Okay so I have bought this new '56 Ford Fairlane 4-Door sedan and it runs/drives and has clean paperwork. I recently stumbled upon a sweet little '52 Merc on Kijiji that used to belong to the HAMB's own Keith Macintyre. It has Buick taillights, Olds, headlights, etc. Pretty neat little car but a TOTAL project. Car will need new floors, new hood, etc. Anyways turns out the current owner lives about three minutes from my apartment so I drove over to his house to check it out. He then came to my apartment to check the '56 out. Seems like we both want each others cars and are both willing to trade. Here is the problem though... The current owner has lost the ownership for the Merc and it has no paperwork. Now I have only lived in this provence for a little under five years so I know nothing about how all this works. Is this going to end up being a pain in my ass? Can I get an ownership for the Merc? How will this all work? If it is too much of a pain in the ass I may end up passing as even though it is a two door it needs A LOT more work than my new Fairlane does. Any Ontario HAMBers out there who can help out?
An affidavit, VIN, bill of sale, you should be good. Call Service Ontario office near you, sometimes they have a person there who can sign the affidavit. Just went through a similar process to get the VIN for my model A. Where about a are you?
Thanks tikiwagon13! I am currently in Mississauga (I know so exciting). Should I call the current owner of the car and have him do that for me? Or should I do the trade and do the affidavit myself? Also does that sort of thing cost anything? If so how much? Thanks for the help!
Did the guy who currently has the car actually own the car with an ownership in his name or not? If he actually owned it legally registered in his name then get him to get a reissued ownership. If he takes the VIN number and his ID to the license office they should be able to print him out a new ownership for the car. Costs like $20 for a reissue. Another option is to take the VIN number to the license office yourself and buy what they call the used vehicle information package. That will tell you who the last registered owner is and if the car has any liens or warrants or is stolen. You may be able to get the last registered owner to get you a reissued ownership or god forbid the car is stolen and you don't end up with any car at all. If you traded and took on the task of getting an ownership yourself it could take up to 6 months. depending on what license office or MTO office you deal with they may want to inspect the car at their office or garage. Some bureaucracies are more difficult to deal with than others and most of the offices are privately run. Might only take a few days or even one trip to the license office but maybe not. I have had seemingly routine things at the license office take 4 or 5 trips to get everything straightened out and get all the i's dotted and the t's crossed to their satisfaction. And as I said if it happened to be stolen you could end up with no car at all. They (MTO or Police) would seize the car and not give it back as a stolen vehicle. Plus you would have to explain why you have it and how you didn't steal it. Then you may have to sue the other guy to try and get your own car back. And even still you may not get it back. It is not an impossible task but I would ask myself why the guy who currently has the car hasn't done it already. Maybe there is a roadblock to getting an ownership that is either very expensive to get past or insurmountable. A vehicle is much easier to sell or trade when you have the paperwork all in order. Because of all of the guys that are selling bogus ownerships for cars that no longer exist the MTO has started to close a bunch of the loop holes in the system. This in turn makes the job of getting a ownership even more difficult. Myself personally, I would tell the guy to get the paperwork in order and then I would trade him and if he is not willing to do so I would walk away. It all depends on how badly you want that particular car.
Thanks man! Honestly I don't want the car super bad I just kind of don't want the '56 Ford I just bought either lol. And as you're aware a 4-door is always a tough sale haha,
A running driving 4 door will still be an easier sell than a non running needs floors and other things project car. In any case let the current owner straighten out the paperwork first. It can become a nitemare otherwise and it'll be your problem then.
I have done this but not lately, it wasn't too hard. In your case I suggest you let the seller take care of it. The only reason I would take on the extra hassle is if I got a super cheap price.
Thanks guys! I think I am just going to kindly ask him to either sort the paper work out or thank him for his time. I will be back to school again in September and wont have the time to sort out all those kinds of things.
Just my 2 cents but apartment and major project are usually a bad combination. You also mention going back to school in September. I'm not trying to be negative but from experience I just want to advise you to really be sure about this trade. A running 4 door or no vintage car for the time being might be a better option until school is done. The hobby will still be here in a few years and then you won't have to just settle for a car. Best of luck with whatever you do.
You are absolutely right! To be honest I shouldn't have bought the Fairlane but I did. I regret it now and kind of just want to unload it. I was thinking this may be a smart move to do so? Now I'm kind of thinking it wont be. I keep telling myself to wait until school is over to do the car thing but I make the stupid decision of buying more cars and car parts all the time that I don't have the space or time for.
Hahaha I hope so! With my head the way it works now my first paycheck could be blown on a bunch of project cars
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