The Expert Podcast

Today we're going to talk about one of the most common subjects that comes up in our operations department where people call in. They have questions—they want information about an abandoned vehicle. And many times, they use that phrase "abandoned vehicle" because it's something they want to do to get a title for a vehicle. They say, "I want to file for an abandoned vehicle title." And many times, this comes from a preconceived idea that if they say that it's abandoned, it's finders keepers, and they get to keep the vehicle.

And there's some process for a title just based on it being abandoned. If somebody doesn't want it and I want it, I get to own it. Well, what we're going to show in this video is that if you declare something to be abandoned, many times you won't get to keep it, and that most times the vehicle technically isn't legally abandoned under the definition that you might think it is. For example, if you buy a vehicle from somebody and they don't give you a title, you might say, "I'll just file for an abandoned vehicle."

That vehicle is not abandoned. You bought it. Somebody could bring a car to your business or your parking lot—even if you had a vehicle that was left for storage and the person didn't pay their bill—that's really not an abandoned vehicle. That is a storage lien. So we're going to talk first about what an abandoned vehicle really is and what you can and can't do to get a title. And then at the end, we'll talk about how you can get a title for vehicles that you might think is abandoned but it's really not.

First of all, this is an example from the state of Georgia, and we're going to pick this as a sample procedure because the state of Georgia has an abandoned vehicle procedure that's very similar to most states. Most states actually go by the federal law for abandoned vehicles, so they're all going to be the same. Per Georgia law, a business or person removing an abandoned or unclaimed vehicle from public rights of way or public property must go through a process to ensure the rights of the vehicle owners, lienholders, and security interest holders are protected.

A certificate of title for an abandoned vehicle cannot be issued on a bond or on a “not required to be titled 85 and older.” What does that mean? That means that before you become the owner of that vehicle that you're saying is abandoned—which it probably really isn't—all of the other people with interest in that vehicle have to have the right to redeem it. So if there's a previous owner, they have to be notified and they have to be told that, "Hey, your car is going to be transferred ownership. Do you want it?" Any lien holders—same thing.

And you might say, "Well, I'm going to just put a storage bill on it." Probably not going to be able to put a storage bill on it unless you have a signed contract from the owner of the vehicle saying they're agreeing to pay you storage. You can't just make up storage fees out of thin air, even if you are a licensed automotive shop and you have storage.

We will be back in your video in just a few seconds. In the meantime, remember that actualhum.com offers you live one-on-one private video consultation with an expert in this exact subject. We want to listen to your story. We want to hear your questions. We want to give you expert advisement of your options and tell you what we know about your particular situation. Now back to your video.

You can't call it abandoned. You have to call it a mechanic's lien or storage lien, which is a different process. So what else does it say? Information on handling abandoned vehicles: Towing and storage firms are required by law to notify vehicle owners, lien holders, when a motor vehicle has been towed and impounded. Authorized businesses that want to foreclose on a lien—see what that says? So it's not an abandoned vehicle. It’s a lien sale, which is different.

What are the links to do this? Notice of an abandoned vehicle—those are the notices you have to send out. Disposition of derelict vehicle. Apply for a title and tag for an abandoned vehicle after a court order. What does that tell you? That tells you if you want to get a title and you want to apply for a title for an abandoned vehicle, you can only do it after you get a court order.

So why bother with all this? Why bother with an abandoned vehicle? Why not just do a court order title—which you see us talk about quite a bit—because once you declare it abandoned, according to the Abandoned Motor Vehicle Act, which is described here, you have to go through a process of all these notifications and public sales, and you're probably not going to end up keeping the vehicle.

So before you jump instinctively to saying "abandoned vehicle, I'm going to file for it," you got to be very careful. Because if you start using some of these forms, for example, "Notice of an Abandoned Vehicle," what's going to happen is you may block yourself from ever getting a title. Because you're going to have to show that you used this form—a notice of an abandoned vehicle, request for information, company removing or storing vehicle, complete the towing and storage information—and you have to have a license for this. You can't just make up storage in your driveway or in your business parking lot.

You have to notify all the parties, and if you see the very clear instructions below, it'll tell you that you have to do this under penalty of perjury: “I swear and affirm that the vehicle described was unattended, removed at the request of a police officer or private property owner in compliance with the Motor Vehicle Act.”

So what's going to happen is after this vehicle has been transferred or in the process of being transferred, the owner of the vehicle is going to get a letter from the DMV saying, "Hey, remember that car that you used to own? It's being transferred to somebody else. Do you think that any of these facts are not true?" And if they dispute or contest any of the facts, guess what's going to happen? They're going to revoke your title. And they might even take action against you for doing the process the wrong way.

So the takeaway from this is: don't make "abandoned vehicle" your first idea for getting a title. Even though you might have read about it on some web forums or chat groups or, you know, sitting around with a bunch of classic car enthusiasts, "abandoned vehicle" is not the process of getting a title. It's a process of getting rid of a vehicle—which is probably not what you're trying to do.

If you do have more questions about how to work all this, click the link below. We can tell you more about it. If you found this video helpful, be sure to click on other videos on our channel to see if there's further information that could give you more insight into resolving your particular situation.