All About Title Bonds

Good morning, friends! We hope you’ve had a wonderful Memorial Day…if not the whole holiday weekend.  Welcome back and let’s get right to the brass tacks, eh?

Today we’re talking about bonds. Specifically, Title Bonds, sometimes also referred to as a Surety Bond.

What is a Bonded Title?

A bonded title is a legal document that allows an individual to claim ownership on a vehicle without possessing the certificate of title in their name.

What in the world does this mean, you wonder? Well, that’s what we’re here to explore. We’ll start with a possible and most common scenario.

Let’s say that John buys a vehicle via private sale from Sam. (Private sale, meaning, person to person, rather than at a dealership, for example.) The sale is legitimate, and Sam signs over his title -and therefore his vehicle – to John. Now, John takes the car (or truck, or SUV, or motorcycle, or whatever the ride may be) and happily brings it home.

But then life gets in the way. John gets super busy, he goes on vacation, he goes on a business trip, what have you. And when he gets home, he realizes that he really ought to have the title officially transferred to his name. In fact, he must do so in order to become the legal owner of the vehicle. So he searches through his desk and file cabinet and all his things, but the title has gone missing.

Normally, John would potentially be able to contact Sam and politely request that Sam apply for a duplicate title (also called a replacement title) from the DMV (or eTags!) that he could then sign over to John. But what happens if Sam won’t oblige? What happens when the seller disappears or is unwilling to get a duplicate to sign over to his buyer who has misplaced the title? There is no way to prove who is the legal owner of the car/truck/SUV/motorcycle. So now what?

How does a Title Bond help?

If John has misplaced his signed-over title from his seller, and therefore cannot get a new title in his name from the DMV, he has one helpful option: to obtain a bonded title, which will allow him to be considered the legal owner of the vehicle he has purchased without being in possession of the original title.

Here’s what John would need to provide in order to get a bonded title:

• His full legal name, as stated on his driver’s license
• His legal address
• The year, make, and model of the vehicle
• The vehicle’s VIN (vehicle identification number)
• The value of the vehicle

What does a Bonded Title Cost?

A bonded title cost will depend on the value of the vehicle itself. In the state of Florida, the FLHMSV requires that bonds cover more than double the retail value of the vehicle. Kelley Blue Book has an easy-to-use value calculator that can help give you an idea of what your bond value might be. And once the value is established, the Title Bond will cost a small percentage of that total.

For example, if a vehicle is valued at $50,000, the Title Bond would have a starting cost of $100 and upwards. For values over $50,000, a bond would start at $750.

Are there any other reasons to obtain a Title Bond?

All this said, there are other examples of when a Title Bond might be needed. Here are a few circumstances:

1. Your seller did not provide a title at the time of sale
2. You happened to purchase a vehicle that is an antique or custom-made and does not have a title
3. Your seller provided a title that did not have their name listed on the front

For any of these instances, in addition to misplacing a title before being able to transfer it, eTags is here to help. Coming soon the assist Florida residents who’ve gotten themselves into these sticky title situations, we are happy to soon be adding Bonded Titles to our roster of services available to the state of Florida.

In the meantime, we are ready and able to help out with title transfers, duplicate (replacement) titles, registrations, registration renewals, registration replacements, and Specialty/Personalized plates.  We are happy to support you with all your title and tag needs….because as always, at eTags, we’re here to help!