Legal Authorization Requirements for Vehicle Storage Fees
So are you permitted to impose storage fees for a vehicle in order to obtain a car title? Many times people will contact us and say look I have this vehicle it’s on my property I’m going to impose storage fees to the owner to be able to become the owner of the vehicle to take over the title to the vehicle can you do that well here’s the thing there’s a lot of factors at play that you have to look into and our title Consultants can look into this for you but the first thing is if you are not a licensed Automotive facility meaning like a body shop a repair shop a towing company in most jurisdictions you can’t just arbitrarily make up storage fees like if somebody puts the car in your driveway and you say hey I’m imposing you $20 a day so you owe me $5,000 for the last four months or give me the car can’t do that unless you’re a licensed business you have to have a license to be an automotive business there may some exceptions to that but that’s typically what you’ll find in most States.
Written Authorization and Documentation Requirements
Now if you are a parking lot or a self storage facility there may be exceptions to that but here’s the thing that has to be in writing you have to have a written authorization the person is agreeing to pay you that you can’t just make it up out of thin air because if you could why not just say I’m imposing you a million dollars a day give me the car right.
Dollar Amount Regulations and Legal Limits
The second part addresses the dollar amount in most jurisdictions even if you are licensed and authorized to impose storage fees it has to be either reasonable posted or statutory what does that mean it means that either has to be less than the maximum amount allowed in the statutes could be five bucks.
Posting Requirements and Time Limitations
Ten bucks 20 bucks a day the state statutes or the county statutes will have that or it has to be posted at your place of business or it has to be in writing agreed to by the person who owns the car next you have to look at what is the time limit sometimes you have to impose storage fees only after you’ve sent notice to the customer sometimes you can start after a few a certain number of days so you have to look at those laws the short answer is there’s many factors that go into it.
Alternative Methods Are More Effective
Now here’s the thing if you’re looking for an excuse a reason some loophole to get ownership of a car imposing storage fees is usually not the best way to do it you have to jump through a lot of Hoops if you do a magistrate title A bonded title a court order title it’s usually a more direct route and then you don’t have to argue over do you deserve storage fees are you entitled to storage fees so normally we tell people skip over trying to impose storage fees a lot of people think that’s their secret trick like their you know their clever idea to get the title because the car has been parked in their Barn for a year and they’re going to impose storage fees that’s probably not the way to go.
Potential Legal Risks and Better Options
In fact if you try to impose storage fees you might accidentally wave your rights to the vehicle where if you do the proper procedure that you may not have heard of that’s fine then you could get the title so just because you thought up in the middle of the night oh I’m going to impose storage fees don’t think that’s the best idea or even the only idea to get a title look at all your options our website will list those for you and if you want more details we have title Consulting you can click the link and schedule a live video call with myself or one of the title agents to talk about your title situation.
