switching salvage title to clear title

if a client came into my PA law office and asked how he could "legally" change a "reconstructed" or "salvage" pennsylvania motor vehicle title into a "regular" non-reconstructed, non-salvage title i would have a simple answer for him: "there is no process in pennsylvania to do that legally." pennsylvania maintains several classifications of motor vehicle titles to protect insurance companies, car dealerships and private auto buyers. the state legislature has determined that there is a difference in value to motor vehicles that have not been involved in catastrophic accidents and those that have been. the state also argues that there are public safety reasons also justifying labeling vehicles that have been involved in accidents. generally, the state leaves the determination as to whether or not a vehicle can be repaired up to the individual insurance companies. if a vehicle is determined to be a "total loss" by an insurance company as the result of the owner submitting a claim for compensation, the company will notify the PA state officials and that designation will be assigned to that VIN #. then if the original owner or another private party purchases that vehicle off of the insurance company, when that person applies for a PA title, they will get a "reconstructed" title. i purchased one of my trucks, a 2006 dodge duelly from a body shop in ohio after they had purchased it and repaired it from a total accident. it has a reconstructed title. every vehicle titled and licensed in pennsylvania is subject to these titling rules.

if a resident of PA had a vehicle with a reconstructed title and then sold it to someone in another state under an agreement that the other person would resale that vehicle back to the PA resident so the PA resident could obtain a "clean" or "good" title, that would be a felony in PA - conspiracy to commit fraud. if a PA resident sells a vehicle with a bad title to someone in another state and through some process, that state issues the new owner a "good" title, that is up to the second state's department of motor vehicles. perhaps if this second owner kept this car for some reasonable period of time - probably at least a year - and then sold it back to the original PA seller, the PA person "probably" would be safe as far as legality in PA. HOWEVER, there could still be a problem with the PA buyer not informing PennDot that he had knowledge of the car having a reconstructed title when he owned it. the natural suspicion on the part of the PA authorities would be that the entire arrangement was "a conspiracy."

anyway you look at it, messing around with VIN numbers and titles is a tricky and legally dangerous practice. most states will not allow altering of vehicle titles for vehicles registered to residents of that state. AND there are laws against trying to send titles across state lines for "nefarious" purposes. and the final worry even if you could somehow "wash" your title "clean" - if you sell that vehicle, you MUST disclose that the vehicle had a salvage or reconstructed title to the new buyer. if you don't and the buyer discovers that fact, that buyer will have a very easy legal issue upon which to sue you - and you WILL lose that suit.