Title Confusion
 

In short, I live in Maine and was trying to work a trade/purchase deal with a nice couple from Illinois. My 1991 964 Cab for their 2001 BMW 540iT plus cash.

Maine is a non-title state for vehicles over 15 years of age. What I have is a transferable registration (the back of my registration contains the transfer of ownership info that is common on the back of a title).

The deal was put on hold as the potential buyer insists on needing a title. I may be missing something, but he assures me that the car should have the original title that came with the car when new. In other words, a document that would have been maintained with the vehicle and passed along from owner to owner proving ownership.

The system I am familiar with is title gets signed over to new buyer, new buyer sends the old signed title to the local DMV/BMW/etc. and is issued a new title, specific to the state in which the owner/vehicle resides. I have never seen a title that came from the factory and stayed with the vehicle. The buyer says that without this document there is no way to prove ownership.

Either I am missing something or Illinois has a very confusing system compared to Maine.

Any thoughts?........those from someone in Illinois or experience with Illinois would be good to hear.

Illinois buyer is correct.

He would need to walk into the DMV with some sort of legal document / paperwork that lists the legal description / information of said vehicle. The DMV looks to see if its signed & transferred (all paperwork in order) and then sends that to the Secretary of State to be converted into a new Illinois title.

With that being said. I am certain that many vehicles have been bought in Maine & transferred to Illinois. So my guess is that you personally need to contact the Sec of State here for your buyer & educate him on how the transfer would be consummated. Be sure to get a contact name so this buyer can confirm the details.

You are correct and the Illinois buyer is not familiar with titling and registering a motor vehicle purchased out of state. Your Maine registration is evidence of ownership as provided by the state of Maine.

In other words, your signed transferable registration title is sufficient for him to get a new Illinois title after the trade. Look up the Web page on maines dmv site and email it to him.

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Absolutely... Maine cert of reg is as good as a title. You're also right, the original title is long gone. Who ever the first owner sold it to should have titled the car in their name and received a new title from their state.