Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania
Vehicle repossession
We called Sky Bank back in February to see what was still own on the vehicle. Since we still owed for interest a Sky Bank rep said to continue paying the same amount after our last payment in April until it was paid off. With no other contact from Sky Bank, only a vague message to call Sky Bank that sounded like a solicitation call on May 24th. My vehicle was repossess May 26th in the morning. I thought it was stolen and called 911, that is how we learned it was reposed. We called Sky Bank where our loan is through, they insisted they called us repeatedly, to setup payments to finish paying the interest charges. Still thinking we where to keep sending the same amount because of our conversation in February we had all ready sent a payment last week which they had yet to received. They also said they sent us a letter on May 17th that we should have received. We indicated that we received no letters, Sky Bank basically made us out to be lying. We need the vehicle for the weekend. So we had no other choice to resolved this as soon as possible Thursday. Sky Bank would not budge and insisted we pay the interest plus repo charges in full before they would release the van. Did they have the right to repo my vehicle?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Vehicle repossession
A loan company is only entitlted to repossession fees if you are more than 15 days late. Based on the information in your question and based on what it would cost them to defend against the suit a lawyer might be able to get some, if not all, of the repossession charges returned. I offer free consultations.
Re: Vehicle repossession
I agree with Attorney Johns, but I would add the following. The written loan agreement probably has a clause that says that the written agreement is the entire agreement, meaning that any verbal modification of the agreement isn't recognized. The lesson here is, when the guy told you to just keep paying to pay the interest--get it in writing. In fact, get everything in writing.