[VAC] getting a title

["Kerry Anderson" <kerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    Just wanted to share with everyone the dilema we had in getting the
title to our 1969 Globetrotter.....
    We bought it from a used car salesman (this is really a true story!) in
town and at the time he didn't have the title, but said it wouldn't be a
problem getting it -- it was just a matter of a few phone calls.  So we took
the trailer home.  It took us eight months to get the title!!!  The
Globetrotter needs a lot of work on the inside since it was used as an
office for the State of New Mexico for quite some time.  We wanted to spend
the winter fixing it up, but didn't want to do anything to it until we got
the title.  We thought, just about the time we put some money into it,
someone would come and claim it or we would find out it didn't have a clear
title or something, so we just let it sit there for eight months.
    After we called this guy three or four times over the course of eight
months, he continued to give us the same story -- "You know what it is like
dealing with the State..."  etc.  We finally decided we were being "taken"
and so we called the State of New Mexico Motor Vehicles Division (originally
we were just going to do a "lost title" search...).     They directed us to
a Surety company to contact regarding the title.  Seems as though if a
dealer cannot come up with a title in a "reasonable" amount of time, you can
get what is called a Bond Title.  That is, if the dealer does not get your
title to you, he has to pay a bond.  Sometimes this can cause him to loose
his license.  They told me he should have never even tried to sell the thing
without securing the title first.
    It is very interesting that after waiting eight months for the title,
once we reported him to the surety company, he had the title within two
weeks!!!!
    The conversation that spurred us on to call the State Motor Vehicles
Division was when he said, "Just bring it on back and I will re-sell it and
we will both make some money."  We didn't like that conversation.
    Anyway, then we got a letter back from the State after we had already
gotten our title and they said that the Surety company could not continue
with our case because they only deal with RV's and motored vehicles and
trailers.  They said that "mobile homes" weren't covered under their
terms!!!  They thought we had purchased a mobile home!!!  They evidently
have never heard of "Airstream", ey?
    So now the dealer is all bent out of shape at us for turning him in and
he wants us to "reverse" what we did to him.  oh, well......
    Just wanted you all to know that there are still really stupid people
out there like us who will buy something without seeing a title first!!!!
And if any of you ever do something dumb like this, there IS a way out!!!
    So now it is the middle of May and we want to hit the road, but we don't
have a road-worthy  tin teepee.
((((((hugs))))))
Kerry