Abandoned Vehicles: A Mechanics Story

Mike owns an automotive repair business. He is a one man operation and has one assistant. He sees 5 to 20 customers a day and completes about 6 repairs a day. He is open 5 days a week. Closed on Saturday but spends most of his day inside his garage trying to catch up. He does great work and has more repeat business than he can handle. He does not want to expand. He has 5 cars in his repair bay at any one time and carries insurance in case of break ins and vandalism. It has happened and has cost him dearly in the past.

But unlike large repair facilities he doesn't have a staff to handle the more mundane tasks of running a garage. So many times a car is dropped off, an estimate is given, a deposit is collected for parts and the car is repaired. But the owner does not come back in a timely manner to pick it up. Usually this has something to do with finances and paying for the repairs. Mike spends his time trying to call and collect but the car just sits in his repair bay taking up valuable space and becoming a liability.

Recently Mike took a vacation. Not from work but from accepting new work. He spent two weeks doing nothing but cleaning his property of vehicles. He finished all the repairs that had been put on hold, he took in no new business and spent time collecting for old business. When he was finished there were 5 cars left on the property. These cars had all been there more than 60 days and one almost a year. They were repaired and ready to be picked up. His investment in labor and parts was over $5000. A significant sum of money to a small one man operation.

While visiting Mike one day we talked about these cars and what should be done. So a little bit of research told us that these cars could be declared abandoned and he could take title and sell them at a public sale to recover his costs. Seemed like a lot of work, cost and legal minefields to get through but it was a task he was determined to accomplish. While most states have abandoned vehicle laws and procedures for disposing of them each state is different and what Mike was able to do only applies to Alabama abandoned vehicles.

The AL statute that applies to abandoned motor vehicles is The Abandoned Motor Vehicle Act, Code of Alabama 1975, Title 32, Chapter 13. The act is designed to protect both current owners of vehicles and also those to who vehicles are entrusted. There are a number of steps involved in getting title to an abandoned vehicle and those steps must be followed in order to complete the transaction and ensure a clean title for the eventual owner of an abandoned vehicle.

The first step has to do with determining whether a car can be declared as abandoned. For a repair facility this means either 60 days after it is left for repair when no time is agreed upon or 60 days after repairs are complete. These days are significant and must be noted by the garage in order to make sure that the vehicle will be declared abandoned by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The second step is obtain a vehicle report from the state that shows the current owner and their address along with any lien holders on the title. Again very important to make sure that this report is obtained from the state and is accurate. Once this information is obtained the owner must be notified or attempts must be made to notify the owner and the lien holders of the vehicle's location and the costs to recover the vehicle. You must also tell them that it will be for public sale and what date that sale will take place.

The garage owner must also place an announcement in the local paper or in the courthouse that gives notice of this sale. The notice must be posted twice at least 7 days apart and 30 days prior to the sale. Again the time and dates are very specific and must be followed to ensure a proper transference of title to any new owner. One the sale is complete there are several other state forms that must be completed prior to transferring title. These forms are not difficult but do require some time to make sure that they are done right.

So far Mike has gotten $3600 for his troubles and he still has 3 cars to go. He will recover his expenses and actually not get burned when all is said and done. However, this lesson has taught him one of the great lessons of any business. Keep good records, make good decisions and follow up on all your current business.