Day 37: Managing Vehicle Liens and Abandoned Property The Legal Process Most Operators Mishandle

Howdy folks, and welcome to day 37 of the Boat and RV 100 Series. I'm Joe Downs with Storage Moguls, and today I'm pulling back the rug on the legal process that trips up more boat and RV operators than almost anything else: how to handle a tenant who stops paying, abandons their vehicle, or dies without anyone to claim the property. Here's what most operators don't know going in: the process for dealing with an abandoned boat or RV is not the same as the self-storage lien process. In most states, it runs through the vehicle title law, not the storage lien law. Operators who follow the self-storage process on a boat and RV facility create liability that can unwind months of work and expose them to real legal risk. The attorneys we've worked with on these issues inside our network have seen this play out badly in more than a few markets. That's the intelligence that lives in storagemodels.ai—the operational reality, not. Remember, a mogul isn't someone who just owns a storage facility. A mogul's a sophisticated operator of real estate, someone who understands the full arc from finding a deal to running one. That's the standard we hold ourselves to, and that's what we're here to teach. We don't just buy storage, we acquire and we optimize. And that distinction might sound small, but it tends to show up as tens of thousands of dollars per deal when you get it right and/or mistakes not being made. And we're made up of real people, husband and wife teams, the 2 neighbors who hatch business plans around the fire pit over a couple beers, or even the lone W-2 employees looking for a better way, or, or one that loves their job like a doctor or lawyer but wants a better way to invest in real estate. Not, not to mention, of course, all of the real estate investors we have in our network who realize that storage is usually a lot easier to own than residential real estate. And we teach people how to find and evaluate real deals. Right now, acquisitions between $400 grand and $2 million. Some people ask, well, why that range? Well, because there's more financing options in that range, more facilities to buy, and you're more likely to take down a facility of that size. So if you want to be part of that, storagemoguls.ai is where we are and it's where you should be. You can start for free, move along at your own pace. Let's get into today's episode because it's quite important. Because the fundamental difference that creates the problem is that a boat or an RV is a titled asset. It's registered with the state's DMV or equivalent agency and has a certificate of title, and that title determines ownership. In self-storage, the lien law governs the contents of a storage unit, which is personal property. The process for liening and auctioning a unit's contents is pretty relatively well understood and follows a state-specific but broadly consistent pattern. Many self-storage attorneys have streamlined the process. When a tenant abandons a boat or an RV at your facility, you're not dealing with personal property in a unit. You're dealing with a titled motor vehicle or vessel. The process to address nonpayment, establish your right to the vehicle, and dispose of it legally runs through the state's vehicle title abandonment statute, which is a completely different legal framework. In many states, the motor vehicle abandonment process involves notifying the DMV or the title agency, running a title search to identify any lienholder or, or on the vehicle itself, providing notice to the registered owner and any lienholder by certified mail, waiting a defined statutory period, and then applying for an abandoned vehicle title before any disposition can occur. An operator who skips this process and simply removes, auctions, or disposes of the vehicle using self-storage lien procedures may be committing conversion of a titled asset, which is a civil liability and potentially criminal exposure. This is not a theoretical risk. Get the right attorney before you take any action on an abandoned vehicle. All right. You have 3 scenarios here, and each one requires a different response and a different level of legal involvement. For the non-paying tenant with the vehicle still on site, this is the most common scenario and the one with most operator latitude in the early stages. Your lease should spell out the default and notice process, so follow it precisely. Written notices, certified mail, documented timeline. This is also where this— the state vehicle lien statute may give you specific rights and specific process requirements. So get your attorney involved early rather than late. For an abandoned vehicle with an unreachable tenant, the vehicle's still on your property, tenant hasn't paid, and you can't reach them. This is where the vehicle abandonment statute governs. Critical rule here: do not move, auction, sell, or dispose of the vehicle until you have followed the statutory— the state statutory process for abandoned vehicles. That process typically requires a title search, certified mail notice to the registered owner and any lienholder, a statutory waiting period, and a court or DMV process to obtain an abandoned vehicle title. Acting before this is complete exposes you to a conversion liability. For a scenario involving a tenant death with no estate contact, this is going to be the most complex scenario and the one where you should have an attorney before you take any action at all. Estate law governs the disposition of the deceased property. The vehicle may be subject to probate, so a lienholder may have a claim, and an heir may appear later and demand the vehicle. So do not act unilaterally on any vehicle belonging to a deceased tenant just because they're deceased. Here's the 7 steps you need to take, and every one should be documented. Every notice sent certified mail with return receipt requested. Step 1, first missed payment, you should send written notice to the tenant per your lease terms. Use both certified mail and a text or email to contact— to the contact information on file. Document the date and method of every contact attempt. Step 2, at 30 days of nonpayment, Second written notice goes out by certified mail. State explicitly, this is the formal notice of default under the storage agreement. Keep the return receipt when it comes back. Step 3, at 60 days, now you got to engage your attorney. At this point, you need state-specific legal advice on whether the self-storage lien statute, the vehicle title abandonment statute, or both apply to your situation. Do not proceed beyond this point without legal guidance. Step 4, attorney time with a directed notice. Your attorney will direct you to send notices to both the tenant and any lienholder of the vehicle title. Title search reveals who holds a lien on the boat or RV. That lienholder has rights that must be respected before any disposition occurs. Steps 5, 6, and 7 are the statutory process, the waiting period, the DMV or court filing, and the lawful disposition. All happen under the attorney's direction and in compliance with specific state statutes that apply. This is not a DIY process. Errors at any of these steps creates liabilities that can follow you long after the