Selling a car for a parent or relative who can't do it themselves

Which route you take depends on one question: can the owner still make and sign decisions today?

Route one: the owner signs, you do the rest

If your parent can still sign, this is the simplest path by far. You handle the calls, the buyer and the pickup. They sign the seller's section of the title. Some states, such as Kentucky and Pennsylvania, also want that signature notarized.

Bring the title to them rather than the other way round. Check the name printed on the front first. Colorado wants the signature to match the owner name on the front exactly, and Alabama wants the names on the buyer's application to be identical to the names on the title. The name is what has to match.

Watch for a second owner. If the title lists your father "AND" your mother, Delaware, Nevada, Utah and Wisconsin all want both to sign. If it says "OR", either one can sign alone.

Route two: a power of attorney

A power of attorney is the document that lets you sign for someone else. California's DMV describes it as a written document in which one person, the principal, gives another the right to act for them as attorney-in-fact, and it says a POA may be used to release ownership on a title or a bill of sale.

When you sign with one, you are signing as the agent, not as your parent. The California DMV says the POA must name the attorney-in-fact and must go with any application the attorney-in-fact signs. So the POA travels with the title.

Use the state's own form when there is one

Several states print their own vehicle POA. Using it saves arguments at the counter:

• California: REG 260. All signatures on it must be in ink. A photocopy or fax of a general POA, REG 260 included, is accepted.
• Texas: VTR-271. Every section must be filled in, original signatures in black or blue ink are required, and no alterations are allowed. If the POA is used to apply for title, both the person granting it and the person signing must include a photocopy of photo ID. For a car that needs a federal odometer disclosure, Texas requires the secure VTR-271-A instead.
• Ohio: form BMV 3771 is titled "POWER OF ATTORNEY". It appoints an attorney-in-fact to make the assignment of, or the application for, the certificate of title.
• Florida: HSMV 82053, the limited power of attorney, or the secure HSMV 82995. A photocopy of 82053 can be used if the clerk sees the original or a certified copy. The 82995 must be the original; a photocopy or certified copy is not accepted.

Florida's signing rules are strict

A Florida power of attorney must be signed by the principal and by two subscribing witnesses, and acknowledged by the principal before a notary public. A POA signed at the kitchen table with no witnesses won't hold up there.

There is a notary trap too. Under s. 117.107(12), a Florida notary may not notarize a signature on a document if the notary has a financial interest in it or is a party to the deal. If you are a notary with a stake in the sale, have someone else notarize the POA.

The odometer statement

Federal rules say the transferor must sign the mileage disclosure, and it must carry the transferor's printed name. Texas adds its own rule: when a POA is used on a car that needs federal odometer disclosure, it goes on the secure VTR-271-A, not the VTR-271. Fill in the actual reading. Virginia's DMV puts it plainly: do not guess or estimate.

Check that the POA still works

A POA that worked last year may not work now. Florida is a clear example:

• A power of attorney that is not durable ends when the principal becomes incapacitated.
• Any power of attorney ends when a court rules the principal totally or partially incapacitated, unless the court says the agent keeps certain authority.

So if your parent has declined since the POA was signed, read it for the word "durable". Without it, the document may have stopped working at the moment you need it most.

Route three: a guardian or the probate court

If there is no POA and your parent can no longer sign, a court has to give someone the power. Florida's DMV lists conservatorships, guardianships, powers of attorney and trust agreements together as legal instruments that let one person handle another's legal affairs.

Ohio spells out the guardian's power over a car. A guardian of the person and estate, or of the estate only, may sell all or part of the ward's personal property when the sale is "for the interest of the ward" (R.C. 2111.20). The probate court's powers under R.C. 2111.50 also include conveying a ward's interest in personal property.

What each state asks of whoever signs

Whoever signs, owner or agent, signs into the state's normal title process. Here is the rule for each state that matters most when someone else is holding the pen.

If both parents are on the title, check the signing rule. Nebraska, for one, wants every name on the title to sign the seller's section. In states that need a notary, such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Louisiana and Wyoming, plan the notary visit around your parent's good days, not the buyer's schedule.

Fix it or sell it?

A parent's car often sits for months before anyone deals with it. Batteries die, tires flatten and fluids go stale. Before you pay for repairs, ask who will drive it next.

Fixing makes sense when a relative will take the car over, or when the repair is small and the car is otherwise sound. Selling as it sits makes sense when the repair is large, the car hasn't moved in a long time, or the family simply needs it gone so the house can be sold or cleared.

If the car has a loan on it, some states, such as Florida, Maryland and Nebraska, want the lien released before the transfer; see selling a car you still owe on. If the owner has died rather than become unable to sign, the rules change, and selling a car not in your name covers that.

Selling a relative's car to us

We buy whole non-running and junk cars, so you can sell the whole car as it sits. There is free pickup anywhere in the US, which helps when the car is at a parent's house in another state.

Mention up front, as you request an offer, that you are selling for a relative, and whether you will sign with a power of attorney or the owner will sign. Have the title and the POA ready before pickup day.

Have questions about the paperwork first? Call (877) 421-6008.

With the car picked up, two jobs remain: the plates and your state's sale notice. After you sell lists each state's rule.