3rd Party Title Sale - Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums

airos4 · 06-21-2015, 09:53 PM

Hi, need a little advice. I was looking at a vehicle on Ebay to replace my snow truck. Found a decent price on a Subaru Forester that I really like. I bid on it a lowball number and actually won. So now, I'm doing the research (a little after the fact, I know).

The guy listed in his story "This is a trade I got from a New Jersey owner. No liens, clear NJ title." He lives in upstate NY, the vehicle is in upstate NY, and as far as I can tell he is not any sort of a dealer. The pictures show no plates on the car and it has NJ inspection stickers good until April of 2016.

So I ran the Carfax and the record shows that the last recorded title was in NJ in July of 2014. I'm concerned that the last titled owner is not the guy I'm buying it from. In other words, that the last NJ owner signed the title over, but this guy never brought it to a NY DMV to have the title listed in his name.

If that's the case, does he even legally own the vehicle to sell it? What are my possible concerns and liabilities here? Is this something that's done and I've just never heard of it before, or is there possibly something sketchy going on here?

trodecke · 06-21-2015, 11:35 PM

Having recently gone through something similar to this, you need to find out if the NJ seller wrote the NY buyer's name on the title. If so, and NJ/NY has the same basic regulations as Oklahoma, then the NY buyer is the only person that can do anything with that title at all.

About a year ago we bought a truck for our son. We bought it from a private seller who had bought it from a dealer he'd worked for previously. The dealer had signed the title to the guy we bought it from and he simply handed us the title. We tried for several months to get it brought into our name but had no luck at all. We finally had to go back to the guy we bought it from and have him change the title to his name then sign it over to us.

GossipSquirrelJelena · 06-21-2015, 11:54 PM

The seller is jumping titles. Used car sales men do it all the time to avoid paying sales tax and the title fees! As long as there is no liens and the title is clear it shouldn't be an issue. eBay is usually pretty good about protecting the buyers.

06-21-2015, 09:53 PM	#1
airos4 Drives: 2011 2SS IBM, 2008 Victory Vision Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Abington, PA Posts: 80	3rd Party Title Sale Hi, need a little advice. I was looking at a vehicle on Ebay to replace my snow truck. Found a decent price on a Subaru Forester that I really like. I bid on it a lowball number and actually won. So now, I'm doing the research (a little after the fact, I know). The guy listed in his story "This is a trade I got from a New Jersey owner. No liens, clear NJ title." He lives in upstate NY, the vehicle is in upstate NY, and as far as I can tell he is not any sort of a dealer. The pictures show no plates on the car and it has NJ inspection stickers good until April of 2016. So I ran the Carfax and the record shows that the last recorded title was in NJ in July of 2014. I'm concerned that the last titled owner is not the guy I'm buying it from. In other words, that the last NJ owner signed the title over, but this guy never brought it to a NY DMV to have the title listed in his name. If that's the case, does he even legally own the vehicle to sell it? What are my possible concerns and liabilities here? Is this something that's done and I've just never heard of it before, or is there possibly something sketchy going on here?

06-21-2015, 11:35 PM	#2
trodecke Drives: 2014 2SS/RS CRT Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 365	Having recently gone through something similar to this, you need to find out if the NJ seller wrote the NY buyer's name on the title. If so, and NJ/NY has the same basic regulations as Oklahoma, then the NY buyer is the only person that can do anything with that title at all. About a year ago we bought a truck for our son. We bought it from a private seller who had bought it from a dealer he'd worked for previously. The dealer had signed the title to the guy we bought it from and he simply handed us the title. We tried for several months to get it brought into our name but had no luck at all. We finally had to go back to the guy we bought it from and have him change the title to his name then sign it over to us. __________________ Lifetime Camaro guy. 1979 Z28, 1987 LT, 2012 2LS, 2014 2SS/RS --CAI Cold Air Intake --Solo HFC

06-21-2015, 11:54 PM	#3
GossipSquirrelJelena Account Suspended Drives: 2015 Mustang GT. Supercharged. Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: South Jersey Posts: 971	The seller is jumping titles. Used car sales men do it all the time to avoid paying sales tax and the title fees! As long as there is no liens and the title is clear it shouldn't be an issue. eBay is usually pretty good about protecting the buyers.