In California, the lien holder will come after you. I have a good friend that owns a tow company and has contracts with the local sheriff and highway patrol. He's called out to tow cars when the person is pulled over for drunk driving, or gets pulled over and doesn't have insurance or a license, and he tows their car back to his tow yard. The first thing he does is put a lien on the car for the towing costs.

This is how he makes his money, when the person comes to pick up the car, they have to pay for the tow, and storage. Under California law, the owner of the car has to pick the car up, they have to have a current license and insurance, if they do not they cannot get the car. Sometimes it takes the owner longer to get their license and insurance together than the time the lien becomes legal. In that case, the car becomes the tow companies legal property. Many many times their is money owed on the vehicle and a bank holds the paper on the car or is the legal lien holder. However, the two company can still file a lien on the car, and my friend does so. If the bank wants the car back, they have to pay the two fee, and the storage fee so he still gets payed if they decide to pick the car up, but here is the disconnect. Banks are really only concerned about cars that have delinquent payments, the ones where the car payments are not over three months delinquent, they don't pay attention to. If the car is not delinquent, when the bank receives the lien papers on the car, they just contact the person who holds the loan and the registration papers on the car, at most, and many times don't even do that. Because you have this three month period of time, the two company has a very good chance to legally become the owner of the car because in California it only takes 60 days for the lien to go into affect.



So no matter what, the tow company makes their money.

I am sure most states have laws in place that will be similar. It seems you could use these laws to legally place a lien on a vehicle and gain ownership.

Scott