When buying a used car, you will already need to have the title in order to register it, so you know who that person is. As a rule, private party sales require the current owner (or seller) to sign off on the title and give it to you. Finding owners previous to the last one I think was the issue.
In addition, if you buy from a car dealership you will never see the title because the dealership is required by law to process the change of ownership.
For vehicles purchased without a title (on a "bill of sale"), there are companies that can obtain a good title for you at a cost but again, you will not know who the last (or any previous) owners were.
As for it being a violation of the "Privacy Act", any public record is not subject to any privacy act.
Regards,
Bob
"A. Foster" <monkeypuzzle1@xxxxxxx> wrote:
No Sir; Finding former owners is pretty standard practice in jurisdictions that require titles for vehicle registration. If you buy a used car you need the last registered registered owner to transfer the title to you. In the case of a car that hasn't seen the road for some time it is no uncommon for the owner of a car not to have the title transfered to him unless he intended to drive it straight away. How would you go about doing that without a title search of prior owners if you are not allowed to know who those owners are? I think someone is getting car ownership mixed up with license plate numbers. Best Regards Arran Foster 1954 Imperial Newport Needing A Left Side tailight Bezel and other trim parts. ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 6:32
PM Subject: Re: IML: Checking ownership
> I highly doubt that any state will give anyone information about a car's former owner for the simple fact that it is a violation of the Privacy Act. > Doug 1958 Crown coupe > > > > From: Bob Smith > > Date: 2003/06/19 Thu PM 08:24:09 EDT > > To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Subject: IML: Checking ownership > > > > If you know what state it was last in, some states might furnish this information (for a fee). In some cases, they charge for each owner information. However, in California, no one can get information on former owners due to a law that was enacted about a decade ago. If you don't know what state it was last registered in, you are pretty much out of luck. > > > > JOHN FACER wrote: > > Hi,can anyone tell me how to trace the the previous American owners
of my 1981 Imperial.? > > Any help would be welcom. > > Johnny 'Jack Daniels' Facer > >
Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
