How to find out if my title was stolen?

Uncooperative seller and faulty title. Can i fix this without a lawsuit?

• Here's my situation: I am a 19 year old college student in the DC/MD/VA area. I had been saving up for several months to get a car, and a few weeks ago I finally got enough money to get one. I went on craigslist (yea, i know) because I could not find a dealership selling the car i wanted for the amount i had. I found this guy who was selling a 1993 Honda Civic for $1500; i test drove it, had the engine looked at and everything. It seemed like a good deal. On April 25th, I bought the Civic from him; i have a notarized bill of sale to prove it. Here is where things get dicey. The guy who sold it to me had recently purchased it from someone else about a month ago. There were temporary New York tags on the car (which in hindsight, I probably should have found weird because the guy lived in DC) and the tags did not expire until May 16th. (Also, I dont know if this is relevant, but the temp tags had apparently blown off in the wind and the guy reported them stolen before finding them laying somewhere. So I drove the car with the tag info taped to my back windshield with STOLEN PLATES written above it). Anyway, since the current tags didn't expire for another few weeks, I did not head directly to the Motor Vehicle Administration; officially, my mother bought the car so it would be in her name and my insurance costs were lower, but she works so she couldn't take off her job to go to the MVA. But since the car had temp tags on it and I had the sale information on me, I went ahead and got it inspected. No sense in buying $20 temp tags if the car has some already, right? Sooo the car failed inspection. Initially, the mechanics who inspected it gave me a quote of $993 to get it fixed, but i couldn't afford that. After about another week, I managed to find a guy who would fix it for $700. Problem was, the guy who sold it to me had canceled his insurance on the car, so now the temp tags were no good. In hind sight, I probably should have tried to get temp tags of my own then, but I figured since I had the car insured already, why not just get it fixed and worry about that later? Mind you, this is the first car I've ever bought. On May 3rd, exactly one week after it failed inspection, I drove it to the mechanic to get it fixed, luckily managing not to get a ticket before i got it there. A week later (last Monday), the mechanic calls and says it would be done by the end of the week. So I'm thinking "Cool, now since I lucked out the first time by not getting a ticket, I should probably just go get my temp tags to be safe". So today, May 12th, I got a friend to drive me to the MVA so i could get the tags. I get to the information desk and show them the title. The guy had never registered the car and gotten a title in his own name; he had bought it from somebody on April 2nd then just handed it over to me. My mother signed the title in a space reserved for dealership transactions; we had missed it! Apparently, you can only sell a car legally after you have had the title transferred into your name and received a new title; I had not known this. The man had essentially sold me a car he did not legally own yet. That being the case, I could not get tags, and so cannot pick the car up from the mechanic. I called the guy up and told him the situation. The first time, he said he was at work and would call me back; evening came, no call. I called him back and he said he would talk to the DC DMV and would call me back shortly. Three hours later, no call. I tried calling again, only got voicemail. BUT, when my mother called on HER phone, he answered. After a short discussion with her, he informs us he has to work and is going out of town this weekend, so the matter would have to wait until next Monday. I found this out and got upset because I need a vehicle next week; the DMV takes up to 10 business days to mail titles and if this man does not request a new title before the end of THIS week, I will be without transportation for a while. PLUS, I have no guarantee he wont give me the run around all over again. When my mom called him back to tell him this, once again we got voicemail. This has to be grounds for a lawsuit....the guy sold me a car illegally! If im just %^&* out of luck transportation-wise, then oh well...but if that is the case, I need to be compensated. If the guy would just go to the DMV, pay the $27 and get the title so i can officially buy it, I would be fine. But if not, I'm out $1500 for the sale price of the car, $700 for repairs on the car, and $112 for the insurance I paid while "owning" the car. Also, if i dont get the title by May 26, I'll have to pay another $58 for another inspection (the inspection station gives you 30 days to get the car fixed so they can sign off on it). In total, I'm looking at about $2370 in losses here, which is a LOT of money for a broke college student. Plus, i dont know how the &quot

• Answer:

  LOL you can't make up your own tags!! It doesn't work that way. If that guy didn't have a title to sign over to you, the car wasn't his to sell. Period. A notarized bill of sale, does NOT transfer owneship of a car. Plus, temp tags are only good for 30 days, so they were probably ALSO forged or stolen. So, it's very possible that his NY license was SUSPENDED, which is why he couldn't title the car in his name. It's not just paying $27 for the title - it's ALSO paying all unpaid parking/speeding tickets, or fines for having lapsed insurance - not to mention SALES TAX on the car, which he also has to pay, before they'll give him a title. This guy could owe the state THOUSANDS, You sure can file a police report against him, but I'd be surprised if anything ever comes of it. If you haven't paid for the repairs, don't. Hand the notarized letter over to the mechanic, let them put a mechanic's lein on it, to the last titled owner, and let THEM resell it for the $700 or so that's owed. Explain to your insurance company that the sale never went through because the title never got to you, and they should be willing to cancel the policy flat and refund your money. And the inspection - you have to pay for one, anyway. No use throwing good money after bad on this. If you need to get a bonded titled, it's going to cost you about $1,000 more, AND take another six months.