Surprise Lien

[Shangri-laschild]

I went to sell my junk car for a couple hundred to a vehicle junkyard. I was all excited to be done with the whole thing only to find out that the car I paid off 2 years ago still has a lien on it. The bank sent me the title but never released the lien or sent me any paperwork for me to do so and until now I thought it was over and done with. I had already had quite a bit of trouble with this bank during the loan and have been enjoying not having to deal with them anymore ever since. Going to make some calls today and see about getting it cleared up. So glad I went through different people for my current loan.

[taxguykarl]

Be persistent as you are probably not dealing with competent people here.
Quite title suits are an option...OTOH, maybe the threat alone will clear this up as few banks would want to admit to this nonsense under oath.
Maybe we can get Ghel's take on this.

[TheSHAD0W]

Banks typically won't file the paperwork themselves to release a lien. They will give you a document that you have to file yourself. This is true for vehicles and also for property. If you saved your paperwork from the loan you may still have it.

[wolfie]

Just curious, but when you mention your current loan I assume you've bought a replacement for the junk Escape. What vehicle did you buy?

[Shangri-laschild]

The phone call went sort of better than expected. Took a while to get to a person due to the situation but they are supposed to mail me a lien release but it'll take about 3 days for them to even get it in the mail. I went through all my paperwork last night and they never sent me one. I was never sent one for my motorcycle (different bank) either so now I'm curious about that one. All the other cars I've paid off have been different situations where a lien release wouldn't have been involved on my end like the car that was totaled when someone hit me so I've never really had to deal with this. I don't think my mom has either though I'm not sure who she usually goes through for her car loans because she was very confused that they didn't take care of this on their end.

Yup, I got a Mercury Mariner. It's basically the same car but it doesn't have a lot of the features I didn't like about the Escape and it's got a different engine so I'm happy with it.

[Ghel]

Here in MN, the borrower gets the title back after the bank files the lien against it (the lien is printed right on the front of the title), and the bank gets a lien card. When the loan is paid off, the loan officer signs the back of the lien card and mails it to the customer with the paid loan documents.

Lien cards frequently get lost, and we end up doing a lien release form that serves the same purpose. Being a small-town, local bank, I have no problem preparing a lien release (usually the same day) if I can see that the customer doesn't have a loan with us.

It sucks that it's taking so long with that bank, Shangri-laschild.

[Shangri-laschild]

I'm frustrated but I'm glad it went as smoothly on the phone as it did. This is the first conversation I've ever had with that bank that didn't result in me wanting to throw the phone at the wall. And on the plus side, my work let me park my car in one of the parking lots and promised to not give me tickets despite the lack of plates on the car at the moment since I switched them to the new car.

[Gerrinson]

I'm glad it went so well for you. I came into this thread expecting a horror story like my dad went through with the bank that had the mortgage on his house.

My parents had purchased the life insurance option on the mortgage. When my stepmother passed away 5 years ago, the mortgage was paid in full by the insurance. This was only 10 years into the 30 year mortgage.

My dad later discovered there was still a lien on the house from the bank, even though the mortgage was paid off. 5 visits to the local bank ended with the branch manager refusing to remove the lien because 'the mortgage was paid early and we NEED those liens on file for the term of the mortgage agreement' and 'It's your own fault - you shouldn't have had insurance pay it off early.'

Needless to say, Dad was more than little pissed off by those comments. His lawyer was none too impressed and got the same spiel when he called their local branch, too. It took his lawyer calling the banks main office in Toronto and threatening to sue them before they agreed to remove the lien on a paid off mortgage.

[Shangri-laschild]

Wow that sounds crazy. Couldn't have been fun to deal with.

Luckily all is settled on my end. They mailed me the thing and the vehicle has now been officially sold off and is no longer sitting in one of the work parking lots.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Buy a vowel. Then you can add an A and make it into a surprise Alien!