Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Massachusetts

Re: co-signer rights to repossession

If you read the loan documents you signed, your only duty is to pay. You have no contract with the friend that allows you to repossess anything. If you had wanted that power, you should have consulted a lawyer back when you decided to co-sign the note.

You can sue your friend and try to get a judgment that you can then use to get an execution and levy on the car, if you can find it, and if it is in decent shape. Your friend may file for bankruptcy and the vehicle may be exempt, depending on the equity in the car and how long it has been since the car was purchased. (The new banruptcy laws make it difficult to cram down or even get out of a car loan within a year of the purchase.) That will leave you where you are now, less the money you will have spent tracking down both friend and car. The only advantage you have is, if the friend moved out of state, the statute of limitations stops running for any suit against him.