The Expert Podcast

So let me guess you tried to file for a mechanics lien. On a vehicle and it was rejected by the DMV. It was sent back Why is that? It's very common. We get. You know a hundred calls a day or so from. automotive facilities auctions dealers towing companies repair shops that filed for mechanics lien. And it got rejected How come. Well here's the thing. More than half of applications for mechanical liens get sent back. And here's why. First of all mechanics lien is a process that a licensed automotive facility can use to get a title for a vehicle that was brought to their shop for. and the person didn't pay the bill. Right. But what happens is a lot of mechanic shops that are out there will do a fake mechanics lien to help their buddy get a title for a car or two. Charge somebody a few hundred bucks to solve a title problem. So what happens is the titling authority in every state They know that there's a lot of fake mechanics liens so they scrutinize these with a fine tooth comb. Even if you send one in that's correct. A lot of times they'll send it back saying it's wrong just to try to scare you off from doing a fake mechanic's lien.

So if you are a legitimate licensed mechanic shop and you are filing mechanic's lien for a car that was brought into your shop. You did the work you have assigned repair order. If it's right send it back in It'll probably go through the second time. What else are reasons why could get rejected? Well, In almost every state There's a limit of time You have to file a mechanics lien You can't sit on a car for five years and then file it later. Right. You have to do it within a certain period of time. Some states at six months some states is 12 months a few states or 18 or two years. But you have to file it within a certain period of time and you have to have a signed repair order In most states You can't just arbitrarily say this car, I did work on it You have to have approval to have done work on it a signed request to do work and a quote and acceptance of the quote. So if you don't have that it might get rejected.

You also have to follow certain very very significant steps Now we're going to tell you in a minute how you can avoid all this and maybe get a title without having to go through mechanic's lien. There's an alternate way to do this… But the steps you have to do for a mechanics lien are sending out notices to the lien holder to the owner certified mail, putting it in the newspaper, doing an auction There's a whole series of hoops You have to jump through. And if you do any one of them wrong or if you don't. the right amount of time, if you send out certified mail but don't wait 30 days before you do the next step, you're out of luck Or if you send out certified mail and use the address you had on the repair order or from the glove compartment…that might get sent back because you're supposed to get a printout from the titling authority from the DMV. Showing what address for the owner you're supposed to send it to, if you didn't ever requested the printout from the DMV, they'll reject it altogether. So…expect that half the time or more if you file for a mechanics lien it will get rejected

So what do you do instead? Well instead of a mechanics lien consider. A civil lien. Sometimes called a magistrate title or a court order title. And there'll be a link below of more information about it. This bypasses the DMV. Right. The DMV has certain requirements You have to fit a certain mold of requirements to get a title from the DMV with a mechanics lien either It has all those things met or it doesn't And if it doesn't you're out of luck. court has a lot more latitude. The magistrate the court clerk. The civil authority whoever it is, they can. Give you some leeway they can say well you did all the right things So here's your paperwork. We recommend starting with that first Now the court might say Hey you got to do the mechanics lien first If that doesn't work come back to see us.

But start with the magistrate. Because it's a more direct route You're like going over the head of the DMV, right. It's also…less likely to get rejected. The only time we see it get rejected is if it's obvious you do not deserve that car If it's stolen. If it's somebody else has a claim to it If you're not in possession of it, if there's something going on that's fishy. You're not going to get a title but you went and got a title anyway. The court is there to help you if you have difficult title problems So look at that lean title or that civil title whatever it's called in your jurisdiction. As an alternative to, to a mechanics lien So if you've been rejected for a mechanics lien turn right around and look at the civil lien process, because it might solve your problem And in fact in the future you might do this all the time In fact, a lot of the clients we talk to they come to us to do mechanics lien. Once we talked to them about a civil lien they say why doesn't everybody just do this Why do I even bother with mechanic's lien? And that's a good question because it is a lot better a lot more powerful.