car repo

Hi john

Welcome to the forums. Regarding your post, can you please throw in some more light into your problem? It will be better for us to understand clearly and give suggestions to you.

Regards
Roxette

When a vechicle is repossed, there are certain laws (according to your sate..so look them up) that must be followed.

SEIZING THE CAR

Normally, your creditor has legal authority to seize your vehicle as soon as you "default" on your loan. What constitutes default will be stated in your contract, but failure to make a payment on time would certainly be an example. However, if your creditor has agreed to accept your late payments or to change your payment date, the terms of your original contract may no longer apply. Such a change in your credit contract may be made orally, in writing, or, sometimes, simply by your creditor's repeated acceptance of late payments without complaint. Once you are in default, the laws of most states permit the creditor to repossess your car at any hour of the day or night, without prior notice, and to come onto your property to do so. However, when seizing the vehicle, your creditor may not commit a "breach of the peace" by, for example, using physical force or threats of force. Taking your car over your protest or removing it from a closed garage without your permission also may constitute a breach of the peace, depending on the law in your state. Should there be a breach of the peace in seizing your car, your creditor may be required to pay a penalty or, if any harm is done to you or your property, to compensate you. Also, because of a breach of peace, your creditor may lose the right to collect a "deficiency judgment." A deficiency judgment is the difference between what you owe on your loan and what your creditor receives when reselling your vehicle. An attorney can give you guidance about how your state courts have dealt with these matters.

RESELLING THE CAR

Once your car has been repossessed, your creditor may decide to keep the car as compensation for your debt or to resell it in either a public or private sale. In any case, generally your creditor must notify you about what will happen to the car. Under most state laws, your creditor must tell you if it wants to keep the car because you have the right to demand that the car be sold instead. You may want to exercise this right if the car is worth more than what you owe on it. Most creditors prefer to sell the car, however, rather than keep it. If your creditor chooses to resell the car at public auction, state law usually requires you to be notified of the date so that, if you wish, you can attend and participate in the bidding. If the vehicle is to be sold privately, you are usually entitled to a notice of the date after which it will be sold. In any of these circumstances, you may be entitled to "redeem" or buy back the vehicle by paying the full amount owed on it, plus the expenses connected with its repossession, such as storage and preparation for sale. Some states have consumer protection laws that also allow you to "reinstate" your loan. This means that you can reclaim your car by paying the amount you are behind on your loan together with your creditor's repossession expenses. Check with your state consumer protection office or an attorney to learn what the laws are in your state. Any resale of a repossessed car must be conducted in a "commercially reasonable manner." This does not mean that your creditor must get the highest possible price (or even a good price) for the vehicle. A resale price that is below fair market value, however, may indicate that the sale was not commercially reasonable. A sale made according to standard custom in a particular business or in an established market will be considered commercially reasonable in almost all cases. Failure to resell your car in a commercially reasonable manner may give you either a claim against your creditor for damages or a defense against a deficiency judgment. Whatever method is used to dispose of a repossessed car, a creditor may not keep or sell any personal property found inside. (This does not include most improvements made to the car itself, such as the addition of a stereo player or luggage rack.) Your creditor also may be required to use reasonable care to prevent others from removing your property from the repossessed car. If you find that your creditor cannot account for valuable articles left in your car, you may wish to speak with an attorney about your right to compensation.

PAYING THE DEFICIENCY

Any difference between what you owe on your loan and what your creditor gets for reselling the vehicle is a "deficiency." For example, if you owed $4,500 on the car and your creditor sells it for $2,500, the deficiency is $2,000. In most states, a creditor who has followed the proper procedures for repossession and sale is allowed to sue you for a "deficiency judgment" to collect the loan balance. Several states, however, have consumer protection laws that restrict creditors from suing for a deficiency when vehicles or other similar consumer goods are involved. Your attorney or state consumer protection agency will be able to tell you whether this is true in the state where you live. If you are sued for a deficiency judgment, you will be notified about the date of the court hearing. It may be important for you to appear at this hearing, because it may be your only opportunity to use any legal defenses you may have. If your creditor breached the peace when seizing the vehicle or failed to resell the car in a commercially reasonable manner, these may be defenses against a deficiency judgment. An attorney will be able to tell you whether you have grounds to contest a deficiency judgment.

In My State they Must notify me of the expected Auction/Sale date, Provide upon request the Sales price they sold it for, and the basis they have determined the deficiency judgment from.

