A variation on this scenario might be painfully familiar to you: On Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, you spot a great deal on the Toyota Sienna minivan you need for your antiques business. The vendor wants to meet you in a random parking lot, which seems a bit sketchy, but you keep the appointment and the car looks great and runs fine. There are no plates on the Sienna, but you run the van surreptitiously up and down a few streets to confirm it tracks straight and handles well. You agree on a reasonable price, which the seller wants in cash. He gives you a bill of sale and a title with the correct VIN.
So far so good, right? It’s when you get to the DMV that the problems can start. While in line, you notice that the title isn’t in the name of the person who sold you the car. Instead, it’s in the name of the owner they bought it from. So the vendor never registered it; not a big deal, right? Wrong. It is a big deal if they signed the title, and in that case, you’ve just entered the crazy world of the “jumped” title and the unlicensed “dealer.”
I know about this from painful experience. Twice I looked at Hondas that had weirded-out titles and “I swear this is true” stories attached. The first one I wisely passed up, but the second one was in really nice condition, fairly priced, and close to home. Not wanting to drive 100 miles to look at another car that might turn out to be a rustbucket, I decided to buy the line about the much-traveled paperwork sailing through the DMV. It didn’t. In fact, it got shot down six times, and I had endless hassles before finally being able to procure a newly issued clean title.
Rightly or wrongly, many of the cars being sold through online classifieds are part of an underground economy—cowboy car sellers who move a lot of product quickly, often buying vehicles at smaller auctions. In itself, selling cars you bought legally is an above-board practice, but states like to regulate their dealers, and they want them to get licensed.
In Connecticut, it’s a possible Class B misdemeanor to sell motor vehicles to consumers (or repair them) without a dealer license. In Florida, it’s illegal to sell more than three cars in a year unless you have a dealer license, which you also need to advertise more than three cars for sale. According to the San Diego city attorney’s office, illegal “curbstoners” (so called because they park their unregistered for-sale vehicles at the curb) regularly “buy and sell vehicles without a dealer’s license, proper permits or an established place of business. This practice is illegal under California law.”
California will theoretically put chronic curbstoners in jail for up to six months and give them $1,000 fines, but in that state and elsewhere, the prospect of getting prosecuted doesn’t appear to have dissuaded that many operatives. In some suburban and urban locations, and especially when 10-year-old or older Honda and Toyota vehicles are being sold, freelance curbstoners make up a lot of the vendors.
Sellers jump the title because they want to move cars fast, want to avoid the time and money necessary to register them (for example, in California registrants can avoid a hefty tax of approximately 10 percent), and want their operations to be as invisible as possible to the DMVs. They also want to skirt those laws limiting how many cars they can sell annually. It’s understandable why they do it, but the DMVs and their allies take umbrage.
“Title jumping is an unethical practice to cheat governments out of fees for sale of a vehicle, effectively hiding the intermediary,” Thomas Roberts of the Thomas Roberts & Associates law firm in Richmond, Virginia told The Autopian. “Part of the problem is the buyer, if they’re careless and leave the title open. The title should record, on the back, the buyer’s name, the amount paid and the mileage on the vehicle.”
Roberts said that “a DMV investigating officer with time on his or her hands can pursue charges,” but he added that he’s rarely retained for this kind of case because “the cost of counsel often exceeds the money they could get.”
New York makes it illegal to list more than five cars for sale in a year, or repair them, without being licensed, but a 7 On Your Side Eyewitness News television investigative team in the Bronx borough circa 2018 “found auto body shops and illegal car dealers blatantly disregarding all of those laws.” A DMV spokeswoman told the team that the hottest it could get for curbstoners is an administrative sanction carrying a $25 fine.
Nevada is evidently tougher. Also in 2018, the state DMV arrested a Las Vegas man and charged him with 56 counts of Unlicensed Dealership Activity, Operating as an Unlicensed Salesman, Forgery and Conspiracy to Commit Forgery. The latter charges were for allegedly making it appear that some sales were via actual licensed dealers. The alleged scofflaw, in a settlement, got three to five years of probation and was ordered to pay restitution. In Nevada, a dealer’s license is needed for sales of more than three personally owned vehicles annually.
Is the practice waning? According to Steve Lang, a licensed dealer in the Atlanta area and the founder of the Facebook page 48 Hours and a Used Car, “I’m not seeing curbstoners as often as I did 10 to 15 years ago, and one reason is that more titles are now being transacted electronically, which means there’s not as much loose paper around to go any which way. There’s also not as much unemployment—with people trying to make money any way they can. And the auctions are also cracking down and doing the paperwork themselves, not leaving as many open titles.”
