Returned from month in India, apartment towed car, auctioned and sold it. What to do?

[Shodan]

@Martin_Hyde

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.

Thanks, Martin.

Regards,
Shodan

ETA - You are not my lawyer, I am not your client, we never had this conversation, non compos mentis, e pluribus Unum, Gallium in trinite partum divisio est

[TriPolar]

@Shodan

ETA - You are not my lawyer, I am not your client, we never had this conversation, non compos mentis, e pluribus Unum, Gallium in trinite partum divisio est

et quia vos non potest docere

[Shodan]

Nolo contendere - there isn’t any Latin that isn’t better than mine.

Somebody repossessed my dictionary when I was in Italy.

Regards,
Shodan

[Doctor_Jackson]

@RivkahChaya

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.

In general, the state will not issue a new title on a vehicle with one or more outstanding liens. Liens are easily tracked through a VIN search. All liens must be satisfied and the state notified that the liens were released before a new title will be issued.

OTOH, one does not necessarily need a title in order to make money from an abandoned vehicle. The buyer will get a bill of sale at the auction that states something like “sold as abandoned under the authority of local Sherriff”. That is often all one needs to either part out the vehicle or ship it overseas/across the border and sell the vehicle there. Vehicles sold at storage auctions often come with the caveat “no title on hand, sold for parts only”.

It is highly unlikely that the lender bought the car back, even if they knew about the auction. Vehicles are depreciating asset and generally have a much lower price basis than a house. A used 2015 Accord goes around here for $18-23K. Even if the bank got it for the $15k figure given by the OP, by the time they paid the buyer fee to the auction and the costs associated with moving and selling the vehicle they would be lucky to break even - and will still have an unsettled $22k debt. It’s just not worth it. Chances are good that the vehicle is either in pieces or out of the country.

[Muffin]

Serve the landlord with a one-month demolition notice, knock the building down next week, and mail the landlord the bill.

[Kimballkid]

@Martin_Hyde

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.

There is also GAP Insurance which can be bought from your insurance company or through the dealership. I see nothing in there about it or Loan/Lease only being good for the first year though.

[Martin_Hyde]

@Kimballkid

There is also GAP Insurance which can be bought from your insurance company or through the dealership. I see nothing in there about it or Loan/Lease only being good for the first year though.

Loan/Lease Coverage tends to only be necessary in the first year or so–your link shows why, actually. In that scenario the owner totaled the car, and the replacement value was $26,000 but the loan was still $28,000. That’s because cars depreciate the most in their first year new. If you’ve owned a purchased-new car for more than a year or so there’s a good likelihood that the “replacement cost” for your car will be higher than what is left on your loan balance.