Legal Question in Consumer Law in Massachusetts

Re: Dealer has not secured financing

Your question involves several legal documents which need to be reviewed by an attorney before any kind of meaningful answer can be made. The question of making payment to one party to forward to another, when the second party does not apparently acknowledge your contractual relationship indicates there is something significantly wrong. If you cannot get a commitment to financing from the dealer or putative lender, then there may also be a problem with keeping the car under those circumstances. At the very least, it might be prudent to escrow the payment monies with an attorney who represents you until it can be figured out what is the best approach to the problem after full review of all relevant facts and documents. Your contract may in fact provide for payments to the dealer, but we do not know this. How this will ultimately affect your credit is another question. There may be an alternative, that is returning the vehicle and seeking a full release from the dealer and lender, as well as a good report on your credit, however you do not indicate whether you want to keep the vehicle. It ultimately depends on the demands made upon you. Also whether the acts of the dealer might be found to violate various consumer protection and fair lending / credit reporting acts is an issue. Whether your remedies and rights may have expired under certain equitable laws governing these kinds of consumer lending transactions (such as whether you may return the car and cancel the sale) may affect whether you can easily get out of this purported "deal". Often car dealers themselves put a time limit (by including provisions in their own contracts with customers) by which they must secure the financing. Consumer lending laws also usually place or allow for similar limits. Counsel may be able to get to the bottom of this and solve the problem whether or not you want to keep the vehicle, but only with more information. You should IMMEDIATELY seek legal counsel, retain them and get the problem addressed.

Respectfully,

Attorney Thomas Abdow