This post may prove to be rather long-winded, so consider yourself warned.

OK, so in 2003 I bought a used truck from my father-in-law. I applied online for a loan through my credit union, and I was approved as I have spotless credit.

Here I must warn you, I am in the military and have moved a lot in a short period of time, so try and keep up with the logistics. My father-in-law lives in West Virginia, so the truck had WV tags on it at the time of purchase. I drove the truck back to my house in Raleigh, and since the plates still had about 3 months left on them, I waited until then to get North Carolina tags. Eventually, however, I did get North Carolina tags without a problem.

So in the next year I moved to South Carolina. Once again I got new tags when my old ones expired, this time in South Carolina. Once again, no problem.

Well, a couple months ago, I moved to Washington. Washington, unlike North Carolina and South Carolina, requires a copy of the title prior to issuing tags. My tags expire at the end of February, so a couple weeks ago, I sent my credit union a request to fax a copy of my title to the Washington DMV. Oddly, they sent a copy of my lien, and not a copy of the title. When I called them, they claimed they never received a copy of my title.

Now, let me backtrack to right after I purchased the truck from my father-in-law. My credit union sent me some paperwork that I was required to fill out and send back, along with a copy of the title. I filled this paperwork out and sent in the title to my credit union.

So here I am, unable to get tags because I don't have any idea where my title is. North Carolina and South Carolina claim to have never seen it. Apparently these states allow people to register their vehicles without a copy of the title. I can get temporary tags that last 2 months, but I don't know if that will be long enough. Myself/the Washington DMV/my credit union are working together to find a copy of the title. Our next idea is to try and find a copy of the title in West Virginia where the truck was originally registered. If this is the only one we can find (assuming it exists) I am sure the title will be in my father-in-law's name, so that's just an extra headache pulling him into this, since he works shiftwork and is often very difficult to motivate.

My whole problem with this and reason for posting this thread is this: The ONLY responsibility the credit union had was keeping my title. I am paying them money (in the form of interest) to do just that. When they failed to receive the paperwork and title (as thery claim), then why was I not notified? From what little research I have done, lenders will often seize the vehicle if the title is not received in a timely manner, and yet these guys don't even send me any paperwork telling me they haven't gotten anything?

I am really not trying to be a pain here, but this is costing me a lot of problems. First, I am in the Navy and am about to be deployed for about 3 months, during which time I will have NO contact with the outside world. I do not have time to waste 5 hours (so far) to fix their mistakes and oversights. Secondly, I am having to pay an additional fee to get temporary tags, and if, after 60 days, I still do not have a title, I cannot drive my truck. Lastly, and perhaps most important is the sheer negligence on the part of the credit union. It is their job to keep my title safe on what amounts to my most valuable (monitarily) worldy possession.

I do not want to take any action, I just want my truck to have license plates. If they manage to take care of this in an expeditious manner, I will be perfectly content. However, if not, do I have a legal leg to stand on? I feel very taken advantage of here, and I feel like I should not have to waste my time chasing my tail trying to find this title. I know most people on here do not have any experience with this, but I am hoping maybe someone has dealt with something similar in the past, even if it is just a simple lost title request. Thanks for the time reading the thread and for any advice.

2/24/2006 11:47:13 PM

omg so much to read

2/24/2006 11:49:11 PM

It seems like legal action is going way overboard.

2/24/2006 11:52:14 PM

^
Agreed. Threatening legal action over something like this will most likely get thrown out of court. Judge will say you haven't pursued the issue yet. Time is a valuable commodity to all of us ... blah blah blah.

I'd go to the credit union branch in person (if thats possible) to get this straightened out. Usually an angry customer in person (rather than over the phone) can accomplish a lot more. You can wait in the branch until you talk to however many "supervisors" it takes to figure out whats really going on or to get somebody to track that title down.

2/25/2006 1:03:17 AM

Contact the DMV, report the title missing, and have them issue a new one. There's a fee, but it's a relatively simple process.

2/25/2006 1:38:03 AM

yeah you can get a duplicate mailed to you it will take a couple of weeks

2/25/2006 12:47:35 PM

That's cool, thanks.

2/25/2006 1:38:37 PM