You will need a bonded title in order to register a vehicle in your own name or transfer ownership to someone else if you don’t currently have a valid title. There are a number of reasons why that might be the case. Perhaps you bought the vehicle from a private seller who did not give you a title at the time of the sale, even though you may have a receipt or a canceled check in your possession. Such documents are not, in themselves, sufficient proof that you own a vehicle for which you don’t have a valid title.
Another possibility is that the seller gave you a defective title, meaning there is something wrong with it that causes the DMV to declare it invalid. It may be improperly assigned by the previous owner, with a missing or forged signature or other required information that is missing or incorrect. Or the title could be damaged in such a way that critical information is illegible or missing.
Or, you may have a valid title, but it was lost or stolen before you could register the vehicle in your own name. You don’t need a bonded title if the title was lost or stolen after the vehicle was registered to you. In such cases, all that’s required is a replacement title, which is much easier and cheaper to obtain than a bonded title.
