How long will they look for a repo car in Florida?

Answer 1

Depends on the repossession/collections agency.

Several things to consider though:

• If your vehicle is up for repossession, you are facing an industry that does nothing but look for defaulted vehicles. Most are very good at what they do. They hire people who spend 8-16 hours a day doing nothing but looking for your car. This is all they have to do for their job.
• In addition to the field agents (the guys out in the tow trucks) most repossession agencies hire specialized people who do nothing but find things: vehicles, bank accounts, employers. These people, skip tracers, do nothing in their jobs but search. They utilize a number of very special tools for this purpose alone.
• If you are hiding your vehicle, you are not using your vehicle. I know, some are successful at hiding them, and using them at the same time, but it is not possible to to this successfully for any length of time. One day, you will make a run to the local Winn Dixie to pick up ice cream and you will just run out behind the barn, climb into your car and take off, not expecting that the repo man is crusing around, trolling for repos, only to come out and watch as that car you had been hiding for three years is rolling out of the lot behind a tow truck, while the driver smiles and waves at you, and your ice cream starts to melt.
• In addition to the field agents on the road, and skip tracers in a nice comfy office, there are what the industry calls camera car drivers (CCDs). The sole purpose of a CCD is to drive around a vehicle that has 6-18 cameras positioned on it that search the lots and roads of your community. These cameras are controlled by a computer in the car and visual recognition software that is looking for the make, model, color, and plates of every vehicle up for repossession that is in that company's system. when your vehicle is spotted, the computer pings, and sends out a notice to the managing company, who then contacts the repo company that has the repossession order on that vehicle. The company notifies a driver and calls the CCD who perches on the vehicle until a repossession filed agent arrives. If the vehicle is moved, the CCD keeps it in visual possession, and notifies the repo company, who notifies their driver.
• Many of the Camera Car companies also have cameras in parking garages and lots, along heavily traveled roads, at malls and shopping centers, and other strategic locations in many communities.

That all being said, Florida is a very active state, with very generous repossession laws. A repo company that has paper on a vehicle there will look for that vehicle until they find it. They have seven years from the date of last payment (ten in the event of a judgment), and the average out time on a repo order is three years, with the vast bulk of recoveries happening within the first 30-90 days of the repossession order. The longest I ever saw a repossession order open was seven years. I found that car (after three months of work when the debtor laughed at me over the phone and told me, "You'll never get it.") in the barn of the cousin of the debtor's ex-wife where it had sat for the whole seven years.