Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: contract law

The laws governing sales of motor vehicles and repossession from a defaulting purchaser are very complex, and not like other contracts in many respects.

If you sell a vehicle on credit, unless you have used a properly-worded contract and financing documents, your right to repossess may be impaired. Without seeing your documentation, I could not begin to answer your question.

I think the worst-case scenario is that you may have to sue on your contract, get a judgment (or hopefully an out-of-court settlement) and then you can recover either the vehicle or money as damages. If your deal is documented so as to permit a repo, contact a professional repo company or maybe your local sheriff's department can do it for you....won't hurt to ask....but unless you are an experienced auto dealer your papers may be defective and you might have to sue in order to establish your rights.

You may find a lawyer who has handled this kind of situation -- I haven't -- I just glanced at the Civil Code sections and noticed that our wonderful Legislature has provided 10,000 words of statutory guidance for car sales and repos.