I’m going to look at an ATV today. I like the price and it’s in good shape. Problem is, the seller does not have any registration or documentation like that. He wants to sell it only with a bill of sale from him to me. For now I only plan on riding on private land so I don’t see a need to register or insure it, however, should I decide to ride in state parks and such, how difficult is it to piece together old paperwork/have a title/registration put together? What is involved in procuring a title so that I might be able to register and insure it?
I also am wary of the ATV possibly being stolen—not that the deal seems shady, but anytime you find a car/truck/whatever without paperwork, you have to question its past. I read on a few other places that you can just grab the VIN or serial number off the quad and call it in to state police and see if it was reported stolen.
Why doesn’t the seller have the documentation is the first big red flag. If he legitimately had it titled in his name and just lost it he can get it reproduced for a nominal fee at the DMV. If was never titled to him and you don’t know who the original owner is you’re pretty much SOL on ever getting it registered in this state again.
Even riding on private land I’d never buy it with no title unless it was one screaming deal, and even then only if I ran the VIN and it wasn’t stolen. If/When you go to sell it 95% of buyers are going to walk away when they hear no title and the other 5% are going to want a huge discount.
Pretty sure unless you have connections you have to take the bike to the station to have the vin# run. That way if it comes up stolen they seize it on the spot. What kind of ATV is it? Is it a too good to be true deal?
I have gotten pulled over before while riding and had to provide registration, and had to have a plate on mine. I don’t know what would of happened if i only had a bill of sale, probably wouldn’t worked out too well lol.
False. I’ve already been through this with an atv. I was able to register it even though the seller was not the original owner. You can go to the dmv and they will give you the special forms needed to be filled out. The main thing is getting the vin verified by one of two ways. Using a special to etch it into paper (this did not work at all in my case) or getting a cop to verify it. After one of those two is done and the paper work is filled out, take it to the dmv and they will issue you a non transferable registration. Then a few months later or so, your good registration will show up in the mail.
Nope. No connections here and a cop came to my place and filled out an actual VIN confirmation form that I took with me to the dmv. Mine was a to good to be true deal that I fixed and flipped with nice profit.
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I got caught trying to pass through a city ditch buried in 4 feet of mud. Sucked having to get off the machine and walk through the muck to him to wait for him to run my plate only to say I’m ok to finish trying to get unstuck. lol
i decided to back out on the deal. the bike wasn’t a GREAT deal, it was just okay. i found that the seller didn’t even have the bill of sale from when he traded his old ATV for the one in question. so, literally, no paperwork whatsoever. after talking to a few State Trooper stations, they told me to call the DMV, and that they’d check it for me. i spent about 15 mins on the phone trying to get through to a human at a few DMV offices and said fuck it.
after searching on CL for a few mins i found couple other deals that are legit, normal with all paperwork. thanks for the advice guys.