To recover a vehicle that has been impounded by the NYPD, a lienholder must present a title in the lienholder’s name. The NYPD will not accept any title that is illegally obtained as doing so would make the police complicit in illegal action. There are only two lawful ways for a lienholder to obtain title: …
Read more “WARNING: Do Not Obtain “Repo” Titles on Vehicles that are Impounded by the NYPD”
Many cities and towns use license plate reader technology to scan for “scofflaws.” Scofflaws generally are people who have two or more unpaid parking tickets. When a license plate registered to a scofflaw is found, the typical practice is to boot the vehicle, and then tow it away to an impound yard. By the time …
Read more “Parking Ticket Seizures: What Lienholders Need to Know”
A vehicle abandonment trap is a technique used by local government agencies to convince a lienholder/lessor to give up its rights to a vehicle. The most common trap occurs when the government agency sends a letter which states that, unless the vehicle is claimed within a certain number of days (ten days is typical), the …
Tow yards can assert a storage fee lien only where the towing is requested by the vehicle owner or police. No lien is allowed where the towing is requested by a private lot, store, or apartment complex. Nevertheless, tow yards often claim a lien anyway hoping that lienholder/lessors are fooled into paying their charges. In …
Read more “No Tow Yard Storage Fee Lien For A Private Lot Tow”
Lienholders cannot lose their liens in New York, but there is a lot of misinformation that confuses this simple topic. Let’s clear it up. Usually, this problem comes up when the lienholder discovers that someone has obtained a new title and the lienholder’s name and address is no longer showing on the title. This prompts …
Read more “Can an Automotive Lienholder Lose a Lien in New York?“
When a lienholder has perfected its lien in a vehicle, the perfected lien is protected against loss to later claims made against the vehicle. Garage lien claims present a quirky problem because garage lien sales are done by self-help. Self-help means that the garage places the vehicle for sale on its own say-so with no …
Read more “Can a New York Garage Lien Sale Wipe Out a Perfected Lien?”
Tow yards in New York cannot charge storage fees after towing a vehicle for police unless they follow the strict set of rules in New York Lien Law 184. Tow yard overcharging is a persistent problem because tow yards see no downside to pushing the envelope, hoping that lienholder/lessors are unaware of the legal limits …
Read more “Appeals Court Rejects Tow Yard Front-loaded Storage Fees”
For many years, the City of Yonkers deployed a strategy designed to make lease/lienholders pay for the costs of its attempt to collect unpaid parking tickets. Yonkers would boot a vehicle and then call in a private towing company to haul away and hold the vehicle hostage. Yonkers would then send the lease/lienholder a letter …
Read more “Federal Court Puts the Brakes on Gouging for Parking Tickets”
For many years, Nassau County has seized cars as a way to make drivers clear up old parking tickets. If the tickets were not paid, the County would dispose of the vehicle. If a lienholder or lessor wished to recover a seized vehicle, Nassau County required payment of not just the tickets on the seized car, …
Read more “Lienholders no longer have to pay for parking tickets in Nassau County”
The NYC police department (NYPD) seizes more vehicles than any other agency in the country. The NYPD has been sued many times over the years and it has used the lessons learned from those lawsuits to refine its seizure and impound practices to the point where the NYPD has very specific and orderly procedures for …