buying antique vehicle, title/registration help?

ridefast · Apr 10, 2015

Got a seller that is being a real piece of work, need some help figuring out if I should walk away.

Here's the situation:

Georgia resident selling Georgia truck. VIN is intact.

Seller does not have title or registration. Story is that truck was his fathers from 35+ years ago. Father died, left truck to him. Truck has been parked for 25+ years. Title has been lost in the shuffle of life, etc.

Georgia does not require title for resell, only registration and bill of sale.

Tennessee will accept notarized bill of sale and Georgia registration to title/register in Tennessee.

Tennessee will not accept the (notarized) bill of sale that the buyer is going to provide when/if I purchase.

Was told by TN title office that if seller has previous bill of sale (from when seller/seller's relative purchased), the paper-trail requirement could be met that would allow me to do something with the truck, legally speaking. This is not confirmed.

What are my options if the seller is not willing to get off his lazy ass and get the truck re-registered in Georgia?

Are there any options for me to third-party register the truck to/for the seller so that he can then legally sell it to me...or something like that? Is there a way for me to do the leg-work for him? I have the VIN, I have his info.

I really don't want to pass up the opportunity, but Im not going to spend a dime on something that I have no chance of putting on the road once I put in the work to rebuild it.

Thanks for any help!

NTIDWELL · Apr 10, 2015

Buy a historical document and make your own vin plates then call it good this happens a lot in hotrod/rat rods :****:

ridefast · Apr 10, 2015

Thanks!

Guidelines/how to do that^?

Anyone else have other thoughts/options?

pholmann · Apr 10, 2015

What kind of vehicle is it? How old? You can use a proof of ownership form in Tennessee and it just takes a police officer to sign that he/she has inspected the vehicle. They will check the VIN and make sure its not stolen. If its been siting that long it is not in the system from when it was changed over to computers. I had to deal with this for the title on my GTO. Its a pain in the ass but not impossible. Have a cop buddy run the VIN to see if it pulls it up or not.

Money Burner · Apr 10, 2015

pholmann is correct i just did the same thing here in Alabama for a 69 Cutlass that had been sitting untaged since 1980

InDaShop · Apr 10, 2015

what Pholman said, in texas we can sometimes get away with a step before that called "VIN Verification" they have a form where you take a rubbing of the vin plate, and if it comes back good then they issue. You consider "finding" that previous bill of sale in the glovebox, wink wink wink.

pholmann · Apr 10, 2015

Tennessee does require a pencil rubbing of the VIN as well. I think most states are about the same in this, well the southern ones anyway.

Im84 · Apr 10, 2015

Kinda had the same situation here in mo. Seller had the truck for 50 plus years but no title. Vin was in tact and everything else was good to go but no title. He applied with the state for a lost title and it took a month to get but it did work.

Im84 · Apr 10, 2015

Kinda had the same situation here in mo. Seller had the truck for 50 plus years but no title. Vin was in tact and everything else was good to go but no title. He applied with the state for a lost title and it took a month to get but it did work.

Sorry bout the repeat post..