Have you bought a vehicle that required a title from a storage auction?

Just wanted to get some feedback from those of you that have bought RV's, boats, cars, trailers, ATV's, motorcycles, etc. from a storage auction. How difficult was it to get title? What steps did you have to take to get the title?

Start with the DMV to see if there are any past due fees. If there are, you'll have to pay them IF you can proceed.

If vehicle has a lien-holder (like a bank), then you have to deal with them to see if they want to give you their release of interest. If they are owed a lot of money on the vehicle and it suddenly comes to light, they might want to retain ownership. Don't know how that would affect you.

In my area if there is a vehicle in the locker and the mgrs have not gone through work to get title, the vehicle is not sold until that happens (next auction or two later). OR if it appears to be a junker or work in progress, they may sell it as parts thus alleviating them of any responsibility for it.

This is as much as I know about it. I've gotten three  motorcycles and one of them took 11 months to clear. The other two went right through as no money was owed on them and no back fees.

Let's say there was a lien on the vehicle and the lien holder wanted to take possession of it, does anyone know whether you can require them to pay what you paid for the unit, plus daily storage fees? If the facility manager has sent the lien holder notice before the sale and they didn't make arrangements to pick it up, then you definitely have an argument.

Movieman had a really informative post about this topic. Actually I think it was someone elses post and I kinda hijacked the thread with my own question but he had some good info and experience with titling a dirt bike, four wheeler and maybe a car if I remeber correctly.

Couldn't find it looking but then again I'm lazy and didnt look that hard lol. Maybe movieman can link to to it.

Movieman had a really informative post about this topic. Actually I think it was someone elses post and I kinda hijacked the thread with my own question but he had some good info and experience with titling a dirt bike, four wheeler and maybe a car if I remeber correctly.

Couldn't find it looking but then again I'm lazy and didnt look that hard lol. Maybe movieman can link to to it.

This is the link, but it only provides a little insight into Travis' question. I don't know anymore about this than I
included in that thread, but my educated guess is that there are so many circumstances (variations) that each case will probably have to be treated differently. This I do know: it's complicated.

My input on the lien situation started in reply #9 in the thread below.

http://storageauctionforums.com/index.php?topic=981.0

Not necessarily a answer to your ?...but a related story

last year we had a unit with a mid 80's Jag XJ-6...pretty ruff shape
My girl states several times BEFORE she opens the bidding..."we do not have a title" and "this
is selling for parts"....well when the bidding ends, the winner walks over and says "where is the title"...
"we stated that is was for parts"...."yea but, wheres the title"....went on about 10 mins....seems the dumbass
was so caught up in there being a car in the unit, he wasn't listening to the announcements...Some People??

seems the dumbass was so caught up in there being a car in the unit, he wasn't listening to the announcements..

I know that wouldn't apply to any members of THIS forum, but yeah, there's a lot of them out there!   

I just bought a unit with a truck in it the other day.  The storage place has been hanging onto this for 7 months before they finally sold it, and they have had it inspected and had all the paperwork ready for me.  Almost as easy as getting a title with it, and I will have very little wait (couple of weeks) before I can turn around and resell it.   

I just read an amendment in HB 1259 Texas property code bill which will require the Texas DMV to provide title for vehicles sold at storage facility lien sales. They are very specific that if the storage facility issues a notarized bill of sale, the DMV must issue title. I think people will be less apprehensive to purchase a vehicle from an auction now.