Repairers Lien
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. The Repairers Lien Act does not actually create the repairers lien rather it provides a method of enforcement of the common law possessory lien and modifies the common law possessory lien to allow for the existence of the lien where possession of the vehicle has been surrendered by the repairer.
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.