How long after buying a car should we wait to file?

[baker21]

Hello everyone and may I say Thank You!! I am just now able to post, but have been reading a ton of posts which has helped tremendously! You can all take credit for helping me avoid a panic attack or two This board is amazing!

One thing we learned was to buy a car if we need one before we file. We definitely needed one, I had a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 189,000 miles on it. We purchased a 2012 certified pre-owned Nissan Sentra this past weekend. I spoke with my attorney before we did anything to be sure he agreed it was okay. The only thing he mentioned was that we should wait to file until after the lien is recorded. Understandable.

So, my first question is (and I'm sure I'll have many, many more), does anyone know how long it takes for a lien to be recorded? We bought at a dealership and did the financing through their finance dept. They said it would most likely be Suntrust Bank. I didn't want to ask while we were doing the paperwork, I figured they might know why I would ask that question. I emailed my attorney yesterday but have not heard back yet. I'm really curious and anxious, so any info will help. Thank you!

[justbroke]

The lien can take up to 30 days to be recorded. I live in Florida as well, and my last lien didn't get recorded until almost 21 days! The dealership was sitting on my check for 2 weeks! They said that they wanted to make sure it was "good" before they went through the process of registration/lien recording. Luckily, you live in Florida and you should be able to use the DHSMV website http://www.flhsmv.gov/index.html to check on this. (Use "Handle It Online", and select "Tag Renewal")

(To check on the registration, you can use the "renew online" and proceed as if you are processing a renewal. This will get you to the screen where all of your IDs, licenses, and vehicle registrations are listed. Just skim the list to see if the vehicle is listed. Additionally, if you look towards the bottom of the screen, it will have a table (box) which has your Electronic Titles. This would be the indicator that there is a lien on the vehicle as it will say "electronic lien" for that specific VIN number. The nice thing about this, is that Florida does electronic titles so they take much less time to process! Please note: you will need your driver's license in your hands to authenticate, or you'll need a valid VIN number.)

[baker21]

That's exactly what I was hoping for, a website to check the status. Thank you! As for the registration, they took care of that online before we even left the dealership. It's already been transferred. I had never seen that done so quickly before.

[baker21]

Is it possible it's already recorded???? The Lien box already shows Suntrust. We just bought this Sunday and Monday was a holiday!

[justbroke]

Is it possible it's already recorded???? The Lien box already shows Suntrust. We just bought this Sunday and Monday was a holiday!

Yes it is. Florida uses "electronic" titles and the dealership enters these in the system themselves. Florida has to be one of the BEST States when it comes to eGovernment and the ability to not only get things done quickly, but to find things online!

(Note: I understand that they needed to secure their Website, but now it takes so much information to get to your registration page! Just before this latest change, you only needed your DOB, SSN, and Driver's License number. Now you need a 13 digit code from the back of that license as well... or the actual registration!)