Moving to Pennsylvania, Title and Registering Your Vehicle

Written by ASC Title & Tags Friday March 30, 2018

This is Part Two. If you have not secured your PA Driver License, please read Part One, Moving to Pennsylvania, Obtaining a Driver's License.

OK, so you have been to the Driver License Center, supplied the requirement documentation and are now ready to move your vehicles into the PennDot system. The first question we always ask is “Do you Own, Lease or Make Payments on your vehicle”.

Vehicle Title and Registration in PA - Ownership Questions and Requirements

• OWN: If you own your vehicle you are very close to getting your title and registration in Pennsylvania.
• LEASE: You must come visit us with your statement which will have the information on how to contact your leasing company. We will have to request the Title from the lease company in order to make it into a Pennsylvania one. It requires us to fax a form with your signature to the lease company. That can take a few weeks.
• MAKE PAYMENTS: You must come visit us with your statement which will have the information on how to contact your finance company. We will have to request the Title from the finance company in order to make it into a Pennsylvania one. It requires us to fax a form with your signature to the finance company That can take a few weeks.

One final thing about this. If your vehicle was purchased less than 6 months prior to transferring in PA, you will be obligated to pay the difference in sales tax on the vehicle. For example, if you paid 4% sales tax in your state, you will be required to pay an additional 2% (3% in Allegheny County, 4% in Philadelphia County) on the purchase price. If it has been registered over 6 months in the other State, there is no collection of sales tax. As a side note, if you paid more than what Pennsylvania charges, please do not expect any refund!

Whichever selection fits you, once the Title is in hand, it's time to complete the transfer to Pennsylvania. You will need to bring the following items:

• Title
• Current PA Insurance Card (not required for a trailer)
• Current PA Driver License
• The vehicle getting transferred (or a completed MV-44 signed by a police officer or PA Inspection mechanic)
• Money

When you have all of these items in our office, we will inspecte the VIN plate on your vehicle. It MUST match the VIN on your title. If it does not, we can correct certain things. If two numbers are transposed or if a number needs corrected, we can fill out a form to correct that. Any other issues, the title must be sent back to the state the the title is issued for correction. We cannot do anything until the VIN is corrected.

Trailers sometimes have stickers on the neck that contain the VIM. Sometimes the VIN is worn off. If we cannot determine the VIN, we cannot title it. If you secure a Police Officer or an Inspection mechanic to certify the VIN on an MV-44, that is acceptable. Many times, you will find it engraved somewhere on the trailer.

After we get past the VIN inspection, which usually takes no more than a minute, we will start to complete your paperwork. Your license willl be photocopied, front and back. Also the insurance card gets photocopied. Both are submitted to PennDot. We will either complete your application on the computer or manually (paper), depending upon how cantankerous tthe Penndot system is that day. A few signatures and paying the fees, you are now an official Pennsylvania resident.

We will issue you a Pennsylvania license plate that day as well as a registration. Your title will take about 8 days to be processed and delivered to the owner if completed on the computer. Otherwise, it will take approximately 6 weeks. The most important thing to do after completing your registration, you have 10 days to get your vehicle inspected. Inspections are both safety and emissions. Inspections are performed annually and are privatized. There are no State run garages. We can recommend several local facilities if you would like. The garages can also do repairs for you.