Consumer Tips

Vehicle Repair Liens

If you have taken your vehicle to an auto repair shop to have it serviced you may end up having a lien placed on your vehicle if you have not paid your bill. A lien is a legal seizure and enforcement that can lead to you losing possession of the vehicle and it eventually being sold by the mechanic for recovery of lost monies. A lien is most often placed by a bailiff that is contracted by the auto repair shop once they have taken possession of your vehicle and have a signed work order to repair your vehicle. If there is no signed work order, the repairmen may not be eligible to place a lien legally.

The Repairers Lien Act is a statute which provides specific seizure and enforcement and sale provisions for repairers who have bestowed money or material on a vehicle in its alteration or improvement on its property or increases its value.

In the event that the repairer surrenders possession of the vehicle the only way in which a repairers lien can continue to remain in force is if there is a written acknowledgment of indebtedness by the person who requested that the work be carried out by the repairer. If the repairer never had physical possession of the vehicle then no lien right remedy is available. Further the lien right will only continue for a period of 21 days after possession of the vehicle is surrendered by the repairer unless in the interim the repairer has filed a financing statement as against the vehicle in the British Columbia Personal Property Registry.

The situation would be overseen by the Ministry Of Justice as they administer the Personal Properties and Securities Act which is the act that oversees this aspect of bailiff activities.