Legal Question in Consumer Law in Virginia
New car financing -- credit app returned by bank.
We traded a car & bought a new one last month. The contract was returned to the dealer from the bank stating that they were unable to process the contract because signature wasn't complete (car put in the family business name-I did not indicate my title w/ the company on the signature line). A new contract was sent to us w/ a request for signatures. Can we refuse to sign this new contract? We would like to give the vehicle back (we just changed our minds). Can we do this? Would we be liable for anything? The car we traded has already been sold by the dealership. We put no money down on the new car. There was negative equity in the old car that we traded.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: New car financing -- credit app returned by bank.
Are you saying that the contract that is not
signed is with the car dealer, or with the bank?
Often there are two separate transactions, one
in which you buy the car, and another in which
you borrow the money from the bank.
If you have not signed an agreement with the
car dealer, you might try refusing to sign the
contract and canceling the deal.
It is not impossible that a creative attorney
could show a verbal contract to sell the car,
and hold you to the deal.
However, it is more likely that the car dealer
will sell the same car to someone else for the
same price or more.
If you were sued, and assuming that you actually
lost, you would only be liable for the amount of
money that the dealer actually lost by selling
the same car to someone else at a lower price.
If they sold the same car for the same price,
their losses would be $0.00 (aside from perhaps
some minor administrative costs).
Therefore, it might be worth it for you to take
that approach. The chance that they will sue
you is probably small. The chance that they win
is "iffy" at best. And if they do win, they
probably cannot show any losses, since they are
obligated to sell the car to someone else at the
best possible price.
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