Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Maryland
Default of a Car Loan
I would like to know what recourse of action I would have to file suit against a fellow church member. Her and I entered a verbal agreement, in which she later kept dodging to sign the contract, for her to take over payments on a vehicle. We made the agreement in the presence of our Bishop and his wife, my mother and her minor daughter. She constantly defaulted on the loan and constantly lied to me about payments and changed info on the account to represent herself as me. Our Bishop and his wife intervened at least twice and she was unable to refinance in her name due to her credit. I then told her to make payments directly to me in which after about one year of defaulting she finally did, I asked her was it up to date, she said yes, when in fact it was not and the car was repossesed, of course still in my name.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Default of a Car Loan
As I understand your agreement with this person, she bought the vehicle from you in exchange for taking over the payments. She made some of the payments but eventually defaulted and the vehicle was repossessed.
If you are sued by the noteholder for any deficiency balance on the loan after they apply the proceeds from the repo sale, you can bring the buyer into the suit on a claim for indemnification. Of course, since you allowed her to take the vehicle without anything in writing spelling out the terms of your agreement, it will make it more difficult for you to hold her accountable, but you can demonstrate the terms of the agreement by pointing out that she did make some of the payments, plus you have witnesses. She probably wouldn't defend the suit anyway; it sounds like she's a candidate for bankruptcy.
A potentially bigger problem for you is your credit rating. You now have this repo on your record, since you were the responsible party on the loan. I suggest that you get copies of your credit report from the three bureaus to see if this incident has already been reported.
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