Hey gang - I haven't said a word on the list in years because I moved and left
my Brick behind. Well, my uncle has become interested in resuming the
project, and so I started work on getting the title transferred to him.
Unfortunately, I'm an idiot. When I bought the car, I didn't get the
ownership transferred to me, because I didn't have the money to cover the
taxes right after shelling out for the car. Then, of course, I promptly lost
the actual piece of paper which would transfer ownership to me. I definitely
had an Ontario ownership for that car, but didn't get it transferred into my
name. This was 12 years ago and I have no practical means of tracking down
the current registered owner (it was sold on consignment through a mechanic
who is no longer in business).
I called the Ministry of Transportation in Ontario to find out how I go about
getting a valid title for this car. The rep I talked to said that I can do
the following:
1) Get the name (no address or contact info) of the registered owner at an MTO
office by providing the VIN. He couldn't give me the info over the phone, but
offered to look up if the MTO has the car on record. When I gave him the VIN,
he said that there's no record associated with it. What? Maybe the record
was purged or archived somehow because it's been so long since the vehicle was
plated?
2) Get a sworn affidavit indicating that I bought the car legally and bring
that to an MTO office to try to get an ownership. He said that there are no
guarantees that the MTO office will even grant the ownership in this case,
that there will be some kind of review process.
3) Get a court order. This means going to court and getting a judge to rule
that I am the legitimate owner of the car. The MTO will have to accept this,
but he said that it's hard to get such an order. I don't know anything about
what would be involved, or what the costs would be.
The car is very close to being a basket case - if I had a title, the title and
VIN plate would probably be the most valuable thing about it (other than the
custom frame and some fairly high-spec suspension stuff I've got for it). I'm
thinking that the best bet might be to buy a parts car with a clear title and
then my uncle can assemble what he wants out of the two cars and the custom
chassis. But it's not like you see Bricklin parts cars for sale everyday
either.
If anyone has any pointers on how to get a title for the original car (someone
with experience doing this in Ontario Canada, please), I would love to hear
it. Also, if anybody's got a full or partial parts car with a clear title
(salvage title would even be OK, I think), let me know and let's see what we
can work out.
Thanks for listening.-- Phil Martin "How does it feel to want?"
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