I’m generally familiar with legal stuff, but I have zero experience in this area. Any help would be… helpful.
Very long and crappy story relatively short: A little over a year ago, my daughter’s (no pics) boyfriend’s doctors sent him to the VA hospital in Dallas for tests. “Oh, hey, turns out you need a heart transplant. We’re flying you to Salt Lake City. Get on the shuttle to the airport. Now.” Daughter (no pics, seriously) joined him shortly thereafter. They’ve been there since.
His car remained in the parking lot. He eventually got a notice of abandonment from the hospital. Daughter let the hospital know what was what and the hospital treated the car as “awaiting pickup” and left it alone.
About couple of weeks ago they got a “Notice of Determination for a Bonded Title or Tax Assessor-Collector Hearing” letter from the DMV. Daughter loses her shit thinking she’s going to have to tell her BF he might lose his car on top of the rest of the shitty last 12 months. I tell her to verify with the hospital that the car is still there. It is. I tell her to FedEx me the key, just before this icy crap. Key finally arrives and I go yesterday and get the car, with all the fun you’d expect from getting an unfamiliar car with a completely dead battery that hasn’t started in over a year from Dallas to Fort Worth.
Finally, the point: I’ve done the Google thing through the statutes and the unsurprisingly unhelpful DMV site, and it very much appears that whatever dead soul is trying to claim a car from a hospital parking lot cannot actually get a bonded title without possession of the car (this has been prevented) or if there is a lien on the car (he still has a few payments left, the lienholder says everything is peachy on their end, and that they don’t get involved in this stuff until there’s an actual judicial event of some kind).
Finally, the questions: Is this likely just a case of some ghoul trying to grab a car and his attempt was dead in the water as soon as it turned out there was a lien? Given that there is a lien and the guy has no way of gaining possession, is that the end of it as far as someone successfully obtaining a bonded title on his car?