What Happens When "Operation Repo" Arrives At My Door?
Q. What happens if my car gets repossessed? Since you have experience, I was hoping you could give me some clues as to what you look out for. Please help me.
A. That's a rather cryptic question. What happens? They take your car. If you've ever seen that "reality" show on cable, that's what they do. Once you are in default on your loan (meaning late on your payments -- and even one is enough), it's generally accepted that the lender can come and take your car, any time and any where. Now, usually a creditor will work with you, but there's no guarantees that the creditor will. On top of that, once you get too far behind, they're not going to want to work with you at all.
Now, do you have any rights after they take the car? That depends on the laws in your state, and on your lender. The lender can either keep the car in satisfaction of your debt, or try to sell it (in what's called a "commercially reasonable manner") to offset what you owe. Then, if there's any difference, they can come after you for that amount. For example, if you owe $2500 and the lender sells the car for $1750, the lender can still come after you for $750, suing you in small claims court, for instance, for the balance. The lender is supposed to give you notice of what it's doing with the car, giving you the opportunity to buy it back, or to "redeem," which is, essentially, catching up on all your payments and covering the costs of the repossession.
The bottom line is, each case is different because each state, and each lender, is different.
Hope this is a hypothetical question.
A. That's a rather cryptic question. What happens? They take your car. If you've ever seen that "reality" show on cable, that's what they do. Once you are in default on your loan (meaning late on your payments -- and even one is enough), it's generally accepted that the lender can come and take your car, any time and any where. Now, usually a creditor will work with you, but there's no guarantees that the creditor will. On top of that, once you get too far behind, they're not going to want to work with you at all.
Now, do you have any rights after they take the car? That depends on the laws in your state, and on your lender. The lender can either keep the car in satisfaction of your debt, or try to sell it (in what's called a "commercially reasonable manner") to offset what you owe. Then, if there's any difference, they can come after you for that amount. For example, if you owe $2500 and the lender sells the car for $1750, the lender can still come after you for $750, suing you in small claims court, for instance, for the balance. The lender is supposed to give you notice of what it's doing with the car, giving you the opportunity to buy it back, or to "redeem," which is, essentially, catching up on all your payments and covering the costs of the repossession.
The bottom line is, each case is different because each state, and each lender, is different.
Hope this is a hypothetical question.
posted by David Kendall at
4:32 PM
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