Jerry

my first time on the site. VERY informative! Do you help in situtaions like these? As far as helping in giving loans to pay these off?

just read info. on the repo subject. my first time on the site and you've helped so many people. Very Impressive!

question...do you help pay these off?

I tried to post this earlier but i think it go erased.

should I write someone personally?

thank you!!!

Maria

Hi Maria and inquiring mind

Welcome to the forums. debt consolidation Care forums will be a very nice platform for anyone to explore the latest information on the matters relating to debt and look for the ways to solve them out. I hope that you will also keep on having a very nice stay with us for long.

Quote:

Hi Jerry,

Your article is extremely informative and above all many things to learn from your post. Please continue to post this type of information.We all will be benefited by your effort and help.

Regards,
Peter

Thank you, roxette! You've helped so much. Now I just need to wait for a call!!!

THanks, again...you're a BIG help...keep up the good work!

Hi Guest

Quote:

i recently got my car repo'd, i live in Illinois and the car and loan is from California. I lost my job, and i'm not receiveing any income. what will happen, i can not pay anything at all for the car if it is not sold for what i owe. i don't have the loan agreement, it went with the car. i'm scared they will sue me, i have nothing in my name for colaterol, what will they do to me because of this. i already filed bankruptcy in june, i had no other choice but to let it go..

can you add it to your bankruptcy? I would recommend contactiing your bankruptcy attorney. He or she should be able to provide you with the advice you need on the subject.

I hope you find this board as informative as I have! I found the solution to our financial problems here!
Good luck.

Hi Gina

You might try for 'Judgment Proof' as it fits in your present situation. Do read this article.

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/judgment-proof.html

i have just got my car repo, i can't pay because i'm a single parent and my daughter is in college. she has a full time job, but with school she only works 16 hrs now. the car payment was outragesss $345.00 for a little ford focus and the key lock up on it.

Hi Tam

I am sorry to hear about you going through the tough times. If you do not make payment arrangements now, the creditor will sell off your car and recover the total debt amount. If they are unable to meet the total amount after selling the car, you will have to cover the balance amount.

I suggest you to call your creditors now and see if you can make a payment arrangement. If you manage to get a payment plan, stick to it. This will save your car from getting sold out.

I was wondering if the dealership can get a warrant issued for grand theft auto if they can not pick up the vehicle?

I had an instance where my car got repoed and they offered us a settlement of half of what was left to pay on the car, after it was sold in an auction. I ended up including that in my bankruptcy when I filed back in October. The lenders will work with you in paying off the amount that you still owe after they've sold the car. They may not ask you to pay the full amount, but a portion of it. So definately call them and ask them what they would settle for.

This might be off topic a bit, but I checked my credit report about 3 weeks ago. Come to find out my repossession had be deleted from my credit report, along with another car loan that was discharged in bankruptcy!

Donna,
They try all scare tactics for you. I just volunteered my repo last week. Got tired of dodging them. My car is only worth $1500 and I still owe $9000. I got ripped off by the dealership.
They were looking for me for about 7 months. They told me I would be arrested, called my home like they were the police and calling my friends. I don't know where they got that info! Anyway, a car contract is a civil matter and has to be pursued as such. They cannot come after you criminally.

Don't mess with the repo people. They do have the law on their side. KM, it must have sucked dodging them for 7 months. I can't imagine what that was like. Also, the holder of the loan can come after someone legally. Your info is a not correct.

Boy, this subject hits home! I just got a call on Sat for my husbands car about repossession. I didn't know he was 3 months behind as I never had anything to do with it. I was mad when he bought it. Of course, now hubby is working in Germany so I have to deal with it. When the creditor told me about repo, & how he sells the car at auction & never gets what is owed & he can attach a lien on my house, I made a deal with him & lowered the payment. However, I thing even at auction, he would get a good price for the car. It is a 1994 Mercedes SL500 2 seater, with both a convertible top & hard top. We owe about $9500 for it. It is hard dealing with all this by myself. I know I did the right thing by signing with debt settlement, but its all the other things creeping up now. I really appreciate all the good words I read on this site. It keeps me going

can a felony warrant be issued out for an arrest if a car has not been found or seized? IN state of Alabama

Probably not felony. Under certain conditions, it can be a misdemeanor to conceal mortgaged property. Generally they would get a replevin order first and a judge would tell you to give it back.

