDS to be done by the buyer. There’s nothing a county sheriff, city officer or the DVS can do if the buyer does not transfer the car…
so Pete whatchu you got for sale? im an avid beater collector
Sounds like I’ll need to take a trip to the DMV.
so Pete whatchu you got for sale? im an avid beater collector
05′ Chev Cobalt 181k on it. 1800 bucks cash takes it home
also make sure you cancel any insurance you have on it the second it is sold.
All good advice, but if you are unable to make it to the DMV, you should at least do this. Take a picture of the buyers drivers license, and make the buyer sign and date a, AS IS, sales slip not only for him, but also one for you. Being retired and watching too many judge shows, this will give you some proof, if needed, that you did transfer ownership. Also be careful of your wording in your sales description. Do not make claims that they can hold you to.
Do MN titles have a tab the seller keeps and sends to the dmv to show it was sold or does that not mean anything?
Do MN titles have a tab the seller keeps and sends to the dmv to show it was sold or does that not mean anything?
Yes they do.
Go to a DMV and transfer the title in person as others have said.
One of the funnier stories of just why you need to do this happened to my uncle, who owns a commercial heating and cooling repair business. He sold one of his crapped out service vans. Predictably, this van had his name and company name in neon letters 2 feet high on both sides.
Well, you can see where this is going. No, he didn’t transfer the title or remove the plates. Yes, the new buyer’s teenage son and 10 friends piled into the van on the first Friday night after his dad bought it and went out egging houses and whipping donuts in parking lots and generally causing mayhem which was witnessed by the entire population of the St. Cloud metro area and promptly phoned in to the police about 1100 times.
So at 2:00 in the morning Ron got to answer the doorbell in his boxers and entertain a little visit from St. Cloud’s finest. Sir, your van is laying on its side in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot with about 100 empty beer cans and a half drunk bottle of JD in the back. We’ve got a few questions we need to ask you…
To thier credit, the St. Cloud police had already figured out something was a little TOO stupid about this whole situation. But in the end, it still took 2 weeks to sort out as the insurance claims came rushing in from owners of damaged parking lots.
Needless to say, the answering machine of Ron’s Commercial Heating & Cooling also had taken a beating as the good citizens of St. Cloud callend in to tell him EXACTLY what they thought of his driving skills, business sense, and there were a lot of comments about his mother and questions about his parantage. A quick tally showed the combined tally of his being called a ####er, a b@stard, a SOB, and a mother###### was over the century mark.
Grouse
Do MN titles have a tab the seller keeps and sends to the dmv to show it was sold or does that not mean anything?
Doesn’t really mean a thing, but they do have them. You can also report the sale online. But again, means very very little.
Years ago I sold an outboard and accepted a personal check. The check was filled out in pencil-wife does’nt let me forget that one. Guy came back and used pen.
Actually if you take the small slip to the DMV after the sale, you are clear from that day forward, that holds up in ANY court. That is actually the approved process, but being DMV are not open weekends, hence the slip. As said, if you have to make the trip anyways and it’s open, just meet the buyer there.
Good to know, the difficult part about this is if the buyer is from out of state, MN can’t transfer titles to other states.
wouold say go the dmv route. no negatives from doing it that way. Although have always had to do it with the slip myself have never sold a used car when the dmv was open always weekend or evening.
so are you getting a new ride?
You can report it online. From that point forward you are good to go. you enter the buyers information in and they are listed as new owners they still need to go in to pay for title yet but you are free from any issues.
You can report it online. From that point forward you are good to go. you enter the buyers information in and they are listed as new owners they still need to go in to pay for title yet but you are free from any issues.
Technically, yes…but you will be fighting each and every enforcement agency the buyer gets a ticket in until he transfers the title. That will include signing affidavits and having them notarized each time the buyer gets a parking ticket in the vehicle…The sale info is retained by the DVS and can be used to avoid being liable for the tickets, but the title is never listed out of your name in the system until the buyer SIGNS for the sale (transfers title)…They are NOT listed as new owners until they transfer the title and acknowledge the sale.
I didn’t read all the responses, but this is what I did with the commuter car I sold on craigslist a year or two ago. Drove it to the courthouse and met them there and let them test drive it. Took a picture of their drivers license in case they never came back. Negotiated the sale and price in the parking lot. Then went inside the courthouse (just felt comfortable being in a public area) and had them sign the bill of sale I created, pay me the money (cash only), and transfer the title right at the counter. I knew all was done well, title was transferred, and felt safe handling a transaction involving a few thousand dollars.
resurrecting this old thread as i have a question. I’m buying a truck tomorrow. The owner seems like a nice enough person but you can never be too sure. Today i got a cashiers check from the bank and he asked that i send a picture of it to him. My bank advised against that but said it should be ok as long as i cover up the account numbers. So before i do that i call the guy and tell him of my concerns and he said that his brother got taken by someone forging a cashiers check and he just wants to make sure. I say fine and agree to send him a picture sans the account numbers later tonight. This way i figure if he tries to cash it via a phone deposit or something and he doesn’t show up tomorrow morning i can cancel the check before its cashed. Anyway, he then asks if we can meet at the bank in the morning which is right by the DMV so he can verify the cashiers check is legit and cash it. then we would go to the DMV. In the past i have always purchased cars by handing over cash while waiting in line at the DMV. My concern here is that if i let him cash the check with the idea that the next stop is the DMV, whats the stop him from just taking off from there and keeping the truck? What is the best method for doing this type of deal? I’m trying to safeguard myself as much as possible while also trying to respect the sellers wishes to do the same for himself.
You could just have him sign off on the title and then have one of the bankers hold on to the title until he is satisfied that the check is going to clear. Sounds like he is just being cautious to me.
Pay him in cash at the DMV. I have dealt with a lot of people that won’t take and don’t trust cashiers checks anymore including myself.
I thought about it for a bit and i gave him two options:
1. We go to the bank and they confirm the check is real. then we go to the DMV together and sign the title over and i give him the check
2. We go to the bank and i give him the check and he gives me the signed title and the truck. He cashes the check and i go straight to the DMV
With the amount of fraud going on right now it’s probably a good idea to do it at a bank anyway. There is a lot of counterfeit cash in the system just as there are fraudulent checks. Pretty easy for a banker to catch both whereas it is missed by most of the general public.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
