New regulations for antique car titles

Antique car owners will soon have some new hoops to jump through. 

The state Division of Motor Vehicles is requiring owners of newly-purchased antique and custom-built vehicles to have them inspected and photographed by a DMV License and Theft inspector before receiving a title, Dan Kane reports.

The DMV announced the new regulations today, six months after allegations surfaced that former DMV Commissioner George Tatum had helped a friend get a replica titled as a vintage vehicle. The requirements also come after the DMV discovered it had a flawed process for tracking antique vehicles and catching fake titles.

A DMV report in October found that an Alabama company was behind hundreds of fake antique titles for vehicles that were used by owners to gain North Carolina titles.

More after the jump.

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Under the new requirements, an inspector will issue a report, collect fees and out-of-state documentation for the vehicle, and then fax all the information to the special titles unit at DMV headquarters for initial approval. Once that happens, inspectors will then issue a 60-day temporary tag while further information is gathered.

The owner will get a title and license plate from the DMV when the full inspection is completed.

DMV officials said the new requirements will not affect those who have already registered and titled their vintage and custom-built vehicles. But starting in May, the DMV said, owners of those vehicles can request a review of their vehicle titles to make sure they were not obtained through false information.