Lang thinks that now most curbstoners are using car sales as a casual income source, rather than their sole employment.
What to Do
If you do buy a car from a private seller, insist on a bill of sale and a title in the actual seller’s name. Don’t believe assurances that a replacement title can easily be issued after the sale—demand it before the money trades hands. DMVs can and do turn away skipped-title paperwork. And your legal ground is shaky if the seller signed the title but their name is otherwise not on any paperwork.
Some signs of curbstoning:
- The name of the owner on the title is not the same as that of the vendor;
- Multiple ads online with the same phone number;
- “Lost” titles or maintenance records;
- No actual physical location for the alleged dealership.
If the sale has already happened and you’ve been left with a car that can’t easily be registered, you can demand the seller—if you’re still in contact—get you a clean title. Or consider getting a bonded title, also known as a certificate of title surety bond. The owner assumes legal and financial responsibility for the accuracy of the information about the car, and pays a sum to a third party to cover any obligation. Insurance companies underwrite these bonds, which vary from state to state and are based on the value of the car.
David Bennett, senior repair manager at AAA’s national office, told The Autopian that buyers “need to do the due diligence, and understand what it takes to buy and sell a car. If you don’t have a proper title, you won’t be able to insure, register or drive that car. That’s how the states track car ownership. All the information you need about the process is at your state DMV.” Bennett said that “more safeguards are now in place to catch curbstoning,” but buyers are hardly out of the woods.
“If you’re buying a vehicle and the title is in someone else’s name, stop right there,” Bennett said. “Say to the seller, ‘Wait a minute, the title says Jim and you’re David.’ It’s a red flag. Maybe they can come up with a logical explanation that sounds good, but the bottom line is that you’ll be in trouble when you get to the DMV.” The officials behind the counter will try to verify if someone claiming to be a dealer actually has a dealer number, and a clear chain of custody.
[Ed Note: First, watch my friend Steve Lehto’s video above, which he made specifically for us at The Autopian (please follow his channel; he’s awesome). As for my own experiences, I’ll admit, I’ve purchased multiple cars from title-floaters, but they don’t do it in the way Jim here is describing. These sellers get the previous owner of the car to sell them the vehicle for cash and sign the title. These previous owners only sign their name; the name of the new owner (whom I buy the car from later) is never signed into the title, so it looks to the DMV like the previous owner signed the car to me directly, with the person I bought the car from nowhere to be found on the paperwork. This is illegal because the middle-man didn’t pay any taxes, in much the same way as dealerships flip cars without having to pay taxes on the purchase (though they pay taxes elsewhere). The big thing, as Jim says, is: Don’t buy a car if it’s already got a signature in the “purchasers” section. And if the seller isn’t the “seller” on the title, you may be able to get away with buying the car like I have, but that person selling you the car is breaking the rules. Because I’d be crazy not to get input from the owner of Wilmington, North Carolina’s Gossin Motors, here’s SWG… -DT]
[Contributor Note: I have bought and sold 136 cars since 1995 and can say that “curbstoning” is just one of those expected and understood parts of the game. I’d say metaphorically that it’s similar to going to a party and there’s some guy (friend-of-a-friend) on the back deck/outside with weed. Is it legal (in most states)? No. Are you going to freak out and call the cops? Also no.
The seller is actually taking a huge fast & loose gamble with trusting that you/the buyer will sign the title correctly and present valid ID, etc. and not have the DMV Inspector coming back on them for a “floated” title. I know a guy who sold to a “William Johnson” who signed his name as “Billy Jo Johnson” on the title. He was denied a title transfer at the DMV counter. Guess who that hard-stop fell back upon? The seller.
Jim makes a well laid-out argument describing all the associated risks with buying a car with a “flipped” title, so let’s just put it out there that there’s 100% agreement (and props for a well-posited piece) first and foremost from this guy. But I will say this: If you find that diamond on the rough that you’ve been drooling over for way too long, that perfect gem of exactly the car you want, in the exact trim, mileage, color and condition, for a killer price, from a seller that’s very close by, are you sure that you’re going to say “no way!” due to an open title? -SWG]
It’s not the same thing, but I’ve found it surprisingly easy to register cars in California with no title, so long as it’s a “barn find” that’s been unregistered for long enough that the VIN isn’t in the DMV system. Just bring in a bill of sale, get a CHP VIN inspection, pay the fees and get on your way. I expected to have to jump through all kinds of hoops, get a bonded title, and throw down lots of cash, so I was pleasantly surprised when I just went in and successfully pulled it off. I’ve done it a couple of times in the last few years with no issues.
