# Returned from month in India, apartment towed car, auctioned and sold it. What to do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897 "2016-07-25T23:05:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/41 "2016-07-26T18:13:29Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > The landlord failed in this regard - could even be simple Negligence as the landlord had a duty of care to the car owner. > > ETA: Alternatively, the landlord did communicate clearly and reasonably all facts to the towing company and the towing company screwed up. Ultimately, if you sue, the legal system would apportion liability in some portion between the three of you. A good lawyer would hopefully know how to sue in order to get the plaintiff the maximum damages, as there are several ways you could do that. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/42 "2016-07-26T18:27:30Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > A (really nice guy): Tow it and impound it, then have it brought back, pay the towing/impound fees but _bill them to the tenant_. The issue here is some tenants are dicks, and will refuse to pay, and collecting on that would be a bitch. This would also be the smart manager’s approach. Unless the apartment complex has a legal opinion that they had no responsibility for the car under these circumstances then the potential cost of replacing the car exceeds the potential loss from not collecting the towing/impound fees. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/43 "2016-07-26T18:50:34Z")
I don’t get how the car could have been sold without a title. Which, I’m assuming, the bank/finance company has since it holds the note on the car. Did anyone notify the bank/finance company about this situation? ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/44 "2016-07-26T19:14:14Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > I don’t get how the car could have been sold without a title. Which, I’m assuming, the bank/finance company has since it holds the note on the car. Did anyone notify the bank/finance company about this situation? Yeah, that’s the part of this scenario that has me baffled. The lien doesn’t evaporate just because the car is sold. When the bank finds out about this comedy of errors, they’re going to want to know where the hell that car is. It seems to me that whoever bought that car is going to get a nasty surprise when he/she attempts to register it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/45 "2016-07-26T19:19:21Z")
Except that abandoned vehicles are sold all the time, even without the titles, so there must be some process for this. Normally, they’re not nearly new Honda Accords, though. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/46 "2016-07-26T19:23:54Z")
The bank actually may be a resource for helping your friend out, while they can still collect the owed amount from him even if he doesn’t get the car back, they’d prefer their collateral be back in their debtor’s hands, I suspect. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/47 "2016-07-26T19:29:37Z")
How long does it take to resurface a lot and before it is ready for reuse? A few days at most? So the landlord should have had the vehicle towed somewhere before the resurfacing and towed back to the tenant’s parking space after the lot was ready for reuse. It should not have been sitting in the towing company’s lot for weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/48 "2016-07-26T20:04:33Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > The bank actually may be a resource for helping your friend out, while they can still collect the owed amount from him even if he doesn’t get the car back, they’d prefer their collateral be back in their debtor’s hands, I suspect. Would the bank be able to collect money rather than repossessing the car? If the car is collateral on the loan, and the owner says “I don’t have the car, because it was towed and sold out from under me” can they sue the owner, or would they be confined to trying to find and repossess the car? I recognize that the owner’s credit history would suffer. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/49 "2016-07-26T20:14:41Z")
Sure, they have the same rights as any creditor. It’s just a matter of effort involved. Some of my ne’er do well extended family have had cause to experience this. One wrecked a newish car, he was carrying the insurance on it as required by the lender, but it wasn’t enough to actually pay off the loan. Most car insurance companies offer a Loan/Lease pay-off rider, that goes into effect if the replacement cost of the car (that your insurer pays you) is less than what you owe, this usually will only be the case in the first year or so of car ownership, and only if you put basically nothing down. He didn’t have that rider, I was honestly surprised he hadn’t let insurance lapse completely. So he ended up owing the bank 4,000 even after insurance had settled up; they sent him to collections and it became a black mark on his credit. But as with \*any debt\*, they could've done more. They could've sued and even gotten a wage garnishment. It's just banks that do auto loans usually don't bother because it's overall cheaper to just repossess cars (an option in most cases) and turn balance due over to a collections agency that usually pay some amount to buy the debt, or work on a sort of commission. So in this situation the bank won’t be able to repossess the car, but they could still sue him in court and even get a wage garnishment or a lien on other assets. Would they? I dunno. Maybe at $22,000 still owed it might be getting into the territory where that justifies that under their cost-benefit-analysis. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/50 "2016-07-26T20:15:25Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Except that abandoned vehicles are sold all the time, even without the titles, so there must be some process for this. Normally, they’re not nearly new Honda Accords, though. Yeah, I’m sure the “selling it without a title” part is no problem, since cars get abandoned all the time, everywhere. The car was probably sold an an auction to a used car dealer who doesn’t particularly care how it came to be abandoned. But it seems likely that, sooner or later, someone’s going to want to register that car and drive it. When the proud owner shows up at the DMV, Selma Bouvier will type the VIN number into her computer and laconically announce that OOPSY, that car has a lien on it, you gotta call Wells Fargo and straighten that out. NEXT! New owner is pissed. He calls the bank, and they find out that the collateral for their car loan has been “sold” to somebody else. Everything hits the fan. Now, I’m sure this sort of thing has happened before, but I suspect it doesn’t end with the bank shrugging and walking away, or telling the original owner “no biggie; just keep making your payments and we’ll consider it an unsecured loan.” ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/51 "2016-07-26T20:27:00Z")
