Legal Question in Banking Law in California

I don't know what law this falls under but here's what happened. Back in 2006 I got an auto loan from a company called Coastal Credit LLC in Florida, I was stationed in the military in California at the time. In 2007 I parked the car on base where it wasn't being driven, the registration was expired. I went to the field for a week or so, came back and my car was gone. The military police had it impounded to a local tow company and I couldn't afford to get it out of the impound. After 30 days the tow company called Coastal Credit LLC and had a representative come out to look at the vehicle. Coastal Credit LLC did not attempt to contact me in any way shape or form and allowed my vehicle to be sold when I still owed about $7000. I had never missed a payment, and I continued paying for the vehicle on time until about September of 2009, I still owe them about $1500 and they keep sending me a notice that they will repossess the vehicle, which they already did. They didn't even reimburse my loan for the amount the vehicle was sold for. I called them and they are aware of this, and they still want me to pay the remaining balance. My question is, can I sue this company?


Asked on 3/09/10, 9:11 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

You probably have violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, but what are your damages? And there may be no violation. It doesn't sound like Coast Credit reposessed the vehicle. It sounds like the tow company sold it for impound fees. Coast Credit probably figured that after the tow and storage fees and the costs of an auction, they wouldn't get enough out of the car to be worth it, so they let their lien go. I'm not sure that's what happened but it sounds like a possibility. If so, you don't get any credit for what the car sold for because that all went to the tow company. Once you let the tow company keep the car, whether you could do anything about it or not, you set yourself up for this. So unless you can prove Coast Credit got proceeds of the sale and have not credited your account, you don't even have a right to sue them.

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Answered on 3/14/10, 9:41 am


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