S.O.P. Salvage Rights

[Rook]

What are your opinion on salvage rights and what should they effect? For instance, if a vehicle is abandoned at the side of the road, is it the government's property after a certain time, or should there be a window for private salvage? Same for ships at sea? Should there be a requirement for contacting the registered owners before hand? What about artifacts or mineral deposits found on private land, or discovered on government land such as the bottom of the oceans or national parks? I'm leaving this one nebulous to start out, just to see what you have to say. I have my own opinions of course, which I will weigh in eventually.

[Nesslandria Haneh]

I think the owner should be contacted before any salvaging occurs. Proper documentation with photos should occur to prevent fraud. I don't want my car pirated just b/c it broke down and it takes me a few days to pick it back up. And I think a thorough effort should be made to contact the owner, not just one attempt. I'm not sure what a good time limit is before salvaging may occur, though. I am also not so comfortable with private citizens having salvage rights on other people's private property and belongings. I guess I'm not really thinking about old abandoned houses, etc. I just am trying to think of it from the perspective of my belongings being taken, salvaged, etc.

[Rook]

And that's a justifiable fear. But take registered property as the only things salvage laws could effect. Like your car, it's registered, has license plates etc. It's not that hard for whatever registering agency, DMV in America, to contact the owner. I know there's a process that towing companies use to transfer the title of cars they confiscate into their name when no one has claimed the vehicle after a certain time. Should that process be expanded to private citizens?

Take a car at the side of the road for instance. If it stays there longer than 48 hours most police agencies tag it as abandoned, come back a day later, and if it hasn't been moved they will tow it. Perhaps when that is tagged it should be the police's responsibility to notify the DMV so that they can notify the owner through their phone or e-mail. If, two days after that, there is no response, the police put a second tag on it putting it up for salvage. If it isn't claimed in a day than the tow company gets it.

This is only possible with computer networks and instant communication. This could never work with paper filing and mail.

[Rook]

Unless someone else has something to add, I will close this discussion with the resolution of: private salvage rights opens up the door to pirating and theft. It is the government's responsibility to deal with abandoned registered property.

[Rook]

I kind of want to come back to this one too.

[Rauve]

I like King Ari's idea on post 3. My opinion on things like abandoned property should be tagged as such, time will be given for the rightful owners or their
heirs to claim it. After that it will be tagged as salvagable, and any items on the property can be legally salvaged. After or during the salvaging period, a
claim can be put in by anyone, if it is approved, the property and all remaining items belong to the person who submitted the claim.

[Rauve]

However, if no claims are made or approved in the ample time given, the salvagable tag is removed,
and the property goes to the government, so they can do as they see best.
If the government see fit, they can renew a salvage tag.

[Rook]

The reson I decided to revisit this topic is because I made my earlier sentiments back when I believed that the Government was the answer to everyone's problem. I've come to the conclusion as of late that the Government's job is to get out of the way and not cause problems.

The big difference between a ship abandoned at sea and a car at the side of the road is that ship's don't belong empty at sea and there are many reasons a car can stay at the side of the road with no one in it.

So as I said in post 3 the local police would be able to notice when a vehicle is in an area for longer than is acceptable to still be considered owned. They then alert the vehicle registration agency which then notifies the registered owner of the vehicle. If it's not collected within a specific time it's then given a second tag which makes it fair game for salvage. In the unlikely event that no one else has taken the vehicle after the salvage tag is attached the local government will then collect the vehicle and auction it off, put it into service or whatever it decides to do at that time.

Government collection should be a last resort and the only government interaction in the salvage process is to moderate the affair so that no one gets stolen from.

"Salvage" as we're discussing here only applies to registered property. Technically land or a house can be abandoned just as a car, motorcycle and boat can be. Does the process need to change for property?

[Rauve]

Very true, however in some cases, salvaging property could be very different from salvaging things like cars,
and a different process may need to be used.

[Rook]

Very true, I'm allowing some time for anyone with insight to weigh in before I unveil my ideas of how property salvage should work.

[Mira O'Halloran]

I'm thinking 6 months as a decent amount of time to allow the authorities to contact the owners. After that, it's fair game.

[Rook]

When it comes to homes and tracts of land six months seems reasonable. I would have said a year or two. More importantly, how does one deem property or land abandoned? Many people own property or land and don't use it for long periods of time. Examples include:

A man buys up a few acres as his retirement homestead in the country but only goes up there in the summer when he's off work and has time to build.

An investment Realtor buys up land in areas he speculates will expand and gain value, but that may take months or years of waiting on the property.

A family's winter cabin gets used a few months out of the year.

So what are the criteria for abandonment?