This is getting pretty complex legally for laymen, but I did a little research and it appears most states for a valid auto auction to have occurred the auction has to be selling a car “with clean title” to the buyer. This may not be universally true, but appears to be more or less a national standard in most states. For storage auctions, generally they had to legally notify the seller _and_ any lienholders, and failure of either to respond in a timely fashion is seen as loss of interest in the car. However, a weird wrinkle is that it’s not necessarily uncommon for an auction to close without the proper steps being taken, and you end up with title, but the title notes there’s a lien on it. You can then find your new auction purchased car repossessed out of your driveway unexpectedly and then you’re in a civil suit against the original bank that held the lien. ---
**Author:** ![Maera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maera/32/3190_2.png) [@Maera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maera)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/52 "2016-07-26T20:44:32Z")
Interesting stuff, thanks for pointing out the other angles. My friend is talking to an attorney tomorrow. He’s also calling his bank and letting them know what happened. The state has told him it will take two weeks to refund the difference in what was collected at auction, minus the towing, storage and auction fees. Question, should he accept these funds? Or will that imply some consent to what has transpired? He doesn’t want to jeopardize any of his rights. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/53 "2016-07-26T20:50:57Z")
If he’s talking to an attorney tomorrow, he’ll know if he can accept the refund in two weeks. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/54 "2016-07-26T21:05:57Z")
Please keep us updated as your friend goes through the process. I’m sure many of us are interested in how it turns out. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/55 "2016-07-26T21:23:45Z")
> [@Maera](#): > > Question, should he accept these funds? Or will that imply some consent to what has transpired? He doesn’t want to jeopardize any of his rights. > [@ivylass](#): > > If he’s talking to an attorney tomorrow, he’ll know if he can accept the refund in two weeks. Good chance someone will want him to accept those funds as payment in full. He should definitely let his lawyer decide this one. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/56 "2016-07-26T23:04:53Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > I don’t get how the car could have been sold without a title. Which, I’m assuming, the bank/finance company has since it holds the note on the car. Did anyone notify the bank/finance company about this situation? It may be that the bank was the one who purchased it at the auction. That’s common in auctions of foreclosed houses; quite often the bank bids the amount still owed on the loan, and that is the only bid. Then the bank owns it free & clear, and can begin offering it for sale right away. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/57 "2016-07-27T00:10:50Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > I don’t get how the car could have been sold without a title. Which, I’m assuming, the bank/finance company has since it holds the note on the car. Did anyone notify the bank/finance company about this situation? There’s a process for retitling an abandoned car. I don’t know how it works though, with cars with liens from 2015. Mostly it’s when someone gets a chassis from a junkyard to fix up. FWIW, once when we went out of town, took one car, and left the other in our building’s parking lot, we notified them in writing when we would be gone, and left them a key. As it happened, a tree fell, causing them to need to move our car to get the equipment in to haul out the tree. I don’t think they would have towed and sold our car if we hadn’t left them a key, but I’m glad we did. They might have tried to pull equipment around it, and damaged it. So doing that is always an option to avoid a situation like the OP. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/58 "2016-07-27T02:06:49Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > A (really nice guy): Tow it and impound it, then have it brought back, pay the towing/impound fees but _bill them to the tenant_. The issue here is some tenants are dicks, and will refuse to pay, and collecting on that would be a bitch. Take it out of their deposit. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/59 "2016-07-27T09:45:01Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I’ll tell you what _I_ would do… > > I assume he still has a set of keys around somewhere… > > 😉 This is a great thread, but I like this answer best. Well that, and owning a home has its downsides, but jeeze. These days he’d probably get arrested, though it might be worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897/60 "2016-07-27T09:49:27Z")
If it was a rusty 92 Grand Am with a flat tire and cracked windshield, I can see nobody would bat an eye. A one (1) year old nice car, and nobody asks a few questions? Something stinks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/returned-from-month-in-india-apartment-towed-car-auctioned-and-sold-it-what-to-do/760897.md?page=4)