vehicle's gone. Your lease needs these 6 provisions. These are the clauses that determine whether a default situation is manageable or is going to be a nightmare. Vehicle description and/or VIN or HIN number at move-in. Every lease should capture the vehicle's year, make, model, and identifying number at the time of move-in. This is the foundation of the title search and abandonment filing. Without it, you're searching for an owner without knowing exactly what you're filing on. Tenant representations of ownership or authority. The tenant represents in the lease that they own the vehicle or have legal authority to store it. If a third party later claims that the vehicle was stored without their permission, this provision establishes that the tenant represented otherwise. Emergency contact and next of kin should be collected at move-in as well. And keep it current. In a death scenario, the emergency contact may be the only lead you have to locate a family member or state representative— estate representative, not state representative. Without it, you're locating next of kin through public records, a much slower and more expensive process. Have explicit notice provisions. The lease should state clearly that notices will be sent by certified mail to the address on file. This keeps your default notice process legally defensible. A notice sent to an old address because the lease didn't require the address update from the tenant is a process that may not hold up. Always have governing law clause as well. This confirms which state's law governs the lease. For example, properties in Texas, that's going to be Texas law. This matters because vehicle abandonment statutes are state-specific and the lease should be clear about which state's laws statutes actually apply. Find the right attorney. Finding the right attorney is the same exercise as finding the right lender. Experience with this asset class matters more than general competence. So your self-storage attorney may or may not know vehicle title abandonment law. Ask them directly, have you handled an abandoned boat and RV situation at a storage facility in this state? If yes, you may have your person. If no, ask for a referral. The attorneys often know who handles the adjacent practice areas. State associations are also an underused resource as well. Your state's self-storage association, marina operator associations both deal with abandoned vessels and vehicles and typically know which attorneys in the state have handled them. One call to the association executive director should produce a referral. The Storage Moguls community is also, might be your fastest path in most markets. An operator in your state who's navigated an abandoned boat and RV situation knows exactly which attorney handled it, how the process went, whether they'd use them again. So just ask them to connect with me. If you join, you'll have the community resources before you search cold. Interview them before you need them by scheduling a 30-minute paid consultation with a candidate attorney before you have an active situation. Ask them to walk you through the state's abandoned vehicle process for a non-paying boat storage tenant. Their answer will tell you whether they know this cold or whether they'd be learning on your dime during a crisis. You don't want that. Here's 5 preventative actions. None of them are complicated. All of them reduce the probability and severity of an abandoned vehicle situation. Get emergency contact and next of kin at move-in. This is the single most impactful prevention actionable available. The tenant death scenario is rare, but when it happens, having a family contact on file transforms a weeks-long search into a same-day resolution. Make it a required field on the move-in form. Require autopay where possible. A tenant on autopay never misses a payment by accident. Nonpayment becomes immediately visible and is almost always an active decision by the tenant, which means there's an issue to address, not just an oversight to resolve. Always call on the first missed payment. That same-day call to a tenant who misses a payment resolves the vast majority of those situations before they become defaults. Most first missed payments are oversights. A changed card, a forgotten update. A same-day call resolves them in 5 minutes. A 30-day letter creates a situation that could take weeks. Review your access log annually as well. A tenant who hasn't accessed their space in 90 or more days may no longer have the vehicle. Maybe they passed, or maybe they're planning to stop paying. Proactive contact surfaces the situation months before it becomes a default. At day 90, the conversation's easy. At day 180, with 5 missed payments, not so much. Try to keep contact information current. The non-paying tenant you can't reach is a much more expensive problem than the one you can. Annual confirmation of contact information during the outreach call covered in day 34 keeps your records current and reduces the probability of the untraceable tenant scenario. Here's the 3 things to take away from this episode. Vehicle title law governs abandoned boats and RVs, not self-storage lien law. This distinction matters in every state. Operators who apply the wrong process create liability that follows them. Get the right attorney before you have an active situation. Find them through the community, your state's association, or direct referral. Interview them even if it costs you $150 to $300. Interview them before you need them at 3 o'clock on a Friday. Prevent what you can. Emergency contacts at move-in, autopay where possible, same-day calls on first missed payments, annual access log review. These 5 actions prevent the majority of abandoned vehicle situations and reduce the severity of the ones that do occur. All right. Next up, day 38, insurance for boat and RV storage. What coverage you actually need. The near waterway exposure, the tenant vehicle liability question, and where operators consistently underinsure. All covered tomorrow. Please like this video if the distinction between self-storage lien law and vehicle title law was something you hadn't fully understood going in. That distinction prevents a costly mistake. And subscribe so you don't miss day 38. The insurance episode covers an exposure most operators don't fully appreciate until they have a claim. And share this with boat and RV operators who's still using a self-storage lease template without the vehicle-specific provisions we covered today. The lease review alone is worth the share. The legal framework for vehicle lien and abandonment situations is one of the most consequential operational knowledge gaps in this vertical. The operators who know it avoid expensive mistakes. The ones who don't learn about it during an active situation, which is the worst possible time to learn. StorageMoguls.ai has the attorney referral network. The state-specific process guidelines and the community of operators who've been through this. It's free to join, so know the process before you need it. 2 more episodes to go here in Section 4 before the live recap. Section 4's operating playbook is almost complete. Join Storage Moguls. Operate legally. Protect your investment. Tomorrow, insurance— the coverage that protects what you built. See you tomorrow.