Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania
I financed a car in September of 2013 through Condor Capital Corp. Who were then located in New York. About a year later, they were involved in some legal suits and moved from NY to California. So we recieved a letter in the mailed stating we were now to send out payments to a P.O. Box in San Diego CA. In October of 2015 we took the car to the dealership we got it from to trade it in and when the ran our credit to see what we were able to get, the finance company was nowhere to be found in any of the credit bureauscore. So, ofcourse we couldn't trade it in, one because of that and two because the payoff amount was too much and they couldn't understand how after us paying on it for two years. So we went home with the car and let it go at that not thinking that anything was wrong because, we were told they had a choice if they wanted to report it or not. So again in July of this year we preceded to do the same thing and once again it was the same thing. We stopped making payments on the car because we weren't getting credit for it, so what's the sense in making payments on it. On August 31st of this year it finally appeared on equafax. On September 21st, they came and picked it up. Today we get a certified letter, that my son signed for, stating that we owe them 16,550.00 some odd dollars and some change. It's a 2014 Kia Forte Ex, that we've had for 3 years. I can't imagine that we still owe them that much and when I asked them how much have we've paid in on the vehicle, they couldn't tell me anything from when they were in NY. They said that they would have to put in a request for them and email them to me. Which I'm still waiting for. The letter also read, that they will be selling my car in 10 days and my belongs too if not picked up and paid for in 30. What should I do?
1 Answer from Attorneys
So you had some difficulties with the lender the lender and you just decided not to pay? That is not how it works. IF you want to buy an item, you pay for it regardless of whether or not it is reported on your credit. Second bad move was trying to trade this in and get dealer financing. You should have done your homework before showing up at a dealer.
Third, when a car is repossessed, the car is sold at auto auction for way less than the value of the car. You are then responsible for any deficiency. You can't figure why it is high but I will venture to guess that you had llousy or non-existent credit when you bought the car and/or you rolled the cost of a previous car into it. If you had bad credit and you rolled in the price owed on a prior car, it means that you could only qualify for what I call a vulture lender who was willing to loan but only at a really high interest rate. Even though you were paying for 3 years, most of your payments went to interest which meant you were paying not nearly enough on principal. It was probably a 7 year car too, which again meant you were paying mostly interest.
Unfortunately, you have just made one bad decision after another and at this point there are not very many options left. You can either file a chapter 13 bankruptcy and get the car back and the loan terms modified depending on y our other debts/assets. You can try to redeem the car if you can find another lender, which is not likely given that your car has been repo'd. And you will have to come up with the full amount. Third option is to take the hit, let the lender sell the car for peanuts and at that point, your debt will be unsecured. You can wait and see if the lender or a junk debt buyer sues you - you have 4 years from the time the car is sold for them to do that. If they don't then you are home free. If they do, then you can always settle for a fraction of the debt as they may be more amenable to settlement at that point. You can send a written request for an accounting but that is not going to get your returned to you. Your best bet if you have other debts is to get up with a bankruptcy attorney NOW. Otherwise, let this financial albatross be sold and deal with the fallout of that by starting to build a warchest now. Your credit is already toast by you allowing the car to go into default. And I would start getting some financial education classes so that you do not make these same mistakes again. All of this was completely avoidable.
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