I’ve never skipped title or curbstoned, but I go through a lot of cars. There is ZERO wrong with flipping cars, call it what you will. The ONLY reason there are legal issues is because of the dealership donors to politicians and the resulting protectionist legislation. That results in honest people staying away, and you end up with an artificially high number of shady people. Most of those shady people are licensed dealers.
Surety bond. Even from a reputable insurance company (State Farm) it was a PITA. Last 2 cars I bought I insisted on checking ID like I worked at a liquor store. Pretty sure the buyer I sold the Datsun to last summer resold it under my name. Waiting to see what shows up in the mailbox over that deal.
As long as you submitted your release of liability to the DMV right after you sold it, you’ll never hear about it again.
I bought a car with a jumped title, did everything potentially wrong in the process and somehow came out ahead.
In 2009, bought a turbo Miata with a jumped title. Owner>seller>me. Tried to get it smogged, it did not pass, it wasn’t my primary vehicle, so i just never bothered to complete the process. It was never intended to be driven on the street, track only, so I wasn’t motivated.
I never paid any registration this whole time, skip forward to about 2020, I wonder how much back fees i had, dmv shows $700 or so. Earlier this year i figure if i ever need to sell this car or junk it i might need the title. Got it smogged, check dmv, still shows $700, I assume the site is wrong and will be much higher when I go do title transfer.
Get to AAA, got my smog stuff squared away, they look at the title, original owner signed it, 2nd buyer signed it. They asked me who did i buy it from, the buyer? I said yes, they ask if i had Bill of sale for that person releasing interest in the car. Somehow from 2009 > 2025, i kept the bill of sale in the glove box. Some how even with leaving the car outdoors, no top, in the rain, it didn’t get destroyed. AAA accepted the bill of sale. It was aged enough to look exactly what a bill of sale from 2009 would look like.
Oh those back fees, the girl at aaa even commented she thought it be a lot more than $700, i did some research before coming, ca dmv back fees only goes back 7 years. After everything was finalized, i told her yea i checked a few years ago it was $700, it’s still $700 now so i looked into it, you guys only go back 7 years.
So i jumped titles, somehow kept the bill of sale, and saved a few bucks on registration fees.
Another strange story involving titles, in ‘03 I sold my ‘96 Saturn via classified ad to a young lady that I think her parents were trying to “teach her responsibility.” Her dad wated in his clean but showing rust 88-92 base model Corolla while she bought the car. I thought to myself since he is probably paying for it why doesn’t he take the nearly mint SL2 Saturn for himself. Fast forward about a year later I get a call from the mom, daughter drove almost a year on a paper tag, got pulled over, the car impounded, and has lost the title in the meantime. Luckily my BIL’s mom worked @ the tag office, so NBD to get another title with mom paying for it.
I could only think if the daughter couldn’t be bothered to do the title work I’m sure she had totally not been checking the oil regular too. Biggest killer of the otherwise pretty good Saturn S-cars back in the day.
I sold a minivan for $2800 cash. I signed the title. Four years later, it had been impounded for a parking violation, and the third owner (I believe it went from purchaser to trade in lot, to another purchaser) texted my wife because my signed title was in the glovebox, never signed by any purchasers. They claimed to have all of their possessions in it, and the police would not release it unless it was me or a new title, which would take more time and impound fees than the van was worth.
I told them that claiming the van might make me liable for fees, so I never played that game. It was an hour away, and work and home were time intensive at the time.
I am curious. If I had picked it up, would it have been mine, again?
I think you would have stepped into an abyss of bullshit and misery if you had picked the van up for that guy. It could have turned into a standoff where the current untitled owner refused to pay the fees but also claimed the van as his, while the original title jumper made themselves scarce.
Just government providing nothing but wanting their cut. Like the Mafia. I would not mind if they charged it at cost but some states want big money for a rubber stamp. They get tax from the manufacturer, dealership, original owner, then want tax from everyone down the line.
Had this happen twice; both times I told the “seller” that I’d buy the vehicle if they registered it in their name first. One did and I got the car a few weeks later, one didn’t. It was painful in the moment both times, but I wasn’t dealing $500 junkers and I wasn’t willing to take the risk. Ironically the second guy (who refused to properly title the car) claimed to be a former police officer.
