If I pay off a lien on a car, do I own that vehicle?

(This is assuming you are in the US)

Not if your name is not on the title. The lienholder does not own the car and cannot give it to someone else just because they pay off the loan. The lien just keeps the owner from transferring the title without paying off the lien first.

You could buy the car from your boyfriend (or his estate; it's not clear from the wording in the question), who could then use that money to pay off the loan, remove the lien, and transfer the title to you.

But all that would need the consent of the owner of the car. You can't buy it out from under them.

First and foremost, if your boyfriend is deceased and didn't leave a will then that's an entirely different situation, in which case his estate goes into probate and everyone can fight it out in court as to who gets what property, or it could all end up belonging to the state, depending on where you live and the circumstances of his passing.

Keep in mind too that if he owed money on the vehicle then the lender is going to have first say in what happens until or unless the loan is paid off.

Assuming that neither of these is the situation...

You may be crossing a vehicle lien with a property lien, such as a tax lien. In the case of property tax liens, the lienholder has the right to foreclose on the property if the lien is not satisfied (with accrued interest) within a pre-determined period of time (as set forth by state law).

With vehicle liens, all it does is keeps the owner of the vehicle from being able to sell the car to someone else without paying off the lien first. It's why auto lenders put a lien on the vehicle until you finish paying it off. You have no legal means of disposing of the vehicle until or unless the loan is paid, at which time you receive clear title.

Do not pay the lien - do not.

Even if you pay the lien and the title is transferred to your name - by whoever might do this. That car is not yours until it goes through probate. After someone dies and there is a transfer of ownership of any of their possessions the court will probably step back in time to the time of death and go by what was it then.

Meaning if you pay a $5000 lien on a car that is worth $20000. (Let's ignore who is on the title now, but it was BF at time of death). The court generally doesn't care that you paid the lien. They might even look at it suspiciously and wonder why would a lien be paid off before probate.

In reality probate courts are supposed to be fair. If they were not going to give you the car after you paid the lien they should use proceeds from the estate to make you even and then give the car to whoever.

But life isn't always fair and I have heard stories like yours where for example you pay the $5000. Probate court decides to give car to his sister because the will says so. Then probate court basically tells the sister to give you $5000 because the estate doesn't have $5000. Some courts might make her actually pay before transfer some may give her car and let you two work it out.

Realistically even if you aren't getting screwed by probate court - remember especially in smaller towns judgements are just as much about who you know or who your lawyer knows compared to the actual law - by paying the lien you still open yourself up to undo court costs (lawyers).

Sum it:

1. You pay the lien does not infer you are titled owner.
2. Even if lien owner has some ability to transfer title, they don't have authority to do that post mortem.
3. So even if you get your name on the title, it could go back to the estate.
4. Once car goes back to the estate. Anything goes.

While simply paying the lien and expecting the title to transfer to you would not work, it may be possible to contact the bank and offer to buy the lien from them. If that works even though you are not the owner, you are the lien holder so in order for the ownership to be transferred to someone else they would have to pay the lien.

The risk here is that if the lien amount is far less than the value of the car, then whoever is granted the ownership in probate would pay it, but this is likely out of your control and at least gets your money back.