Abandoned Vehicles
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. And usually, it involves a person who has purchased a vehicle or acquired a vehicle and didn’t get a title when they got it, and they want to use an abandoned vehicle. They want to call it an abandoned vehicle so they can get the title.
The Problem with Abandoned Vehicles
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 Reality of Most “Abandoned” Vehicles
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, and let’s take a look at why.
Legal Procedures for Abandoned Vehicles
Here’s one particular example that 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 39:4-56.6. 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.
The Auction Process for Abandoned Vehicles
Now, you may be able to bid at the auction, but it creates a lot of other problems. Let’s look at the steps. The following are required documents to be mailed to the address below for processing approval, which will permit the issuance of an application for a certificate of ownership of a 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.
Document Requirements for the Auction
You have to have proof of ownership, lienholder 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 Carfax-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.
Detailed Possession Statement and Additional Steps
Then, you have to have a detailed notarized statement indicating when and how you came in possession of the vehicle. 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. The process scrutinizes your story to say, does this person qualify as somebody who’s supposed to be auctioning off this vehicle?
Notification and Waiting Period Requirements
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 by certified mail to the owner and lienholder stating your intent to sell the vehicle. You have to wait three months for that to come back.
Final Auction Steps and Legal Constraints
At the last minute, you need to send another notice five 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 five 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, take a picture of the VIN number, and then four photos of the vehicle.
Auction Document Submission and Approval
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 lienholder, notice to the owner, newspaper article, police department—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.”
Reporting Auction Proceeds and Final Thoughts
Then, when it’s time to do the auction, you have to have a notarized statement of the person (licensed dealer, property owner) who did the auction, identifying all the people who attended the auction, and providing an account of the proceeds and costs of sale. Any money that comes in from the auction first has to go to the lienholder and/or owner. Does this sound like a process you want to go through?
Conclusion: Better Alternatives to Abandonment
Knowing all this, does this sound like what you want to do to get a title for what you call an abandoned vehicle? Once you call a vehicle abandoned, it triggers a definition and identity of that vehicle, which makes it so that all kinds of things kick in. The owner is protected, the lienholders are protected. You don’t want to call it abandoned. 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.
