I am in possession of a vehicle of which is titled to my Husband, who recently passed away, and the vehicle is registered to a corporation that is no longer active, and was dissolved years ago. To complicate the matter, there are two leinholders on the vehicle. One is a bank, which I can deal with, the other is another corporation which my Husband formed and operated with his son. This business, as well, is inactive, and was also dissolved years ago.My question is, 1) how do I go about getting he vehicle registered/titled in my name, 2) how do I even begin to start this process?I have looked up both inactive/dissolved corporations, and printed out the status on both. As his surviving Spouse, I would think that the vehicle should be able to be transferred over to me. Is it possible? and if so, where do I begin?
Hello there
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Boy -- this is pretty messy!
Was the corporation with the son just in your husband's name?
Have you ever gone to probate court to probate his estate?
MARY
Mary,
Yes it is pretty messy. You have no idea....
The corporation with his son listed my Husband as President, and his son as Vice President. His son was responsible only for keeping the office open, and running the business. And again, it was dissolved 10/01/2004. I know of no meetings held, no stocks issued, and the business failed. My Husband was the sole financial investor in the corporation, purchased all of the vehicles, paid the building rental, utilities, all of the expenses.
As to the probate court, no I have not taken that step. I am under the impression that that can get pretty expensive, and also messy. The only thing in question here is the one vehicle.
I just don't quite know where to start. I did go to the county circuit court's web site to see what I could find. I was looking at a document called "Disposition of Personal Property Without Administration" which is a form that I can file by myself without having to actually hire an attorney. My finances are limited at the moment, to say the least.
Any suggestions?
Hello again
Are you on positive enough terms that you can get the son, as the VP of the former corp, to sign a release of lien? As an officer of the corp he legally has power to execute documents (even now when the corp is defunct)?? If you can get him to sign a simple release of lien (put the year, VIN, etc on the release) and state that any obligations on the lien dated XXXXX were paid to the corporation when it was in existence--- type it up, get him to execute it as VP of XYZ corp. and then take that, along with the bank release of lien to the probate court and you are exactly correct -- you use that form that you came across to administer small amounts of personal property or to transfer an auto into someone's name -- it does cost a few hundred dollars but those forms are signed by the clerk in the office (no need for a judge hearing or a lawyer) and you can then take the form and the releases of lien to the DMV to change everything over to your name.
Please let me know if you have further questions.
Let's throw one more log on the fire. I do not posess the title, only the vehicle. My guess is that it is still with the bank that financed the vehicle. OK, so let's forget about the sons vp position for a minute. So do I go to the bank first, find out exactly where the lien stands, clear it up with them, and then go to the Probate Court with all of the documents that I have hoping they will grant my request for ownership without settlement of the son's corporation since it is inactive and dissolved?
Sorry I did not see this first. The probate court only gives you permission to transfer the title from him to whomever you want to transfer it to (you will be named the administrator of his small "estate"). So you can do that first without any issues. It is the DMV that you now have to worry about -- so you should clear up any lien with the bank and see if they have the title and will release it if you simply pay them what is owed (you will have to show the bank the paperwork that you are the estate administrator and a death certificate). The bank then may not want to release the title if they have it unless the son signs off on the other lien. Then, small claims court will not assist because you will need an order from a regular court forcing either the transfer or the son to sign the transfer, which you would send to the bank to release the title to you. If the bank releases the title to you because you pay them what is owed and they do not care about the other lien, then you should take my suggestions in my other answer and try the small claims route against the son. But, first step is to get the Admin of Probate paperwork taken care of.