Abandoned Vehicles We’re going to talk about the most commonly requested subject that comes up on callers to our private vehicle title helpline. This is the most frequently asked for information, and it’s what most people who contact us ask about: abandoned vehicles. Mostly it’s because the person who’s calling needs to get a vehicle title, a legal title document for a vehicle, and the idea they came up with is to say, “I’m going to declare it as an abandoned vehicle and claim it.”
The Consequences of Declaring a Vehicle Abandoned We’re going to talk about that and look at the laws and how that works because one of the things you have to remember is that an abandoned vehicle may not be the actual definition of the vehicle you’re trying to get a title for. And as soon as you declare it as an abandoned vehicle, it is now permanently locked into that definition, and you may not be able to get a title—it may permanently ban you from getting a title.
Better Methods Than Declaring a Vehicle Abandoned There are often better methods of getting a title than trying to claim it to be abandoned because if you think about it, where did you hear about abandoned vehicles? Probably just something you came up with or maybe you read it on some discussion group. It’s not normally the best way to get a title. In fact, most of the time, if you declare and say a vehicle’s abandoned, you will lose the vehicle forever to the government.
Government Issued Titles Remember, a title is a legal government document issued only by a government agency. You can’t buy one from a company, you can’t download one from the internet. The government decides who to give titles to based on their rules. The government agency in most states is called the Department of Motor Vehicles. Some states call it the Department of Transportation.
Abandoned Vehicle Laws Across States You’ll notice that when we look at a few states, the rules are going to be almost exactly the same from all these different states. Why is that? Well, the rules for abandoned vehicles come from federal guidelines, federal government guidelines. So all the states’ rules are about the same. You’ll see as we look at three or four states here how it works, even if your state is not one of the ones we use as an example.
Pennsylvania’s Vehicle Disposal Rules First, we’re going to look at a fact sheet on the disposal of abandoned vehicles from private property, and that’s probably what you’re thinking about because you can’t really claim abandoned vehicles on the side of the road, right? If it’s on the highway or if it’s on a street, you can’t really claim that. But if it’s on your property, you might say, “Hey, if it’s on my property, I’ll charge storage fees and I’ll claim the vehicle.”
Definitions of Abandoned Vehicles in Pennsylvania The purpose of this fact sheet is information on disposing of vehicles which have been left on private property. Notice the word “disposing.” It doesn’t say ownership. This is from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The definition of terminology: abandoned vehicles involve an intention to abandon together with an act of surrendering the vehicle.
Legal Definition of Abandoned Vehicle in Pennsylvania Abandoned property is that which an owner has relinquished all rights, title, and claim, and possession with no intention of claiming it or resuming ownership. So if you declare it to be abandoned, you’re saying that the owner—and you see, it says “an owner,” not “the owner”—”has relinquished all rights, title, claim, and possession.” If you’re saying you’re the owner, then you’re relinquishing rights just from day one. You might be game over on doing it.
When a Vehicle is Presumed Abandoned in Pennsylvania A vehicle shall be presumed to be abandoned under any of the following circumstances, but the presumption is rebuttable, meaning that it’s not 100%:
Private Property and Abandoned Vehicles You might say, “Yeah, it’s been here for more than 24 hours,” but did you ever give consent to the person to put it there? Did you ever say, “Hey, you can’t leave your car here for a couple of days”? Did you buy the car and give somebody money and they gave you a bill of sale? Well, that was consent because you put it there. So this doesn’t apply for most scenarios without the consent of the owner. Now, if somebody just voluntarily drives a car onto your driveway, leaves it, and takes off and you don’t know who it is and you never told them to do it, that might apply.
Methods of Disposing of Abandoned Vehicles So what do you do? Here are the methods of disposing of vehicles:
What Happens After Vehicle Removal The vehicle may be sold at a sheriff’s sale. The property owner may file suit in common pleas court requesting that an order be entered awarding ownership. That sounds like a court order title—we’ll talk about that later.
Court Order for Vehicle Ownership You can’t declare it as abandoned and say, “I want to keep it.” You have to petition and request that an order be entered to award you the ownership, and that request will extinguish the title and interest of any other person. The property owner may not repossess an automobile for the cost of storing the vehicle unless you are a bona fide warehouseman provided by the Universal Commercial Code.
Challenges with Vehicle Ownership Claims What if you say, “Well, I did work on it and I want to use that to claim the ownership”? Well, a bill incurred for repairs to a vehicle can be collected only by filing a complaint and obtaining a judgment against the owner. What does that sound like? Sounds like a court order title, right?
Texas Rules on Abandoned Vehicles Texas law says that there are certain requirements you have to meet if you are going to charge, store, or remove a vehicle. What if you’re a storage facility, like a self-storage yard? Well, the first thing you need to do is: the garage keeper shall report the abandonment of the motor vehicle to a law enforcement agency in the jurisdiction where the vehicle is located and pay a $10 fee for notification. The garage keeper shall retain custody of the abandoned motor vehicle until the agency takes the vehicle into custody. So what does that say? The cops are going to take the car if you say it’s abandoned.
California’s Lien Sale Procedures If you declare it to be abandoned, you have to report it to the police and they come take it. What if you don’t report it as abandoned? A garage keeper who fails to report an abandoned vehicle to a law enforcement agency within 7 days after the date it’s abandoned may not claim reimbursement for storage of the vehicle.
Legal Process for Vehicle Ownership in California Last but not least, we’re going to look at California. So here’s a place—for California, if you’re thinking about California, you can call us and talk to us about these situations, but we just want to let you know that an abandoned vehicle in California is also the same, meaning the law says that you can’t just declare it as abandoned.
Conclusion The only way to keep abandoned cars forever is through proper paperwork, court orders, salvage, and legal processes.
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