Can You Buy A New Car And Not Register It

Updated on: July fifteen, 2021

If a buyer does not register a machine you sold them it volition exist, at best, a hassle that you need to sort. For while it's true that most people are good and simply want to alive the best life possible, there are always a few who seem assault breaking the rules for their own do good. While this happens merely rarely, some car shoppers may non register a car afterward purchasing information technology. Known as title jumping, this practice lets them contrivance non only the registration fees and any transfer fee or state sales revenue enhancement, just also the costs and penalties incurred through parking tickets, traffic tickets, or even crimes.

So, what tin you practice? Selling a car can be a profitable venture, simply it can besides provide an opportunity for unscrupulous humans to scapegoat the previous owner of the auto for a law-breaking. It's rare, but it can happen. Hither's everything you need to know most titling if you sell your car to a buyer who then fails to register it with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

See our divide guide if y'all're wondering how to sell a car without a title.

Brand Certain the Buyer Knows to Register the Machine

Sometimes, the all-time course of action is to provide clear instructions to the person who'southward buying your used car. Who knows? Maybe this is the new owner'southward first vehicle purchase, or their start without the help of a professional auto dealer, and they genuinely don't realize they need to go information technology registered.

When an individual buys a machine privately from you lot, they need to take the transferred title to their local DMV office to register the car in their own name. The car title (formally, the "certificate of title") lists its vehicle identification number (VIN), its description, and its possessor's information. When a automobile is sold (or paid off), a transfer of championship from the seller to the buyer (or from the lender or lien holder to the quondam borrower) is completed. Almost states volition upshot a new title at this point. Even experienced machine shoppers may not know this, though, as all the paperwork would be taken intendance of for them if they were to buy from a dealer.

Unfortunately, if the new owner of the vehicle fails to register their new car in their own name, the original title even so stands. Whatever parking tickets or driving infractions defenseless on camera will be under the original owner'southward name. If any crime is committed in the automobile, it'll exist the seller in the crosshairs of police enforcement.

Brand Sure It Doesn't Happen to You

Many states require individual sellers to sign the back of the title—forth with noting the engagement of auction, the price, and the exact odometer reading—before handing it over to the buyer. The buyer would and so accept the vehicle title with the seller's signature to annals information technology and consummate the transfer of ownership. Unfortunately, short of conducting the sale at a DMV part, you can't forcefulness a buyer to register the car.

Be sure to brand a copy of both sides of the signed title for your records. Too make sure that the odometer reading is verbal; it should certificate the moment ownership transferred from your name to the buyer's name. This is critical for release of liability: if you round the odometer reading upward to the next zero, and the buyer gets into an accident 5 miles later, they could claim you are responsible.

It'southward as well a expert idea to consummate a bill of sale. Have both parties sign it, create a copy, and so send the neb of sale to the DMV. If anything happens and the buyer fails to annals the car, y'all'll accept the proof needed to evidence that the machine's ownership has been transferred and information technology is no longer in your proper name.

Some states, including Florida, Kentucky and New Jersey, crave that license plates be turned in when they're no longer in utilise. Others, similar Virginia, Ohio, and California, only encourage you to turn in your old plates. Whether it's required or non, returning plates to the state'due south DMV after a auto auction is a handy extra pace of protection as it cancels the registration in the original seller's name.