donsrods
Well-known member
We've had these discussions before on other forums, where some guy wants to go pickup a car that he feels has been abandoned. Lots of people told him to just go ahead and do it, but there is a downside to doing that. Here is a story I copied from another forum about what can happen:
Just a story I heard about some months ago (and it's true),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, A young fellow bought this abandoned car from a farmer without any papers. He spent about $20,000 on it and was nearly finished. He decided to trace the former owners to find out if he could get the papers for it. It turned out that the owner had died but his son was living several hours away. He phoned the son and the guy seemed very inclined to get the car signed over to the kid as his dad had abandoned the car years before. The kid offered to come over and get the transfers done but the guy said to wait as he was passing by his area the next week.
The following weekend this truck with a trailer and the police showed up at his house and he was told that he must give up possesion of the car as the guys son was the legal owner of it by the police. As the poor kid watched the guy drive his car onto the trailer the cop said, "we have never met such a *******, sorry about this". They all got in their cars and drove off with his 2yr old project dream car on this guys trailer.
If this doesn't give us all a cold shiver up our spines i don't know what will. I believe I would've gone to his house and burned it to the ground.
(end of quote)
In the eyes of the law, every car has an owner. That is why there are titles, just like the deed you get to a house or property. It would be like me building a home on some lot that I felt no one was doing anything with. Later on, the real owner of the lot could get the lot AND MY HOUSE.
Most times, you get lucky with these abandoned cars, but every once in a while it will bite you in the wallet.
Don
Just a story I heard about some months ago (and it's true),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, A young fellow bought this abandoned car from a farmer without any papers. He spent about $20,000 on it and was nearly finished. He decided to trace the former owners to find out if he could get the papers for it. It turned out that the owner had died but his son was living several hours away. He phoned the son and the guy seemed very inclined to get the car signed over to the kid as his dad had abandoned the car years before. The kid offered to come over and get the transfers done but the guy said to wait as he was passing by his area the next week.
The following weekend this truck with a trailer and the police showed up at his house and he was told that he must give up possesion of the car as the guys son was the legal owner of it by the police. As the poor kid watched the guy drive his car onto the trailer the cop said, "we have never met such a *******, sorry about this". They all got in their cars and drove off with his 2yr old project dream car on this guys trailer.
If this doesn't give us all a cold shiver up our spines i don't know what will. I believe I would've gone to his house and burned it to the ground.
(end of quote)
In the eyes of the law, every car has an owner. That is why there are titles, just like the deed you get to a house or property. It would be like me building a home on some lot that I felt no one was doing anything with. Later on, the real owner of the lot could get the lot AND MY HOUSE.
Most times, you get lucky with these abandoned cars, but every once in a while it will bite you in the wallet.
Don
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