The Expert Podcast

One of the terms we hear most often in our car title division is when clients and customers say they want to do an abandoned vehicle. Those are the two words that we hear most often: abandoned vehicle. It usually involves a person who has purchased a vehicle or acquired a vehicle and didn't get a title when they got it. They want to use an abandoned vehicle, they want to call it an abandoned vehicle so they can get the title. The reason for it is because when they went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to ask about getting a title when they didn't have the old title, they were rejected. So they figured, "Well, I'll just call it abandoned and I'll make it Finders Keepers."

The problem with this is the presumption that people think that if you find a vehicle, you get to keep it. If it's abandoned, you get to just claim it as yours. Vehicles are not Finders Keepers. Just because you found a vehicle somewhere, or it is abandoned somewhere, or somebody left it somewhere, doesn't mean you get to take it and keep it.

The good news is, in most cases, the vehicle really isn't abandoned. You acquired it somehow—you bought it, maybe you have a bill of sale, maybe you don't. Maybe somebody traded it to you, maybe somebody died and left it to you, but it's really not abandoned. The person who owned it didn't just drop it in your driveway, and you don't know where it came from. The reason I say that is because abandoned vehicles don't have a clear pathway to getting ownership. Other methods do. If you don't call it abandoned, there are easier ways to get a title than if you do call it abandoned.

Here's one particular example, which happens to be from the state of New Jersey. However, the procedure is almost the same in every other state. It says here procedures for vehicles abandoned on private property according to New Jersey statute 39456.6. This procedure, and I'm going to read it and highlight at the same time, is for vehicles abandoned on New Jersey private property. Key sentence right here: by law, all vehicles must be put up for public sale auction.

So that tells you really the problem with abandoned vehicles: it's not Finders Keepers; you have to put it up for auction. Now, you may be able to bid at the auction, but it creates a lot of other problems. Let's look at the steps. You have to do the following: the required documents to be mailed to the address below for processing approval, which will permit the issuance of application for certificate of ownership vehicle on private property. It's an OSS ss1 137. This form will allow the auction to be held.

So before you even hold the auction to try to auction it off, you have to do all these forms to get permission to auction off the car. Think about that— even to get permission to auction it off, you have to fill out all these forms. You have to have proof of ownership, lien hold information. How do you get that? You have to first do a lien search application and send $15 to the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles. Basically, you have to run a title search, and I'm not talking about an online car report type title search. You have to do the title search with the government.

If there is no record in New Jersey, then you have to do a certified title search from the known State as well as certified title searches from the five states that surround New Jersey: New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland. So if the car wasn't last titled in New Jersey, you have to find out what state it was from, run a title search there plus five other states. Then you have to have a detailed notarized statement indicating when and how you came in possession of the vehicle.

So if you say, "I bought it from a person and they didn't give me a title," well now it's not abandoned; it's going to get rejected. Or if it was traded or you did work on it, the statement must include all steps taken to establish authority to sell the vehicle. They’re basically going to scrutinize your story with a fine-tooth comb to say if this person qualifies as somebody who's supposed to be auctioning off this vehicle. At least 50% of the time, you're not going to have eligibility.

Then you have to have a publication in the newspaper. You have to have a certified publication to be submitted. Then you have to do a publication to the local police department by certified mail that says, "I have this vehicle, and I'm planning on auctioning it off." That's step four. Then you have to have an abandoned vehicle 90-day notice sent certified mail to the owner and lien holder stating your intent to sell the vehicle. You have to wait three months for that to come back. At the last minute, you need to send another notice 5 days before the auction. You have to tell them when and where the auction's going to be. You have to publish a notice in the newspaper again 5 days before the auction. The notice must include a complete description of the vehicle, VIN number, date, time, and location of the auction. It must be published a minimum of two times over two weeks, at least once per week.

You have to have a certified affidavit of that. You need to take a picture of the VIN number and then four photos of the vehicle. It says, "Stop here, please forward all documents." A sale auction cannot occur until all documents have been approved and you have received the OSS 137 approval to do the auction. So until you've done all these steps—notice to the lien holder, notice to the owner, newspaper article, police department—all these things, you can't even auction it off. You have to wait for them to review all your documents and then say, "Yes, it's okay to auction it off."

Then when it's time to do the auction, you have to have a notarized statement from the person, licensed dealer, or property owner who did the auction identifying all the people who attended the auction, providing an account of the proceeds and costs of sale. Because what you have to do is any money that comes in from the auction first has to go to the lien holder and/or owner.

So does this sound like a process? And then the other forms—look, it's 18 documents. These are all the forms that they mentioned: title lien search request, authority to transfer interest— all these documents have to be filled out. So knowing all this, does this sound like what you want to do to get a title for what you call an abandoned vehicle?

Again, once you call a vehicle abandoned, it triggers a definition identity of that vehicle which makes it so that all kinds of things kick in. The owner is protected, the lien holders are protected. You don’t want to call it abandoned. Now, if a vehicle was transferred to you but you just didn't get the right paperwork, that's a whole different story. That vehicle is not abandoned; somebody owned it, they transferred it to you, you own it, you just don't have the paperwork. There are methods for doing that that are much better. You can click our link below to get information on the other ways to get a title, which are better than abandoned. We also have consultations if you want to get more information and talk to a certified title agent. You can do that as well through the website.

The most important thing is to be very, very cautious about using the word abandoned. Once you call a vehicle abandoned, rules kick in. Many states don't even allow you to do your own auction; you have to turn it over to a towing company for them to auction it off or turn it over to the state. Some states require the government to do the auction. At least New Jersey lets you do the auction yourself, but you have to jump through all these hoops first. Most states you can't even do the auction; they don't trust you. They want to make sure that it's done properly and you're not trying to hide the fact that you just want to get a title for this vehicle.

If you have questions about getting a title for a vehicle, if it's truly abandoned, that's fine. But more likely than not, it's really not the case that you don't know where it came from. Somebody traded it to you, they sold it to you, but didn't give you a title. There are better ways to get a title than abandoned. Let us know in the comments what you think and contact us through our website. Thank you for watching. Remember, you can access live one-on-one personal consultations with a licensed private investigator, a licensed commercial insurance broker, a licensed certified real estate title examiner, or even a certified civil court mediator. If you have a need to talk to an expert in any of these fields, or even a licensed building general contractor, you can click the link below, actualhuman.com, and arrange a live one-on-one, undivided attention with a licensed expert where you can ask any questions, get information about your situation, and we'd be glad to help.