Transposed serial number digit on title

[cmsc94]

My mom "inherited" a 1975 Excella from my dad when he passed away. It's in terrible shape and no one in the family wants it. She did have the title transferred to her name singly without issues during the probate process. We found a company that buys trailers in any condition and so she decided to sell to them. Understandably, the company wanted to verify that the serial number on the trailer corresponded with the title. We discovered that somewhere along the line the letter "B" was switched to the number "8" so the title and serial number don't fully match. We still had a photo of the old title (before it was transferred to my mom), and it was incorrect even then. So it's been incorrect at least forty years. The company said to just go down to the BMV and ask them to correct it. My mom will try that, but I would not be surprised if it isn't that simple. Any thoughts on how to proceed if they won't change it? We are in Ohio. And the trailer has very little value due to mold and animal damage. We were just glad that someone will take it off her hands. We couldn't even find a local salvage yard to haul it away. Thanks very much.

[overlander64]

Greetings cmsc94!

Originally Posted by cmsc94

My mom "inherited" a 1975 Excella from my dad when he passed away. It's in terrible shape and no one in the family wants it. She did have the title transferred to her name singly without issues during the probate process. We found a company that buys trailers in any condition and so she decided to sell to them. Understandably, the company wanted to verify that the serial number on the trailer corresponded with the title. We discovered that somewhere along the line the letter "B" was switched to the number "8" so the title and serial number don't fully match. We still had a photo of the old title (before it was transferred to my mom), and it was incorrect even then. So it's been incorrect at least forty years. The company said to just go down to the BMV and ask them to correct it. My mom will try that, but I would not be surprised if it isn't that simple. Any thoughts on how to proceed if they won't change it? We are in Ohio. And the trailer has very little value due to mold and animal damage. We were just glad that someone will take it off her hands. We couldn't even find a local salvage yard to haul it away. Thanks very much.

An incident similar to this happened to friends here in Illinois where the DMV tends to be very picky about matching the Serial/VIN on the Title with the Vehicle to which it applies. The Airstream in question was a 1960s Overlander with the International package. The International package has an "I" in the serial number to identify the trailer as having the International package -- long-time Airstream dealers told me that it was quite common to have that "I" misread as the number 1 quite often. When this happened on a trailer that a friend was purchasing out of state, we took the trailer to a dealership to have an inspection done for a "corrected" serial number/VIN. The dealership completed the form and this form was taken with the properly signed-over title to the local DMV where that transfer was completed without significant problems. It is a fairly common problem particularly with Vintage Airstreams where the VIN/Serial Numbers often weren't struck consistently so if a person unfamiliar with the pattern of the numbers filled out the paperwork while looking at the tag on the trailer, mistakes were quite common.

I am the third owner of my 1964 Overlander Land Yacht International, and I had to get the title corrected after discovering that the "I" for International had been recorded on the title as a number 1 -- it had been correct on the original owner's title when they sold the trailer in 1980, but when transferred to the second owners, the error was made. There was no real issue getting the correction made, it was just the inconvenience of taking the trailer to the dealer for the inspection. I was fortunate in that the dealer was one whom I patronize and they didn't charge me for the inspection or completing the state inspection form.

Good luck with your investigation! Hopefully Ohio won't make it any more difficult than Illinois!

Kevin

[richard5933]

Ohio should have a process for corrections like this. As mentioned already, yours is not the first error like this to happen.

In some states there is an inspection process. When I did this in Texas once I had to take the vehicle to a Trooper's station where someone verified the actual VIN.

Here's the link I found to the process in Ohio:

https://www.bmv.ohio.gov/titles-out-...20was%20issued.

[cmsc94]

Originally Posted by richard5933

Ohio should have a process for corrections like this. As mentioned already, yours is not the first error like this to happen.

In some states there is an inspection process. When I did this in Texas once I had to take the vehicle to a Trooper's station where someone verified the actual VIN.

Here's the link I found to the process in Ohio:

https://www.bmv.ohio.gov/titles-out-...20was%20issued.

Thanks, Richard. I didn't know that information was online. It looks like the process will be different depending on who made the mistake (BMV or buyer) so I will call the BMV this week to learn what to do. Looks like just paperwork, thankfully, as we have no desire to tow this trailer anywhere for an inspection.