Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

There is a limited number of ways liens can be placed on real property, They divide, for easy analysis, into voluntary and involuntary liens. Examples of voluntary liens are when you put your house up as collateral for a loan or line of credit. It would be rare, I think, to give a car dealer or an auto finance company that kind of power, but it's not impossible to pledge real estate as additional collateral for a personal-property acquisition loan.

That leaves involuntary liens. The kinds that come to mind are liens for unpaid taxes, which can range from the IRS to the county property tax collector, and judgment liens. This latter category arise when someone takes you to court and gets a money judgment. The lien isn't automatic, but arises if the judgment creditor records a document called an "abstract of judgment." Judment liens can also arise in other, less-common ways.

Having said all this, there are very few ways that a private person or business can put an involuntary lien on your real estate without first going to court and getting a judgment. The ones I can think of right now wouldn't apply to a car repossession.