It’s not so much that you’ll get in trouble. It’s more like it could be a giant hassle. The only way you’d get in trouble is if the vehicle was reported stolen at any point. If that’s the case, you’re sitting on stolen property. But there’s not much chance that it was reported stolen. What can and has happened is the next of kin of the deceased can find out the car exists and decide they want it. Let’s say you sell it to someone. Then one day there’s a knock on your door “Hi, I’m such and such and I heard you might have my dads old car. It’s legally mine and I’d like to have it.” Now, you have a hassle. You sold a car you didn’t own and the person who bought it has to give it back to the rightful owner, and they’re just out the money. This is a very unlikely but possible scenario. The most likely scenario is whomever owns it, if anyone, doesn’t care about it and never will. But whoever buys it from you will have a hassle getting a title. Your best bet is to sell it to someone who is aware of the title status and doesn’t care. The last thing you want is to sell it to someone that will come back in a year after they fix it and bug you to help them find the title. Call a few “we buy cars” type used car lots. They usually know the loopholes and can deal with the title issues.