Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Carlton
The question is how the first subsequent owner obtained a suitable title to register the vehicle. The title was in the possession of Allstate.
How that fraud was perpetuated is of significant curiosity.
And, yes, some poor slob is out a whole lot of money because of the original fraud.
This fraud, if widely utilized, can be perpetuated on any unsuspecting used car purchaser.
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Here in Utah there is another legal way you can do this... yes it is 100% legal.
Mechanic Lien... the way it works is simple.
You go to a garage for some service work, you can't pay the bill and mechanics refuses to release the car. The mechanic is allowed to request title under the Mechanics Lien reimbursement.
He apply to DMV Utah for the title to be transferred to him, the waiting period is 45 days and after that the DMV issue the title in his name. So now he can sell the car because the tittle is clean and clear in his name. All the Banks, Credit Unions etc don't like that at all, but they can't do anything about it.
If the "customer" keep the payment on the car for only 2 months they can't go after him
after that he claim bankruptcy and they can't even get the car back
So as you can imagine they are a lot of people trying to get out of the high payments so they just need to find A friendly mechanic that is ready to pay..let's say $5K cash for a $15K car... Once the garage receive the title they just sell the car for $10K.
So the bottom line... there is a way to obtain legal title easier than everybody think.
That is why Allstate going to auction and they don't really want to deal with all the hassle.
Regardless of everything I think that the last owner will go after them.
Remain to be seen