Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Maryland

I live in Maryland and have a car financed through Toyota. A year or so ago I took out a personal loan and they listed themselves as a 2nd lien holder on the car title. I lost my job and have now been unemployed for almost 10 mths and the payments on the car note and the loan are getting too much. I can't lose my car because I need it to get to a job when I secure employment. My question is can a 2nd lien holder repo a car? My car is newer but isn't even valued at the amount I still owe Toyota so the 2nd lien holder would get nothing for their efforts and I would just end up going to a buy here/pay here place because I wouldn't be able to pay the money the 2nd lien holder would want so that would also make Toyota lose out (I'm managing my Toyota Finance payments ok). Being unemployed for so long now, my credit is shot. So my question is will the 2nd lien holder repo the car knowing the negative equity or will they just take me to court? Can they legally overstep Toyota and repo the car?


Asked on 1/13/13, 6:54 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Daniel Press Chung & Press, P.C.

They can repo the car but they have to pay Toyota the amount of their lien when thy sell it. So it may not be practical.

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Answered on 1/13/13, 7:48 pm
Brett Weiss The Weiss Law Group

As Dan said, they can repo, but likely will not because they won't get any money...at least now. This won't go away, however. As Toyota is paid down the lender's interest grows and repossession is more and more likely.

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Answered on 1/14/13, 8:34 am


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