Auto shop sold my car when it was "abandoned" there. What can I do?

April 12, 2017 5:57 PM

When it came time for me to move from the US to Mexico, one task I couldn't quite get finished in time was getting my car fixed up & sold. I left it in a friend's driveway and attempted to manage handling it all from abroad - in the midst of learning a new language, culture, city, job, etc. Let's just say that I fared poorly. I had it towed to a shop, where they made some repairs and informed me that many more things needed to be done, including work needed at 2 other shops. I sat on the decision of how to proceed thru the complexity from abroad, and they began charging me storage fees while they waited for my reply. I'm not proud to say that I didn't get back to them for MONTHS. And when I did...it turned out that they had sold the car. What can I do now?

In November, my friend told me that he was leaving town. I had left it all sparkly & in excellent condition, but after 5 months of sitting in my friend's driveway = it now had a flat tire, dead battery, & was molding on the inside. I called and had it towed to a repair shop, and the first person I spoke with reassured me that they could repair the tire at the Les Schwabb across the street, even get it detailed down the street, etc. I felt hopeful. But trading emails later on with another person that worked there, it became more and more complicated - a problem with the drive train, no way that they could help me with the detailing or tire, additional repairs needed. I needed to make a bunch of decisions and do some research about what repairs were/weren't worth making, and I needed to hire someone to bring it around to get different things done at different places. I got overwhelmed and did that weird awful thing of not being sure how to proceed and just...not...proceeding.

That was November 22nd. On Dec. 1st, the auto place emailed me to say that they were going to start charging storage fees. On Jan 9, they emailed me they were still charging fees and going to sell my car. I put it out of my head and dug into my mountain of work and personal challenges and a funeral and a bunch of travel, and I didn't see either of these last two emails until a week ago (April 4th). I realized with a start that *quite a lot of time* had passed. Dear. Lord. I wrote to apologize and settle up and see what could be done.

The guy replied that they had sold the car a month ago, when they hadn't heard from me, that they have "a strict policy of customers leaving their cars here with unpaid bills." I get it. I also don't understand how he could sell my car when I still have the title in my possession. But he assured me that at the shop they can title cars and sell them when they have an outstanding balance.

My questions are:
+Is this legal? Approx 3.5 months incommunicado = it becomes their property?
+Are they allowed to title the car (worth approx $13K) and accept full payment even if the $ I owed them was considerably less (at $55/day for storage = $5,610 total, cringe)?
+YANML but...what can I do now to get ANY of my $ back?

If it's relevant at all, the car was 100% paid off.

That, and, I feel so ashamed about this very expensive mistake that I considered posting anonymously. Sigh.

posted by red_rabbit to Law & Government (13 answers total)

What state was this in?
posted by mr_roboto at 6:00 PM on April 12, 2017

Oregon.
posted by red_rabbit at 6:02 PM on April 12, 2017

Actually, city probably matters, too.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:03 PM on April 12, 2017

Portland, OR
posted by red_rabbit at 6:05 PM on April 12, 2017

They got a possessory lien on your car; you might have a chance to get some money back if you hire a lawyer to make sure they dotted all their i's and crossed all their t's.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:18 PM on April 12, 2017

I am not a lawyer and certainly don't know the details of Oregon law, but at least in the abstract, a mechanic is allowed to sell cars abandoned on their property to cover unpaid bills. The legal notion is a mechanic's lien (or artisan's lien), though generally states regulate how the process works (notification requirements, method of selling the car, etc). For example, this page has a detailed write-up of what the process should be in Florida.

If the car sold for more than the unpaid bills / expenses, you should be entitled to get the extra back; the page I linked describes what that process is in Florida. However, I also imagine that the car sold for far less than you think -- it either went on a public action or if it were a private sale, probably sold to a buddy at a discount.

I suggest you contact them again asking them how much the car sold for (requesting documentation) and ask for the excess to be paid to you, with some attempt to negotiate the fees they charged. Unfortunately, even if they screw you, suing them from out-of-the-country is likely to be more painful than repairing / selling the car from out-of-the-country, so while you may want to contact some lawyers local to where your car was and talk to them to find out your options, legal action is likely to be a major pain.
posted by bsdfish at 6:18 PM on April 12, 2017

I am a lawyer. I am not an Oregon lawyer nor am I your lawyer and this is not legal advice. You might try looking for information about "mechanic's liens". Here is one such document from the Oregon govt.

