| Katie, here is what I learned today and passed on to Ryan as well as the current owner(s). Getting clear title in California should be doable as long as they are willing to pay the fees or can find some exemption or creative way around the fees. Unfortunately, it could prove expensive for them. The California title rules on vehicles purchased from an estate require the collection of "two" transfer fees (it appears to be the same in all West Coast states). They want a transfer fee to cover the transfer from the deceased to the heir, and from the heir to the new buyer. They may also require back registration fees, but hopefully that would not go back all the way to the last registration. Plus, all three states want proof that whoever signed the title was the rightful heir. Too bad the deceased did not sign before moving on. If he had, it would be easy to register here in WA, but with someone else's name signed on the title, it's a complete mess unless cleared up in the original state or a state with very loose registration laws (which someone in this thread noted we should not encourage). These rules are typically written to deal with vehicles that have so much value it is worth the effort (nobody would walk away from a 2005 Mercedes E55 that grandpa left in the garage just because of the transfer fees). When you start dealing with old trailers and other vehicles typically found in fields with 20 years of expired registration, these rules are just poor public policy and tend to discourage transfers (and commerce in general) by making the transaction costs prohibitively expensive. Hopefully the current owners can put their heads together and come up with a solution that works. I just want to end up with a trailer in my name. |