CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Motor vehicles officials are working to get local officials trained in a new computer system after a switchover caused a long backlog approving vehicle titles and registrations.

The problem means some dealers have many cars on their lots that can’t be sold. Car owners trying to sell their used vehicles also are facing delays.

The approval process for titles jumped from a month and a half to more than three months in July when Motor Vehicles upgraded a computer system that links city and town clerks to state vehicle records.

Motor Vehicles Director Virginia Beecher says at the height of the backup, it was taking six weeks to process registrations. Now, she said it’s taking less than two months for titles and three weeks for registrations, as more local clerks are trained on the new system.

It’s not a small problem for car dealers, who need to turn the paperwork around promptly to keep sales moving.

“Titles are the lifeblood of dealer operations,” Daniel McLeod, president of the New Hampshire Auto Dealers Association told the Concord Monitor. “If they don’t have the titles to the vehicles, they cannot sell the vehicles.”

A vehicle’s title is proof of ownership and authenticity required to buy, sell or trade.

When dealers sell a new or used car in New Hampshire, they send the vehicle’s title to the DMV in Concord, where it is processed. If the buyer took out a loan, the title is then sent to the lending institution. If the person bought the vehicle outright, the title is then sent back to the new owner.

In order for anyone to buy, sell or trade a vehicle, they have to be able to get their title. If they are still paying for the vehicle, they have to get the title from the lending institution. With titles caught in the processing, the vehicle cannot change hands.

When the DMV’s new system was installed in July, the state disconnected 90 cities and towns that had been connected to the previous system, causing the title and registration information once processed by clerks in those communities to be shifted to the DMV all at once until those communities could be reconnected again.

Because all the clerks needed to be trained in how to use the new software, those 90 communities could not be brought back onto the system all at once, Beecher said. They have been brought back on in small groups of no more than six at a time. Beecher said 13 communities still need to be reconnected, and another 59 will be signing on for the first time. The original 90 should be back by the end of February, Beecher said, and there is no plan yet for the new members.

Her goal is to get the processing time for titles down to no more than 10 days.

—

Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com