Hello,

My car was repo last year. I lost my job and was not able to make payment. I owe about $3777on the loan.I am now back on my feet and would like to fix my credit and pay off the outstanding balance. I tried to call the creditors that are handeling the debt but they never pick up the phone. What should I do?

as we all now, times are hard.
My question is, my car will be repoed any day now.
Is it true, I will still have to make payments on the car when they repo it. My car is a lease vehicle.
Could you give me some tips or information on what will happen after they repo my car ?
Thank you.

Not sure if you're the same poster (different names), but I just answered the question in another thread: http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/settlement/about52069.html

Husband's car was repoed five years ago (before we were married) I just got a bill from the creditor saying they have made several attemtps to contact us about paying the balance. I have paid all our bills, open all our mail and this is the first time I have ever heard about this. What now?

My vehicle was repossessed on Tues night from my driveway. What can I do or pay to get it back. I'm 75 days later on the payment. I've offered to pay and they said they'll know what I owe in 72 hours and if they even are going to give the car back to me. I'm 53 years old and have never been through anything like this before in my life. I have fallen into some really hard times but things are starting to look better. Will the seller be reasonable on taking what is owed on late payments, storage fees and towing, etc. for settlement or do they always sell the car? Thank you

I have another twist to an already complicated issue...
My E-Wife will have our former car repossessed soon.
In our decree of separate maintenance, it states that she is responsible to pay for the car, evan though it is in my name.
Sine I have this black on white, what exactly could the bank do to me or my Ex?
We live in SC...

my hubsand is 5 months behind on car payment/ they call my grandma ,mom came to my old employers with bages looking for me , saying they r investigators ect really pissing me off. my name is no where on the loan i have nutthing to do with it. can they issue a warrant for my arrest or charge me for anything. we r hiding the car untill feb so i can file bankrupcy ,its not that he dont want to pay the bill we just lost our home to forcloser and my hubsand lost his job with pepsi!! what r the options and how can i get then to leave my family alone.again my name is no where on the loan,am i responsible for this also?

can you register the car if they are looking for it?

can i register my car if the repo man is looking for it?

Very good post as my brother was on the brink of getting his car repoed. he only defaulted by 2 days and they were already threatening to repo the car, he called a few times then they finally accepted his late payment.

What type of registration are you looking to do? You can renew your plates. But as long as they have the title, you won't be able to sell it or register it in someone else's name.

im being suued after taking my vehicle months ago and never heard anything again what should i do

My car was repoe and sold I have almost a 5,000 balance they are asking that I pay my normal car payment of $300 a month .There is NO WAY for me to be able to do that. How much of the outstanding balance monthly do I have to pay in order to prevent them from coming after me legally?

what is commercially reasonable manner? or how can i find out my car's fair market value? kbb? I owe 18000 on a car, I check with kbb and the trade is 14000. I dont have the money to pay the 4000 deficieny, I ask the lender what should I do and they told me pay or repo. if they repo do they have to sell it for at least 14000???? I also tried to make a deal with them asking if I could get 4000 loan, the sais NO. I am planning to have them repo my car......I know they will sue me for the 4000, but after sueing me, do I have to pay all at once? what happen if I dont have all at once?

1) "commercially reasonable manner" just means that they have to dispose of the collateral using methods that are common in the industry. Generally that means they have to sell the car to highest bidder at public auction, or at private sale by obtaining at least 3 bids.

2) When sold in a commercially reasonable manner, the fair market value will be whatever the highest bidder agreed to pay. To get a rough estimate, you can use KBB "rough" trade-in value (it's actually better to go by black-book value, but I don't know of any free sites that let you pull black book values). They are not required to sell it for that amount because you do have to consider mileage, condition of the vehicle, and other market conditions.

3) If you've exhausted other options and your planning to give up the car, you might consider voluntarily surrendering the vehicle. That way you'll save repo & storage fees from being added to the account. It's also possible, if they agree, for you to surrender in full satisfaction of the account, which means they won't come after you for a balance.

4) Generally when an account defaults and they retake possession of the chattel, this is considered an early termination and the remaining balance becomes immediately due and payable (ie they aren't legally obligated to give you a payment plan on the remaining balance.) The reality is that if you offer acceptable arragements on the balance, they will probably agree to it instead of a lawsuit (because then they don't have to pay their attorney 1/3).

