Overhaulin'

To sell a car for parts, will it require a title?

In a nutshell, the person who sold my father-in-law my truck cannot be contacted or found and it's a lot of trouble for me to get one. I was considering selling it for parts, seeing as it's in pretty good condition and trying to get a new car in my name, with a title, thank God. Can I sell it without a title?

Public Comments

1. When you get down to the frame, to sell the frame (chassis) you need the title. Otherwise that chassis is going to just sit in your yard - because you can't sell it. You can't even SELL it to the junk yard (you can't junk it). What the thieves do is sell EVERYTHING besides the chassis. Then just throw it out in the middle of the night (assuming you have a tow truck). === OK it sound impossible for you. And that is what the government want to do. Keep people from becoming car thieves. But in your case it just stops you from recovering your investment. :-) good luck...
2. Does your father in law have a bill of sale? If so you may want to contact the DMV in you state and see if the old owner turned in the change of owner form. If your going to sell just parts you do not have to have a title as the person buying them is putting them on their truck however if your going to sell the whole truck you still need title.
3. You can't sell it to a private party because without a title you don't legally own it. You can apply to your states DMV for a title if you have a bill of sale. Either way you can sell parts without a title and you can dispose of anything left at a salvage yard. The salvage yard will only need your ID. They don't need a title to crush, rebuild or sell a car. They can obtain a salvage title if they intend to resell it without your original. They just send in a form to the government stating the VIN number to check for reported stolen cars also so that that VIN number can never be used again.
4. Generally speaking you need a title even to tow it to the junk yard to get rid of it. The person who sold it really wasn't allowed to sell it without a title, and your father-in-law shouldn't have given him any cash without seeing a title, but it's a bit late for that now. You may find someone looking for parts that would buy without a title. Have you checked to make sure it isn't stolen? You can get a bonded title, but that is both complicated and expensive, but you might look into to. That's assuming it is good enough condition to get a fair price out of selling it.
5. you can ONLY sell parts off of it, and you'll have to junk the chassis. and you can't take it to salvage, because most states require you to prove you own what you're selling for salvage.
6. If your father-in-law is the LEGAL owner of the vehicle, you do not need a title to part out a vehicle or sell the whole vehicle as "for parts only". So unless your state has some weird laws, no title is required. I've parted out vehicles in the past, have bought vehicles in the past for parts & never once was a title required if you are not going to register the vehicle on the road to drive. And when I'm done stripping the parts off that I need, I've also never had to have a title to tow the vehicle to the scrap yard so they can place it in the crusher & selling the vehicle to them as scrap metal.