Good luck
posted by banishedimmortal at 6:22 PM on April 12, 2017

This is completely anecdotal but: my husband has bought three newish cars that had been abandoned by their owners at repair shops for pennies on the dollar. If it was moldy inside and needed expensive repairs then it probably didn't sell for much.
posted by pintapicasso at 3:21 AM on April 13, 2017

Brief answers to the questions:
1. Yes it's legal - mechanic's lien as others have noted.
2. Yes they can title and sell the car through the mechanic's lien legal process
3. Sue, as noted above - but there probably isn't any money to recover. An abandoned car is a PITA for an auto shop, they sold it for pennies just to recoup the bill and get it off the lot. The shop likely did not sell it for $13K; if it was not driveable and in poor shape, it wasn't worth $13K. They sold it for what they could get for it.

For your consideration & thought process:
You actually abandoned the car in June, when you left it at your friend's house. Then you abandoned it a second time in late November, by not responding to the auto shop.

We spend time on tasks, things and people that are priorities to us. This car has not been important to you since last June - almost a year ago. Why is the car suddenly important now? What does this incident teach you?
posted by Ardea alba at 7:47 AM on April 13, 2017

Hey, I don't have any further advice beyond what was posted above, but I just want to chime in with support because I had nearly the exact same thing happen to me, many years ago. I was living in an apartment complex in Illinois at the time and ended up going out of the country for what was originally a 3-month business trip that got extended to about 9 months; while I was blissfully living it up in England my apartment complex had my car towed when they paved their lot. The tow company storing my car sent me notices in the mail but I didn't get them (my fault, I was not good at keeping on top of my mail and other things in-country ... partially because I was a little overwhelmed by my circumstances, partially because I was not a good manager of my own life, and partially because I more or less wanted to pretend my home country no longer existed). When I finally had to come home, my poor car had long since been sold for parts, and though I raised holy hell with my apartment complex and informally spoke with a lawyer friend, there was really nothing I could do. The tow company said they sold it for ~$200, if I recall correctly.

If it makes you feel any better, it was because of this incident that I ended up with a car I loved so much I had it for 16 years, I got a little better at managing my life logistics, AND many years on it's just a thing that I can look back and cringe-laugh at. Told right, it makes for a mildly amusing story at the bar, and that's about all I feel about it anymore.

Whether you're able to recoup any of the money or not, please don't beat yourself up - you're not the only one this has ever happened to.
posted by DingoMutt at 8:08 AM on April 13, 2017

red_rabbit: " I also don't understand how he could sell my car when I still have the title in my possession. But he assured me that at the shop they can title cars and sell them when they have an outstanding balance."

This is legal everywhere (though execution details differ). If it wasn't no mechanic would be able to last more than a year or two in business as they'd be burdened with abandoned vehicles consuming all their real estate.
posted by Mitheral at 9:13 PM on April 13, 2017

Thanks for the words of advice, all. Well, now I've learned about mechanic's liens! I wrote to the shop a few days ago to see if they could pass along the amount that it sold for; perhaps if there's a difference between that + the $ in owed in storage fees I will try to settle up with them. Good point that it's sadly been depreciating the entire time and won't be worth as much as it was when I left.
posted by red_rabbit at 1:29 PM on April 16, 2017

I was fully expecting at least one "what have you learned?" response along the lines of Ardea alba's, which has to be the case whenever anyone posts a dumb decision they've regretted + a question about how to move forward. I think "we spend time on tasks/time/people that are important to us" is an aspirational goal for me rather than a current reality. Don't we all want to live the wise & rational life, the one where our time and energy is beautifully aligned to our clearly-defined objectives, the one where we spend the majority of our time/energy on our most valuable investments rather being distracted by low-priority but high-urgency demand X, fun distraction when we've been blue Y or you-thought-it-was-your-priority-but-it-was-just-you-carrying-out-someone-else's Z? I'm far better than I used to be and continue to take steps towards the dream.

Thanks for the love and support and message of hope from the other side, DingoMutt! I think for me, getting better at managing life logistics = recognizing that I can be terrible at this and scheduling regular help / reaching out for help before it's too late. I paid a friend to help me with a lot of the OTHER move stuff and that was *life-changing;* I am going to set something up now for future Daunting Life Things.
posted by red_rabbit at 1:48 PM on April 16, 2017