Posted by David Sherman on Saturday, February 25, 2006 at 8:51AM :
In Reply to: Re: Unclear Title posted by Jerry Henry on Saturday, February 25, 2006 at 2:01AM :
I just jumped through all the official hoops for my untitled M37 in Washington. It seemed like every time I went back to the courthouse, they wanted something different, but when it was all done, this is what it took:
Get a bill of sale from the current "owner". They don't care what the bill of sale looks like.
Go to the courthouse with the bill of sale and the vin number. They will plug the VIN into their computer and it will say there's no such vehicle. Then they will have to send to Olympia to have somebody search through the old files.
If it turns out they have some record of the VIN somewhere, they'll make you send a certified letter to the last owner asking about it. In my case, there was no record, and hopefully in your case there won't be either.
At some point, you have to take it to the State Patrol inspection station (no house calls in Washington) to have them verify the VIN. Although my truck was marginally driveable, I towed it so as to avoid having them tell me it was street legal. The state patrol inspector cares about one and only one thing -- the VIN. They don't care about smog or safety equipment.
The DoL has a confusing policy about the value of vehicles. They basically want to put as high a value as possible on them so they can charge you as much sales tax as possible. Fortunately, old army trucks aren't in their price book, so they simply ask you to tell them what it's worth and what you paid for it.
Once you get all this paperwork in order, they will give you a registration that says the title is in doubt. That's the best you can do at that point. Sometimes it's called a "salvage title" or a "sheriff's title". Supposedly, after 3 years, if nobody reports it stolen, they will convert it to a real title. The 3 years isn't up yet for me, so I can't tell you if I'll have any more bureaucratic hassles at that point.
For what it's worth, Idaho (or at least North Idaho) is worse in that regard. A guy I know actually had to go to court to get a judge to order the state to issue a title for an untitled M37 he had. The State DMV inspector simply didn't believe civilians should own military vehicles and refused to let him title it.
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