Vehicle Registration Conundrum | GTAMotorcycle.com

Vehicle Registration Conundrum

U

Uhlaf

Member
So a little back story;

I purchased a 1981 Yamaha XS650 from a really cool man up the road from me. It belonged to his son who unfortunately lost his license before he could drive it (DD). I bought the bike, got a bill of sale and the title (US bike, Michigan title nice and clean) Here comes the fun part;

The kid didn't put the bike in his name, he just sat on it for a couple weeks before it pained him enough to let it go. So now I have the title from Michigan, the bill of sale from the kid who put nothing in his name and the proof of border taxes payed which is also signed by him name. I can only imagine the headache when I roll into the MTO with half the crap in this kids name and a bill of sale to me.

Anyone else have a similar story, does anyone know what I'm in for?
 
I'd read the sticky on importing vehicles. It seems like you might be in the sketchy grey area with a US vehicle in Canada that didn't finish the import process.
 
GreyGhost said:
I'd read the sticky on importing vehicles. It seems like you might be in the sketchy grey area with a US vehicle in Canada that didn't finish the import process.
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The US export procedure recently became more difficult, requiring a US I.D. The state of Michigan, US export, RIV, MOT all listening to a story on a 30+ year old bike. You gotta lot of splainin to do Lucy. Is it worth it for an old bike?
 
On the face of it, it sounds like you just paid money for a bike that someone else still owns. Easiest way out of this one is to get your money back, if you can. What if that bike is reported stolen? If you're set on keeping it, get in touch with the seller to see if they can complete the transfer process from their end before you try and register it in your name here.
 
Bike Cop said:
On the face of it, it sounds like you just paid money for a bike that someone else still owns. Easiest way out of this one is to get your money back, if you can. What if that bike is reported stolen? If you're set on keeping it, get in touch with the seller to see if they can complete the transfer process from their end before you try and register it in your name here.
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1) How much does one pay for a 1981 Yamaha?
2) Unless the father has some sort of power of attorney over the bike or his son he doesn't have any right to sell the bike.
3) The US seller sold the bike to DD junior and can't sell it again to someone who just gives him a phone call.

If junior doesn't want to get involved either return the bike for a refund or go to another GTAM thread that deals with registering a bike without the paperwork. I wouldn't do that without contacting the US export people to see if the bike is eligible for export (Stolen or a lien).
 
I've bought vehicles... owned them for years without ever putting them in my name... and then sold them later on and the buyers had no issues registering it.
 
Ive done the same. Never had issues, but ive always had 2 bills of sale. One from the orginal owner and one from the person I was buying it off of.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
raginduck said:
I don't know... it might be!?
Never had an issue. Always done with both bills of sale as well....
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You've got 6 days to transfer ownership upon purchase. With everyone keeping honest (other than the registration bit) then a new owner would have no issue, but you can see how this could go sideways quickly. Throw an international change in registration in there and it could get downright ugly. Personally I'd never do the purchase that the OP did.
 
You should be able to transfer ownership. I've known Canadians who bought American vehicles and transferred them, though admittedly they were living there at the time.

Keep in mind that if you don't transfer ownership of a vehicle it might well be difficult to prove ownership, if the original owner or a bank comes around to collect it.
 
When i bought the YZF it was the same (although not imported) The kid couldn't afford insurnace and sat on it for a year. The ownership was signed by the "original" owner, and no signature from the seller. MTO had no issues. They didn't even ask to see the bill of sale.
 
kcalB said:
When i bought the YZF it was the same (although not imported) The kid couldn't afford insurnace and sat on it for a year. The ownership was signed by the "original" owner, and no signature from the seller. MTO had no issues. They didn't even ask to see the bill of sale.
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And while that worked out for you and there was nothing underhanded about it, the MTO didn't do it's job. No signature, no bill of sale, no nothing? Now think of your own machine getting registered in someone else's name without so much as your signature on the ownership...

We'd all be on here screaming bloody murder.
 
coyo said:
And while that worked out for you and there was nothing underhanded about it, the MTO didn't do it's job. No signature, no bill of sale, no nothing? Now think of your own machine getting registered in someone else's name without so much as your signature on the ownership...

We'd all be on here screaming bloody murder.
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There was a signature.....on the ownership.....

It's like the bike I purchased the ownership was signed, but not by the seller but by one of the owners, I don't even want to know how far back, as the bike was actually bought and sold a few times, but no one registered it, even I didn't for almost a year after the purchase, once I rebuilt it, I went and registered it.....however upon the initial purchase I did go and get a UVIP, just to make sure there was nothing funky going on......

.
 
GateKeeper said:
There was a signature.....on the ownership.....
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But not in the seller area (at least that's how I read it) and if I'm reading it wrong, then that's curbsiding, also illegal.

GateKeeper said:
It's like the bike I purchased the ownership was signed, but not by the seller but by one of the owners, I don't even want to know how far back, as the bike was actually bought and sold a few times, but no one registered it, even I didn't for almost a year after the purchase, once I rebuilt it, I went and registered it.....however upon the initial purchase I did go and get a UVIP, just to make sure there was nothing funky going on......

.
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And if there was a hickup along the way, you'd be left holding the bag.
 
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