Repossession

Question: I am behind on my car payments. The bank hasn't sent me any delinquent notices so could the "repo man" come and take my car away without my permission? Answer: Yes! In many states, if you are behind in your car payments, the lender can "repossess" your car without warning. The lender (or, more likely, the repossession company that the lender hires) can hotwire your car or use a duplicate key and drive it away from any location. The only limitation is that they can't illegally enter your locked home or garage. Don't wait around for repo man to find your car. Instead, take action. First, determine whether your inability to pay your car note is temporary or long-term. If it's temporary, immediately contact your lender, explain your situation, and try to work out a short-term solution (maybe adding the missed payment to the end of the loan term). Or, borrow money from friends or family to get current on your car loan. If your situation will be long-term, you should still contact your lender and try to buy some time. Then, sell the car yourself and use the proceeds to pay off your car loan. If you let the lender repossess the car, it will sell the car to cover what you owe on the loan and also charge you fees for repossession, sales costs, and the like. And if the sales price is less than what you owe (including all the extra fees), you will still owe the lender money even though you no longer have a car to show for it. It's far better to sell the car yourself -- you'll get a better price, won't be charged extra repossession and sales fees, and may even have some money left over after you pay off the loan. You need knowledge in dealing with creditors as Phil Turner's Credit Bible notes. Staying in front of your problem is best.

The lienholder is generally not required to return the car unless the loan is entirely paid off. They may choose to do so upon receipt of back payments and reposession fees (or any other arrangment they negotiate with you), but that's up to them. If you have a history of sending bad checks, it's reasonable for them to insist on waiting until the checks clear your bank, normally a week or so.

Not likely. There is usually a clause that the car has to be paid for by a certain date and bank delays mean nothing.

No. 18% is very low. Most companies will want to make 35 - 50% Gross Profit on parts and 65 - 80% on labor. So you would charge $100 for a part which costs $60; and charge $100 for an hour's labor when you pay the employee $25/hr. Even a law firm or accounting firm will mark up labor by more than 18%, although their gross profit on labor (hours) will not be as high as other industries.

To the bank

Nope.

Legally it is the owner. Morally it would be whoever caused it to be impounded in the first place.

That's not a question. Please try asking a question. Details like where you live might be helpful.

While this depends upon your leasing agreement, most are fairly standard. As you were probably required to provide insurance in order to lease, contact your insurance company first. Then inform the leasing agent as they may also have insurance to cover their portion of the loss as well. Both of them will need your insurance information, the details of the crime and a copy of the police report. Depending upon the type of insurance you have, you may be allowed a rental car dividend, but make sure you read the fine print concerning disbursements, monetary and time limits for it or you may be paying out of pocket. Check with your lease agreement to see if there is any provision in there for theft, again looking for details about time and money limits. One other consideration is the amount of time left on your lease. If you have any concerns about the information you are getting from the leasing agent, contact a lawyer.

It is a good idea to get your car registration renewed, it is against the law in most states to drive a vehicle with an expired registration, you are likely to get a ticket if caught on the road.

Technically they can repo your car after 30 days. Depending on the finance company

Take the Title for the car along with the documentation showing you as the inherited owner to your local Motor Vehicle office and explain the situation. They will be able to help you do this.

I believe all they can do is fine you for not having insurance

Only if you pay up all the arrears payments that caused the repossession process to begin in the first place. Partial payments will have to be negotiated with the original lender.

Could be a retirement incentive ... the company may offer several years salary in exchange for you taking early retirement. Wish my employer had done that for me years ago.

On the flip side, it could also be a bribe ... which is illegal.

No, you do not. It's a down payment, not a security deposit.

When mechanical transportation was first developed this completely changed the way the world works. Vehicles back in the early 1900's were a lot cheaper and required less 'attention' than horses etc. Also travelling long distances, the horses would have to be swapped over to allow those to rest while the others carried on. This shows that cars were a lot more efficient than the original horse and cart. Now days the car has been developed to such an extent that they completely over rule horses. Also, not so much now, but recently they were an extremely cheap source of transport and also got you from A to B very fast without having to change over or allow it to rest.

they were small and hot!there wasn't an air conditioner

Definately

whatever the worth is of the car or more

In general, you cannot sue for treble damages specifically for a stopped payment check, as treble damages are typically associated with statutory violations or specific torts, such as fraud or unfair trade practices. A stopped payment check usually falls under contract law, where the remedy would typically involve recovering the amount due rather than additional damages. However, if the circumstances involve fraud or malicious intent, there may be grounds for seeking treble damages under relevant statutes. Always consult with a legal professional for specific advice related to individual cases.

Probably not. You could try talking to the dealership. Or you could trade in the car and lease a different one, but you're probably going to take a severe hit in the wallet for that.

If you're just wanting to do this because you've seen a an ad and thought "wait, those lease payments are a lot less than what I'm paying" you may not know that you usually have to put down a fairly large initial payment.

Answer

Stolen cars are impounded for a few reasons. One would be that the Police might want to check it for finger prints. Another reason that the car would be impounded is if it was stolen, and the police think it was stolen too easily, they might want to check for Insurance Fraud and last but not least, they might impound a car while trying to find the owner.