First off, you should never buy a car from a private person with an active mechanic’s lien! That person is probably trying to get away from a heap of legal trouble. You don’t want to find yourself tracked down by a shop claiming to own your new car. If your VIN Check shows an active mechanic’s lien on a car you intend to buy, especially if the owner didn’t mention it, walk away.
This is a valid question as you search to find low-cost cars to buy. Sure, you can attend a public auction and probably get one hell of a deal, but is it worth it? That’s something you have to ask yourself.
There are two concerns to keep in mind. First, it’s possible the car is a piece of junk which is why the owner intentionally abandoned it in the first place. Think about it; the owner knows exactly what was wrong with the car – in many cases of mechanic’s liens the owner realized that the vehicle wasn’t worth the cost of repairs. Do you really want that headache?
The other concern is the shop selling the car. If they are getting mechanic’s liens on reliable vehicles, did they use poor business practices to get it done? Do you want to get involved in a transaction with someone like that?
In our world of car title recovery, we have seen our share of companies that participate in some shady business dealings. One of these is to use a mechanic’s lien to replace a title. The mechanic’s lien was never intended to obtain a title for someone taking possession of a car, but that doesn’t stop shady companies from using this to make life “easier” on themselves when obtaining a new title for a customer.
What you need to know is that misusing the process is subject to civil and criminal liability. You may even lose your title in the process. In fact, in Indianapolis recently, two people were charged for using mechanic’s liens to strong-arm more than 270 cars away from their owners and then resell them.
This just further proves the corruption that exists and why you want to stay far away from any mechanic’s lien, whether you’re buying a car from an auto repair shop or using a title recovery service that says they can give you a shortcut.