Getting a lost title

Getting a lost title. We have all been there. Clean car that has potential, the history of it is known, but the title is missing. Most of these restorable cars end up getting parted because of a lack of that special scrap of paper known as a title.

This is and can be time consuming, however it is doable, because I have done it very recently. My last title I got was a Texas bonded title. That was around 2009. The hoops you have to jump through have increased here since then including having an engine in it, and a bunch of other crap. Being the car I needed a title for was an ex drag car, the engine was gone. This added another layer of red tape as I would now have an engine from a different vehicle. This was gotten from a salvage yard to rebuild and would add to the layer of paperwork.

Anyhow I decided to go through a company called lost title solutions. It wasnt cheap, but wasnt super expensive either. What they needed from me besides my name, address, and vin#, was a picture of the hand written bill of sale for the vehicle, with a legible vin # on the bill of sale. The name and address of the "previous owner" that would be whoever you got the car from. They researched the vehicle. It came up clean not stolen, no lien. Cost me $525

They sent me the paperwork to sign and date for vermont DMV for a transferrable registration/title. All the paperwork was filled out correctly by them, and all I had to do was sign and date it, and put a check in the envelope to vermont DMV for sales tax and registration $360. About 3 weeks later in the mail came a vermont licence plate, and a transferrable registration/title. I took that document to my DMV along with the Vermont DMV worksheet from lost title solutions, and licence plate to my DMV to show I payed taxes on the car, so I was not charged twice.

Texas charged me $45 to do the paperwork to get a Texas title , took the transferrable registration, the vermont DMV worksheet, and vermont licence plate, and gave me a receipt. Title showed up in my mailbox about 4 weeks later.

Granted this cost me some money $930 to be exact, but knowing the vehicle was clean with no liens, and not stolen, I avoided the additional red tape and hassle that comes with dealing with the DPS, and all the B.S. that it would entail. I'm sure there are other solutions to this issue. Some more costly, some cheaper. This was mine. I honestly dont care that this cost me what it did, because I have piece of mind knowing that this important scrap of paper is now locked in my safe in my name with my address as the legal owner.

Hope this helps
Matt