The Expert Podcast

So, how do you and can you even charge storage fees for a vehicle in order to get a title? Many times, we have clients that come to us and say, "Look, this car has been sitting on my property for 5 years. I'm going to charge $10 a day so the owner has to give me, you know, $50,000. Otherwise, I'm going to own the car. That's my rate for storage." And that sounds like a great idea, but the law typically says otherwise.

Now, the good news is there are ways to get a title for a vehicle that's been sitting on a property that you own or sitting on your property for a long time. Charging storage fees is not the way to do it. If you do it the wrong way, you might actually waive your rights to that vehicle. How does that work? Well, here is a section from the statutes of the state of Illinois about storage fees, and the reason we selected Illinois is because it's the same as most states. Most states go by the federal UCCC (Universal Commercial Code), which talks about storage fees and storage liens.

The law says section 770 of the Illinois code states that any person, firm, or private corporation seeking to impose fees in connection with the furnishing of storage for a vehicle in the person's possession must provide written notice by certified mail prior to the assessment and accrual of fees. What does that mean? That means before you can even start the clock on charging storage fees, you have to give the owner of the vehicle or lien holder notice that you're going to start charging them storage. You have to give them an opportunity to inspect the vehicle where the vehicle is stored within two days of you requesting that.

So, if you send out that notice to an owner and lien holder and tell them you're going to charge them $10 a day, you have to give them access within two days to be able to inspect the vehicle and take possession of it. What happens if you don't do that? If you fail to comply with this notification of storage fees, first of all, storage fees shall not be assessed. The owner or lien holder shall be entitled to injunctive relief for the possession of the vehicle without payment of storage fees.

What does that mean? Basically, if you don't send them notice before you start charging fees, you can't charge fees, and they can get the car back. That's the short answer. If you do anything wrong, your vehicle will be back in 8 seconds. In the meantime, remember, you have access to live one-on-one consultation with undivided attention from a licensed, certified expert in this subject and many others. We want to listen to your story, we want to hear your questions, and give you expert advisement on your options. We want to tell you what we know about your situation and what options you have.

Now, back to your video. The owner can take action against you in circuit court. They can sue you. So, the short answer is, even though it seems like a tempting, clever way to go just because somebody left their car with you, or maybe you purchased a vehicle and you didn’t get a title and you would want to get one, it seems like a clever way to go. And maybe somebody tells you, "Hey, just start charging storage fees." It doesn't work. It's not how it works. The only time it works is if you are a licensed automotive facility, storage, auto body repair, or towing, and you have a signed contract with the vehicle owner that authorizes you to charge storage. Or, if you towed it under a legal tow, like the police told you to tow the vehicle, then maybe you can do something.

There's also other requirements in this law that can create liability for you. But if you're a private citizen, even a self-storage facility that stores people's personal goods, you can't generally make up storage fees and just rack up the clock on that. You have to go through a process. So, if the thing you're trying to do is get a title for a vehicle, that's fine. You can do that. Don't try to do it using storage fees. You might think that's an easy way to go and clever, and you thought of this great thing. It’s not going to work.

It's actually harder, takes longer, and it's going to result in you losing the vehicle than if you do something else to get a vehicle, like a bonded title, magistrate title, VT transfer prior, and contact the website. We’ll give you the actual valid and successful ways to get a title rather than storage fees. Sometimes, people think, "I'm going to go with storage fees because you want to try to stick it to the owner or do something clever," but it's really not a title method. It’s a method that can be used in last-resort scenarios where nothing else has worked. But you first have to try the other things.

Use our website as a free consumer resource. It’ll give you all the instructions for the other methods that actually work, and you can do them yourself. You don’t have to pay us; it’s all free information. You can follow the instructions and do it yourself. We do have a title service if you want to have us do it for you, and you can certainly pay us to do it. But you can also do these things yourself without having to pay somebody, as long as you're willing to do the work. We also have title consulting if you want to talk to a licensed, certified title agent. You can click the link below, and we can arrange a scheduled consultation for your particular case.

If you like this video, be sure to click on a few others on our channel to see if there’s other information that might be helpful to you about this same subject or maybe even other related subjects that could assist you with your resolution of your issue.