title problem

[cdabbey]

My daughter bought a 1995 Saturn.....when she went to do the registration they found a lein on the title but the Lein holder..a bank is no more and a new bank has taken it over. They will not give her any info how to get a clean title so she can register the car. They say the person who owened the car needs to do this. So what do we do now? She has already paid for the car?

[solvman]

I don't know how it is done in your state. But in state of KS seller supposed to provide buyer with lean free title. You most likely could go after seller if the lean that you have is in the same state. However, if this lean is in the other state you won't probably be able to do anything about it, because as far as seller goes he/she needs to provide title that is free of leans in the current state. Sometimes when you deal with out-of-state titles it is hard to know for sure that there is no lean on the car. Specially with states that do not have electronic lean fillings (it might take over several months for lean to get filed). It is very painful issue. I had some bad experience myself as a seller.

Best of luck.

['97ventureowner]

Can you have the former owner from whom you bought the car contact the bank and obtain a lien release? It seems that the bank would rather deal with the owner of title.

[solvman]

I would be the right thing to do. If you can locate former owner and he/she is willing to do it for you. Banks or finance companies usually will not give lien release to anyone, but person who took that loan out.