Can I scratch out a name on a car title to sell it?

The title is a legal document. Any errors on the title, such as wrong name in the wrong place, or scratch outs, etc, make the title void.

You are going to have to get your friend to go to the DMV and get a replacement title.

You aren't a licensed car dealer so you cannot use the dealer portion of the title and neither can your buyer. Licensed car dealers use that portion because the law allows them to skip the titling part until they make a final sale. Dealers don't pay sales tax when they buy cars, but you have to.

BTW, selling a car that you have purchased without titling the car yourself is called skip titling and is illegal. You are depriving the state of their taxes on the sale of the vehicle. You may not want to deal with the DMV, but that's the way it works.

I recommend taking your mess of ideas to your county auditor's office.

Present documents and explain with your other evidence for advice what to do.

If you already messed up the documents, you may have to get notarized

release of interest from the previous legal owner (s) as necessary.

If you cannot raise them, you may have to follow a program that awaits their disputing ownership.

If the state issues a new title, it would be after that time.

Your state could vary, so you ask your people.

Sometimes, different viewpoints exist about the law or extenuating circumstances require adjudication.

Then you let a judge decide.

See what your auditors office has to require of you.

It could just be the evidence you have is enough.

It could be that you signed someone elses title.

It could be you caused yourself some legwork and

postage, fees and time.

They will only seem angry for a second.

Explain you did not take life skills in high school

and your parents taught you nothing.

You were understandably confused by the variable ideas of other people who did not know either.

Only with a notarized power of attorney explaining the screw up and even then, just a single line thru the incorrect name. not a total markout.

To be legal, you are supposed to put the car in your name before selling it.

Non dealers cannot sign over a car like dealers can.

Find a title clerk to help you with the notarized letter you need. And you and the seller will probably have to sign in front of the notary.

$10-15 is reasonable for what you need.

With that, the persons whose name is on the front of the title can sell it by writing the new buyers name in.

But only with a single line and only with the notary.

What you wanted to do is unlawful.

The vehicle must be transferred to the seller. Or the seller has No Rights to the vehicle, not having proper title.

Some states allow for an exception if the reseller is a licensed Dealer.

Altering the Document, makes it null and void. A new Title would have to be applied for.

Avoiding the Transfer Tax is also a crime.

1

"scratching out" someone's name on any official document is a criminal offence. It's fraud/theft. The car belongs to whoever's name is on the title. You need to get your friend to deal with the change of name.

LOL. Flipper fail! Now you have to get all that stuff in your name before you sell it. Don't forget the smog certificate.

Yea

No, that voids the title.