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Question: We have an old beater car that we kept to drive to the beach, but we don’t get out much anymore and none of our grandkids want it. We haven’t driven it for quite a while. I want to get rid of it, but I can’t find the title. What are our options?
Answer: You’ll need to replace the title, then consider disposal options based on whether you’ve kept the registration current or officially placed the vehicle in storage. Here’s key information, from Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services:
>> Replace title: Apply for a duplicate title at a satellite city hall for $10. On the form (808ne.ws/tdup), you’ll list the vehicle’s make, license plate number, vehicle identification number, registered owner, lienholder if any, and other information.
“If the presumed registered owner can provide any documentation at all that he or she is the owner of the vehicle, then a satellite city hall would be able to issue a duplicate title as an exception to procedures. Acceptable documentation includes any old registration showing he or she is the owner; sales contract from the dealer; paid-in-full loan contract from the lienholder (if the owner took out a loan to purchase the vehicle); insurance card or policy showing he or she was the owner when the vehicle was last registered. Some owners keep these documents for many years. For vehicles that were last registered prior to 1997, a physical search of the last record must be done by the city’s Division of Motor Vehicle, Licensing & Permits. If this division is unable to find the records, the last resort for presumed registered owner will be to obtain a court order instructing the City and County of Honolulu to issue a duplicate title,” Harold Nedd, spokesperson for Customer Services, said in a recent email, in response to a similar question from another reader.
Based on another reader’s experience, it could take about a month to issue a duplicate for an old vehicle — in that case it was a motorcycle from the 1970s that was last registered around 1990. Along with the form, that reader brought a license plate and a tracing of the VIN to the satellite city hall and eventually obtained a duplicate title. Be sure to ask at the time you submit the application how long the process should take, and follow up if you don’t hear back.
>> Disposal: After you replace the title, what you do with the vehicle might depend on whether you owe back registration fees. You can junk the car through the city without paying a fee if you have full title (no lienholder), even if you had failed to pay annual registration fees when you weren’t driving the car, Nedd said. “If a lienholder is shown on the title, the lienholder would need to sign off on ‘Section B’ of the title or submit a lien satisfaction letter. If the lien is not paid off, then the registered owner is not able to junk the vehicle, primarily because he or she won’t have the certificate of title, which is required for any junking,” he said. To use the city’s junking program, follow the instructions at 808ne.ws/3tPQlBj.
However, if you failed to keep the registration current and now want to make the car street-legal in order to sell it, for example, you’ll owe overdue registration fees unless you had notified the city at the time that you were storing the vehicle on private property, which includes surrendering the license plates. “If the vehicle was placed in official storage with the City and County of Honolulu, then no back fees are due. If an official storage was not done, then all back fees are collectible,” Nedd said. Read details about this process at 808ne.ws/3jYqqFp.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
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