Salvage and Rebuilt Titles

The title brands a state applies to a vehicle an insurer has declared a total loss, what a rebuilt brand means, and the federal database built to stop a branded title being washed clean in another state.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of Cars & Motor Vehicles law firms.

What it means

When an insurer pays a total-loss claim it usually takes the vehicle, and the state then issues a salvage title or brands the existing one. The threshold at which damage makes a vehicle salvage is set by each state, some by a percentage of pre-loss value and some by the insurer's own decision, which is why the same wreck can be salvage in one state and not another. A salvage-titled vehicle generally cannot be registered or driven on the road until it has been repaired and passed a state inspection, after which the state issues a rebuilt or reconstructed title. The rebuilt brand is permanent: it tells every later buyer that the vehicle was once written off.

Brands exist because a branded vehicle is worth less and may be less safe, and because the history is easy to hide. Title washing is the practice of moving a branded vehicle to a state whose rules do not carry the brand forward, obtaining a clean title there, and selling it on. Flood-damaged vehicles are the classic case. Federal law responded with the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, to which states, insurers and salvage and junk yards must report, and which any buyer can query through an approved provider before purchase to see whether a vehicle has ever been reported as junk, salvage or a total loss anywhere in the country.

Whether a seller must disclose a brand is state law, and most states require it of dealers and many of private sellers; failing to disclose a known brand is usually actionable as fraud or under the state's consumer protection statute even where no specific disclosure statute applies. A lender may refuse to finance, and an insurer to fully insure, a rebuilt vehicle, and both are entitled to.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

A buyer who discovers a brand after purchase should gather the title, the bill of sale, any advertisement or listing and a system history report before contacting the seller, because whether the seller knew, and what they said, decides the claim. Before buying any used vehicle, and especially one priced below the market or coming from a region that recently flooded, a history check against the federal system and a look at the title itself for a brand are cheaper than any lawyer.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

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Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• CDL DisqualificationThe federally defined list of offenses that take away a commercial driver's license - including offenses committed in a personal car, and a lower alcohol limit than applies to other drivers.
• Contesting a Traffic TicketWhat a moving violation citation actually is, the difference between an infraction and a traffic misdemeanor, and the procedures - hearing, written defense, traffic school - for answering one.
• Driving Record PointsThe system most states use to score moving violations against a driver's record, with a license suspension when the total crosses a threshold - and an interstate compact that makes an out-of-state ticket count at home.
• DUI / DWI (Impaired Driving)Driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs - a charge that almost always runs as two separate cases at once, one criminal and one over the license.
• Event Data Recorder (Vehicle Black Box) EvidenceThe crash data a modern vehicle records about itself in the moments before an impact - what the federal standard requires it to capture, who owns it, and who may retrieve it.
• Field Sobriety TestsThe roadside balance, coordination and eye-movement exercises an officer uses to build probable cause for an impaired-driving arrest - usually voluntary, and never the same thing as the chemical test that follows.
• Hours-of-Service Rules (Commercial Trucking)Federal limits on how long a commercial driver may drive and work, and the electronic records that show whether those limits were kept.
• Ignition Interlock DeviceA breath-testing device wired into a vehicle that stops it starting if the driver has been drinking - required by many states after an impaired-driving conviction as a condition of driving at all.
• Implied Consent and Administrative License SuspensionThe rule in every state that by driving you have agreed to a chemical test for alcohol or drugs after a lawful arrest - and the license suspension that follows a refusal or a failed test, separately from any criminal case.
• Leaving the Scene of an Accident (Hit and Run)The legal duties every state imposes on a driver involved in a crash - to stop, to exchange information and to help anyone hurt - and the separate criminal offense of driving away instead.
• Lemon Law and Warranty RightsRules that entitle a buyer to a refund or replacement when a new vehicle has a defect the manufacturer cannot fix in a reasonable number of attempts.
• Negligent Entrustment (Lending a Vehicle)The claim against a person who lent a car to someone they knew, or should have known, was unfit to drive it - the owner's own negligence, separate from the driver's.
• No-Fault Car InsuranceA system in which your own insurer pays your medical bills after a crash regardless of who caused it - used in a minority of states, and it limits when you can sue.
• Odometer Fraud and the Odometer DisclosureRolling back or replacing an odometer to hide a vehicle's true mileage is a federal offense, and every transfer of a vehicle must come with a written mileage statement the buyer can sue over if it is false.
• Permissive Use (Insurance Follows the Car)Which policy pays when someone drives a borrowed car with the owner's permission - the omnibus clause, the exclusions that defeat it, and the owner-liability statutes some states add.
• Policy LimitsThe maximum an insurance policy will pay - and usually the real ceiling on what a claim is worth, whatever the injury.
• Rideshare Accident Insurance (App Periods)Which insurance applies when a rideshare vehicle is in a crash depends on what the driver's app was doing at that moment - the three periods state transportation network company laws define, and the gap that personal policies leave.
• SR-22 and Financial Responsibility FilingsThe certificate an insurer files with the state to prove a high-risk driver is carrying the required liability coverage - what triggers it, why it is not itself insurance, and what happens if the policy behind it lapses.
• Tire Defect Claims (Tread Separation and Blowouts)Injury claims after a tire fails, where the question is whether the tire was defectively made or designed, was too old or was recalled, rather than only how the driver reacted.
• Total Loss and Diminished ValueWhat happens when an insurer decides a damaged vehicle is not worth repairing - and the separate claim for a repaired car that is now worth less.
• Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist CoverageCoverage on your own policy that pays when the driver who hurt you had no insurance, or nowhere near enough - and it is the coverage people most often discover they declined.
• Used Car Buyers Guide (FTC Used Car Rule)The window sticker a dealer must display on every used vehicle offered for sale, stating whether it comes with a dealer warranty or as is - and why the sticker overrides the contract.
• Vehicle Safety RecallA manufacturer's federally supervised obligation to notify owners of a safety defect and fix it free of charge - and the rules on what a dealer may sell with a recall still open.

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