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How You Get Title to a Vehicle if the Owner is Deceased

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  • 03-04-2014, 08:12 AM
    dmd56
    How You Get Title to a Vehicle if the Owner is Deceased
    How can I get a title for a vehicle central Florida that was brought in to my place to have work done over 4 years ago. I'm not a licensed mechanic so I can't file a mechanic's lien, but I had done an investigation and found the owner is dead with no one as executor. I have the paper work of the registration from the glove box and that's it. What can be done to get a title?
  • 03-04-2014, 08:39 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: How You Get Title to a Vehicle if the Owner is Deceased
    The most obvious way? You can identify the owner's heirs, have them get title, then buy the car from them.

    Perhaps there are more facts you could share that would clarify the context.
  • 03-04-2014, 09:15 AM
    budwad
    Re: How You Get Title to a Vehicle if the Owner is Deceased
    You should declare the car abandoned and apply for a new title. Whether you are a mechanic or not does not preclude you from filing a lean on the work that you have done. But what does that get you? If someone does not claim the car you will not collect on the lien.

    File for a title on an abandon car and then sell it.
  • 03-04-2014, 11:52 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: How You Get Title to a Vehicle if the Owner is Deceased
    All of that is basically... wrong.

    Florida law allows for the owners of private property to have unauthorized vehicles removed from their property, Florida Statutes Sec. 715.07, although in most cases that requires that signs be posted restricting parking and removal does not give the landowner any claim to ownership. An abandoned vehicle can be reported to the police, and the police can take appropriate action to try to notify the owner, Florida Statutes Sec. 705.103, but that also would not give the landowner any claim.

    There's a statute that permits liens for any "person regularly engaged in the business of recovering, towing, or storing vehicles or vessels" who lawfully removes a vehicle at the behest of a landowner to assert a lien for towing and storage, Florida Statutes Sec. 713.78, but that power does not extend to the landowner. The statute authorizing a lien for services performed on personal property does not apply when no services are performed, Florida Statutes Sec. 713.58, and a person seeking to enforce such a lien against a vehicle has to provide proper notice to the actual owner, to publicize the sale of the vehicle to satisfy the lien, to properly sell the vehicle at a public sale, and to pay any surplus to the owner through a Florida court. Florida Statutes Sec. 713.585.
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