Can a Car Be Sold Without Both Owners' Signatures?
Full Question:
Answer:
The answer will depend on whether the owners were named as tenants in common or joint owners with right of survivorship. Joints tenants must all consent and sign off on a sale, whereas a tenant in common may separately sell their interest, without the consent of the other owner, but may then be liable to the other owner for the value of their interest. The answer will depend on all the facts and documents involved, but consequences may range from a refusal to register to a lawsuit to recover the value of the ownership interest improperly transferred.
A bona fide purchaser is commonly referred to as a BFP in legal and banking circles. A BFP is a person who has purchased an asset for the stated value, with a honest belief that the seller had the rights to make such a sale. A BFP is unaware of any fact which would cause a reasonable person to doubt on the right of the seller to have sold it in good faith. This is relevant in the situation of a seller without good title to an item who sells the item to a BFP and the true owner later shows up to claim title. In this situation, the BFP will be able to keep the asset, and the real owner will have to look to the fraudulent seller for reimbursement.
Please see the following VA statutes:
§ 46.2-622. Issuance of certificate of title in names of
joint owners.
When the Department receives an application for a certificate of
title for a motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer, to be issued in the names
of two natural persons, jointly with right of survivorship, the
Department shall issue to its owners a certificate of title accordingly.
Any certificate issued in the name of two persons may contain an
expression such as "or the survivor of them," which shall be deemed
sufficient to create joint ownership during the lives of the two owners,
and individual ownership in the survivor. A certificate issued in the
names of two persons, with their names separated only by "or," shall
create joint ownership during the lives of the owners, and individual
ownership in the survivor of them.
Nothing herein shall (i) prohibit the issuance of a certificate of
title in the names of two or more persons as owners in common which shall be sufficient evidence of ownership of undivided interests in the
vehicle; (ii) grant immunity from enforcement of any liability of any
person owning the vehicle, as one of two joint owners, to the extent of
his interest in the vehicle, during the lives of its owners; (iii) permit
the issuance of a certificate of title in the names of two persons as
tenants by the entireties; or (iv) be used by one of the joint owners as
a defense to the secured party's enforcement of a security interest in
the vehicle that was granted by one or both of the joint owners of the
vehicle on the same date or prior to the issuance of the certificate of
title.