When you’re searching for a project car, often times you’ll look in overgrown fields, old barns, or abandoned garages. You may find a hidden diamond in the rough, and you’ll spend hours and hours of your life—and plenty of dollars from your wallet—to restore that vehicle into a sparkling, like-new ride. But there’s one little thing you have to take care of first.
How do you become the legal owner of that vehicle? It’s quite possible the owner of that hunk of junk lost the title after so many years. And it’s also likely that you may not find the owner at all!
But you needn’t panic, because you can still legally buy the car (or what’s left of it). Your state has a “bonded title” process that allows you to acquire legal ownership of the vehicle so you can then get started on your restoration project.
How does “bonded title” work? Well, if you have the car in your physical possession, you own that car legally UNLESS someone else can prove they own the vehicle instead. If no one knows who the owner is, your state has a process that allows you to secure the title anyway.
You start by searching for the rightful owner. If you can’t find the owner, purchase a bond equal to (or more than) the value of the vehicle you want to title. Turn that bond over to the state, which will hold that bond until the original owner presents himself or herself in the future. If that owner shows up, the state will pay the original owner the bonded amount as compensation for re-titling the car.
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Since the specific process may differ from state to state, contact your state’s DMV for specific information.