—
Then there was the time I bought a wave runner and trailer and the guy only had a title for the PWC. I naively took him at his word when he said trailers didn’t need a title in my state, after I found out that wasn’t true he mysteriously refused to talk to me further.
I very nearly “returned” the trailer to his front yard, but I ended up doing the easy thing – scraping the stickers off and getting someone to write up the inspection as a custom built trailer. I’m not proud of it, but I’m past the statute of limitations and, beyond the DMV missing a tiny amount of tax revenue, no one cares.
In my state, lapsed registration fees must be paid in order to transfer the title or register the vehicle. There’s a definite risk to the buyer: If the seller floated the title without registering the vehicle as “In storage” with the DMV, then the buyer will be on the hook for paying all the registration fees that accumulated since the vehicle last had a valid sticker.
This risk is not specific to floated titles, but it’s a much higher risk with a floated title because you know the current “owner” never updated the registration.
For a car that’s been sitting awhile it’s possible for the registration fees to add up to more than the vehicle is actually worth. Depending on your state, you should insist on seeing either a current registration or proof that the vehicle was registered as “In storage”.
Looked at a 3rd gen 4runner a while back. Right color, 5spd, locking diff, decent shape. It was pretty much exactly what I was looking for, but then the guy started talking about how he was selling it for a buddy and… blah blah no care. Don’t have the time or the patience for dealing with bullshit like this.
In Florida the local tax collector’s office handles title transfers, so when dealing with a private sale, I insist that the transaction take place there and that the clerk accepts the paperwork. When selling a car, I’ve been told that for liability reasons, you also want to be sure the title is no longer in your name.
Next week, from SWG:
“How I Spent $375 (and 16 Hours in Lock-up) on This Beautiful 2000 Ford Taurus”
subhed: if they ask if you want the “OR” forms, say yes
I think a 2000 Taurus may just be the least-desired car you can buy in this day & age. Definitely not a car to do hard time over for sure.
Fun fact, those were made in Hotlanta!
(The Atlanta Assembly Plant closed on October 27, 2006)
> I think a 2000 Taurus may just be the least-desired car you can buy in this day & age.
I’ll raise you a 1992 Ford Tempo.
Used Tesla has entered the conversation.
Oddly enough, the one and only time I ever flipped a car it was a mid-90s bubble Taurus. I did everything this article describes as wrong, but due to being naive, not malicious. I’d literally had the car handed to me with a clean title, they just wanted it gone, so I put it at the end of my driveway and made $500 bucks off of it. Buyer was able to register it so everyone made out on the deal.
LMAO. I can’t count how many signatures I’ve forged on vehicle paperwork.
Other than potential DMV hassles, I could not care less. People flip cars, it’s a thing. All I care about is the condition of the car on the day, and the price. I don’t care who owned it before or how it came to be there for sale (other than not being stolen). And with vanishingly rare exceptions, Maine is not going to care one way or the other when it comes to registering the thing, at my city hall at least. They just want the cash. If the paperwork looks reasonably legit (name on the title matches the name on the bill of sale – which can be hand-written) and you have an insurance card for the thing in your own name, they will take your pile of money and give you a plate. I have registered some SKETCHY cars, including cars that should not be in the country at all but were snuck in under Canada’s 15yr rule – Maine recognizes Canadian titles, no problem at all. They literally only care about the money (and if was expensive when new, it can be a shocking amount of money).
Florida is likely fussier, but I have not bought and registered a car here other than from actual dealers, who register the car for you (for a fat fee, grumble, grumble).
“ including cars that should not be in the country at all but were snuck in under Canada’s 15yr rule”
I’m sorry but we are gonna have to charge you a 25% tariff on those cars you brought in from Canada…
:-p
I didn’t bring them in, I just facilitated getting them registered.
And it’s the seller that pays the tariff, right? That’s what the Orange Clown in the White House keeps saying.
Someone always needs to go political
Hahahahahahaha that’s rich. If I may:
> Just government providing nothing but wanting their cut. Like the Mafia. I would not mind if they charged it at cost but some states want big money for a rubber stamp. They get tax from the manufacturer, dealership, original owner, then want tax from everyone down the line.
I never worried about anything except the seller’s signature matching the name on the title when I was buying $75-300 cars.
I did it a few times myself when I was rescuing flat windshield Super Beetles. But those deals were all with friends. I wouldn’t try it on something I advertised.