My car payment is like 7 months late. I bought it in 2005 when the Mortgage Industry was booming,now i have gotten behind 3 months in 2008 and then made 5 payments to get ahead,and then got back behind again and made multiple payments at once in order to make it current in january. Been parked in a garage since then. I have a couple of issues:
The repo man has visited 2 former residences of mine and the actual police have stopped my daughter and threatened her saying that they will get a warrant to search my garage if I stilllived at the residence. I just wanna know if I am too far in a bad grace with the finance company to have a lawyer talk to Triad financial in order to resolve this issue by allowing me to make payments now or by pushing my balance to the back of the loan..anything in order to rectify my situation since I have gotten so far behind and in bad graces with the company. I am also in fear that this is becoming grand theft auto! I simply want to keep the vehicle after I have hit a major bump in the road financially. I worked in the auto industry and I have seen people get things worked out after the repo man was chasing the car for a long time,but i never known that they got the police involved.
I am so happy that DebtCruncher is from Illinois!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just want to know if fiking for a chapter 13 after filing for a 7 and only keeping the car for the 13 is a resolution,or if there have been instances where an attorney has talked to the Triad in order to rectify a rocky relationship or is it simply too late and I have to let it go?
Please help!
I have only discovered this site within the last hour and I already learned so much! This is absolutely a great site!

Keith, I've read your post and will be glad to respond; however, I am on my way out the door to work. I'll be back later on this evening after I get off.....

Sorry, I didn't get on here Friday or Saturday....

Finance Co's usually start looking to repo anywhere from 30-90 days past, so you're definitely going to be on their list. Their problem is that they can't find the car.

Since you state they visited your 2 former residences, I'm assuming you moved and never updated your address with the finance company. They and the repo company will try any measures they can to obtain your current whereabouts. That means calling references, running your credit, skip tracing, etc.

It is not going to be Grand Theft Auto. As a secured creditor, they are simply trying to enforce their security interest. There is nothing criminal involved (yet).

As far as the police stopping your daughter..... Finance companies have a lot of contacts; someone who works for Triad might be friends with a cop in your town, or they might actually pay that cop on the side to go out and intimidate people. The police cannot randomly get a search warrant*. The police really cannot aide creditors in collection (because this is merely a civil matter still). The actions of that officer really are over-stepping his authority and acting outside his official capacity. For that, you could file a complaint against that officer with the police department for official misconduct.

Now, that being said, if the creditor ultimately cannot get the car, they can go to court and seek a replevin order. With a replevin order, a judge will command you to surrender the vehicle. If you still don't, then you can be held in contempt of court, and then the judge can issue a warrant to go search your property and seize the collateral. However, the county sheriff would execute the seizure order, not a local police department.

You can always try to work it out with Triad. And having an attorney talk to them on your behalf might produce better results in your favor. Triad most likely won't defer more than 1 or 2 payments, and will probably not reduce your regular monthly payment. That is because the car is rapidly depreciating, and they need the loan balance to decline in equal or greater proportion that the car depreciates. THey may be able to set up some plan whereby you pay something like 1.5 payments per month until the arrearage is caught up, and then go back to regular payments.

Bankrupty is always an option. I know there are certain time limitations on filing a 13 after a 7, so that issue would be best answered by a BK attorney.

The bottom line is that you will want to act or make solid arrangements with Triad before they go to court for a replevin order. Once they file suit, they're likely not going to work with you at all anymore.

[QUOTE=;][/QUOTE]
Where is a good place to sale my old wrecked car? Please help me by sugesting some sites or companies.

If the car is undriveable, then your best bet is probably to find a salvage lot and sell it for scrap. Look in the phone book for "auto wreckers".

If the car is driveable but just needs some repairs, then you might be able to sell it at an auto auction. Try googling "ADESA Auto Auctions" -- they are a nationwide auctioneer and may be able to place your vehicle on the auction block. Although you would probably have to pay for towing to bring it there.

Hello, I new yours frient on this forum)

When a car is repossessed and sold off in an auction, the remaining debt is then transfered to a debt collection agency or law firm. At this point the debt is now considered unsecured and can now be settled on.

Dow tumbled 138 points yesterday. I read by next week it will plunge another 500! That blows.. I am already on my way to living in the street.. anyone know a good market to be in?

My boat is up for repossesion. I have been in the recovery program of Key Bank out of Ohio for 5 years (2006). I was contacted by weltman,weinberg and reis in May of 2010 in order to settle the account. I offered 5k they wanted 8k. I did not have it. We agreed that i would continue making the 300 a month payments. They also gave me automatic deductions. This lasted for six months. In November Key Bank stopped the automatic deductions. I did not recognize until May 2011. Help! I have money they will not let me pay.