Approaching owner

[Damion]

If somebody stopped by my house to check out my car and mentioned that they tracked me down through the DMV, I would escort them back out the door.

[70-SS/RS-L78]

[ QUOTE ]
If somebody stopped by my house to check out my car and mentioned that they tracked me down through the DMV, I would escort them back out the door.

[/ QUOTE ]
YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!!!
The DMV would get a colorfull phone call the next day.
Mark L

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

That might be your first impulse. However, if the person turned out to be a normal enthusiast that just wanted to check out a car, what's the harm? I have never had a case where a person wasn't somewhat flattered that somebody (especially a younger somebody) was into cars this much to actually search out an owner. The owners are usually very accomodating when it comes to answering questions about the car's history, their personal experiences with the car, other cars they happen to know about, etc... If you treat the person with the respect they deserve, you won't have a problem.

[supercomp 8.90]

a friend of mine that i race with had a lemans blue yenko shell that was raced years ago in a storage garage sometime in the 80s,there was not much left,he told me that he received a phone call one day out of ny and the person said they had found out about his car through a vin # check and mike told me he stuck a deal with the people!!!! he searched everywhere for the title, then finally his wife found it in a safety deposit box!!! so there is one good story on title searches. it would have been better if i had known he had the car & bought it though!!!!!

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I have found several cars via title searches, only once did the guy want to sell it though. It wasn't the car for me, but it suited another guy just fine

[Mike]

Marlin,

Were those recent title searches? I was under the impression that names/addresses, etc. weren't given out anymore because of the Privacy Act?

Mike

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Who may have told you that? Someone who didn't want other people to do title searches? Unfortunately, that is the most common reason.

The '96 Privacy Act did indeed crack down on the distribution of information from government agencies, however, the Freedom of Info act also factors in. So, the only real change for those states that historically allowed this info to be disclosed was that the requestor had to disclose his/her purpose for the info request. Some states (like PA) require the form to be notorized, other states will process it without, and other states were already so restrictive in their info disclosure that the act only supported their initial position. Some states will black out the names/address of the owners, and/or cut off any financial info, but they did this before the Privacy Act as well. Each state also has it's individual Records Retention Policy too, so if the info is older than 10yrs for eg; they archive it, and may claim that it's 'unavailable'. Another type of search will sometimes get you into the archives, or sometimes if the gov. worker is have a good day they will do it automatically. The Privacy Act didn't change this aspect either.

So, in short, the Privacy Act added some more steps to the process, but it does not really restrict the info any more than before.