Car Repo and Summons to Court

[Guest]

OK I wanna try and make this quick

I had a car repod in April (April 24 to be exact) the payment was due on April 12. It was an every other week payment.. I was ONE payment behind.

The car is repod sent to auction.. I get a certified letter on the auction date. Then I learn that it costs $100 NON REFUNDABLE just to get a chance to BID on the car.. and the car lot BOUGHT the car back at their own auction!!

Now heres the weird part....

Almost Ex husband (papers arent final) was on the loan, joint account in both names.. his address was the address on all the contracts. I called the car lot and told them I moved and gave them my new number and address.

He was NEVER CONTACTED about anything on the account until he was served with court papers and his summons. Isnt that illegal?

Wouldnt he have to be notified of all that as well?

Anyway.. the collection agency listed does NOT say Assignee of XX Car lot.. . There is a little stamp on the copy of the original contract that says something about it going from the finance company to this collection agency.

indiana gives you 20 days to respond to summons.. FDCPA affords you 30 for validation.. The wording is VERY confusing and I thought that the Dunning part of a contact was supposed to be VERY clear ((FDCPA Violation?))

I am going to wait til day 15 to file my answer and mail validation together.. Both CMRR to lawyers and CA. Also getting a letter ready for EX hubby to send as well as his case is a TAD different than mine

What do you guys think of this course of action. I am kinda hoping if I wait til around 17 days to get it all filed.. the schedule a court date before the 30 days provided me by FDCPA and I can catch them and counter sue.

I know at some point I am going to have to pay this off ((NEVER BUY FORM A LOCAL BUY HERE PAY HERE!!!!!))

But I want every one of their T's crossed and I's dotted.. if ya catch my meaning.

I have since learned that in Indiana you have to be notified when an account is transferred to the assignee.. they never notified us.

Also.. the Collection Agency pulled our credit on May 22 of this year. By the court papers they did not have possesion of the account until May 27

FCRA violation maybe?

I am trying to have all my ducks in a row before I start working on my answer to the summons. I know I am prolly gonna get a judgement against me but I want to try everything I can to screw these guys over.. they sure screwed me!!

ANY advice is welcome and appreciated!!!

[cha0sman]

Anyway.. the collection agency listed does NOT say Assignee of XX Car lot.. . There is a little stamp on the copy of the original contract that says something about it going from the finance company to this collection agency.

Assignee of XX car lot would mean that the car lot hired the collection agency to collect on the account probably on a contingency basis.... that stamp probably means that the account was bought by the collection agency.

indiana gives you 20 days to respond to summons.. FDCPA affords you 30 for validation.. The wording is VERY confusing and I thought that the Dunning part of a contact was supposed to be VERY clear ((FDCPA Violation?))

there is a thin line with this...it is very debatable...did the summons have the mini miranda and such on it?....when a debt goes to court it is normally assumed that the courts will validate the debt...like i said though it is a thin line.

[Guest]

Well it had the mini miranda but there was no where except the summons where the creditor was identified.

Not to mention it says we owe 3809.42 plus interest at 23.43% until date of judgement.

This is in direct violation of Section 809 which states they must give the balance

The seventh circuit court upheld in Miller vs McCalla that a collector can state the amount of the debt on that date but they can't say plus interest.

So I am going to use this in ONE of my 7 counterclaims.. can you believe that???

We have come up with 7 colid counter claims so far.

I am still wondering about my ex husband never being notified. I wonder if we could sue for the amount of the car??

We are thinking about trying it.

Let me know what ya think

[cha0sman]

Well it had the mini miranda but there was no where except the summons where the creditor was identified.

Not to mention it says we owe 3809.42 plus interest at 23.43% until date of judgement.

This is in direct violation of Section 809 which states they must give the balance

The seventh circuit court upheld in Miller vs McCalla that a collector can state the amount of the debt on that date but they can't say plus interest.

So I am going to use this in ONE of my 7 counterclaims.. can you believe that???

We have come up with 7 colid counter claims so far.

I am still wondering about my ex husband never being notified. I wonder if we could sue for the amount of the car??

We are thinking about trying it.

Let me know what ya think

Yeah in that judgement if anyone didnt know they have approved language of

"“As of the date of this letter, you owe $__________ <the exact amount due>. Because of interest, late charges, and other charges that may vary from day to day, the amount due on the day you pay may be greater. Hence, if you pay the amount shown above, an adjustment may be necessary after we receive your check, in which event we will inform you before depositing the check for collection. For further information write the undersigned or call _____________ <phone number>.”

[Lil Smurfette]

Sky Warner, don't give up. Me and my DH went through something similar. We financed a used car through a local company and they did what's called in-house financing at a 10% interest rate. Well we didn't have the car for a month before it started causing us major problems (engine, transmission, etc........). So I called the general manager and he told me to just give the car back because he felt bad for selling us some junk.

Anyway, we parked the car out in front of the house (like he asked us to do) and it sat there for over a month. I made several calls to the general manager asking when they were going to come and pick up the car. He replied "soon within a day or so". Well finally one morning we woke up and the car was gone. Of course I didn't report it stolen because I had been expecting the car company to come and pick it up.

Low and behold a couple of weeks later we received a summons to come to court for the price of the car minus two payments. In the summons the car company stated colateral resides with client (us). We couldn't believe it they were trying to get us to pay for a car that they came and got, and had the nerves to lie and say that we still had the car.

So, to make a long story short, I did some research found out the name of the tow truck company that hauled the car away and went and hired a lawayer. It never went to court because once our lawyer informed them that they had lied (stating that they didn't have the car we did). They canceled the law suit and signed an agreement that they could not ever sue us and we couldn't later sue them.

So once again, gather all of your facts look over your contract very well. If you can hire an attorney, and if you don't have the money to pay for one go to one of your local agencies that offer legal assistance and try to get a lawyer on probono (volunteered service).

[lizandjerry]

It never went to court because once our lawyer informed them that they had lied (stating that they didn't have the car we did). They canceled the law suit and signed an agreement that they could not ever sue us and we couldn't later sue them.

Lil Smurfette - I liked your story and was just interested in knowing if you ever got the money back that you had paid for the car, or did they give you a new car, or did you still have to pay for the car?