Repo Question

[TwoFaced]

If you made a late payment on a vehicle, which was accepted and applied to the account, and a few days later the vehicle is repo'd, is that legal. State of Va for anyone that might know. Just curious, simple fact was during my disability, I was about 5 - 10 days late on a payment (due to the fact disability had not kicked in) I got payment, so I went to the bank and made payment. A few days later, maybe a week at the most the car was repo's and then sold at auction. I didnt try to fight it at the time mainly due to not having much money, and being heavily medicated (frankly I didnt give a crap about anything). Anyways, just a curious question that has lingered in my mind for a while.

Thanks

[sambabchip1]

legal to do that, are they looking for $, is it being reported on reports.

i dont think they can repo, if it was a car title loan they could,and would,

happen to me 5 yrs ago, missed payment late a few days they repo it,

cost me extra 500 to get the car back, MF'S

but a bank, or finance co. wont go there , i think,

thx

sam

[elyse449]

If you made a late payment on a vehicle, which was accepted and applied to the account, and a few days later the vehicle is repo'd, is that legal. State of Va for anyone that might know. Just curious, simple fact was during my disability, I was about 5 - 10 days late on a payment (due to the fact disability had not kicked in) I got payment, so I went to the bank and made payment. A few days later, maybe a week at the most the car was repo's and then sold at auction. I didnt try to fight it at the time mainly due to not having much money, and being heavily medicated (frankly I didnt give a crap about anything). Anyways, just a curious question that has lingered in my mind for a while.

Thanks

That's an excellent question. Because while you WERE late, you cured the default and they chose to repo ANYWAY...something is rotten here, but whether there's any precedence on it I don't know. I'll be interested to see the answer. When did this occur?? When was your last payment and when did they sell it at auction?

Elyse

[TwoFaced]

It was a typical car loan.

It happened a few years ago. Jan 04. Like I said, I did not think much about it, the year before I had missed a few payments, less than 30 days late. I was very formal about it, I notified the lender SunTrust Bank every time. Mainly it was due to the disability check not being approved by their doctors on time, which held up my funds. Then in Jan I was late again, same excuse, awaiting appoval thru the disability company. They finially paid me, I paid SunTrust, then about a week later Repo man hooked the car up and drove away. I really didnt think to much about it, mainly I didnt know if it was right or not. However sitting back thinking about it now, and looking at my credit reports, it was recorded as not being late for almost 8 months, not even on that month it was repo'd. The more and more I think about it, the more and more I am tempted to contact a lawyer.

What makes it even worse, months before that, about 8 months, SunTrust took all the money out of my account to pay the bill. Thats fine and dandy, it was disability monies, but where they got me is I wasnt notified about the debit from my account for 2 weeks. So I using my ATM card got charged over 500 buck worth of fees because I didnt know I didnt have money in the account. Now I have plaza associates chasing me down for that one. Havent heard on the remainder balance of the car, I guess one day it will pop up and haunt me too.

I have banked with many banks, and in my opinion, SunTrust is by far the worst.

[2fatkats]

It depends what your contract says. It may say 1 day late is considered "in default".

Once that happens they put your account in repo status. Some banks require you to pay the past due balnce AND the repo fees in order to take your account out of repo status and unless they do that the repo men still have you on the repo report and actively look for your car.

I do believe you are suppose to be notified when your car goes up for auction. Also you are suppose to have a certain amount of days after the repo men take your car to get it back before it goes to auction.

If you can get paperwork showing that you were never late , you might have a case.

Sometimes the bank will report to the CRA's as never being late, but you may have actually been in default.

[bigjohnstud4200]

I don't think that's legal, but I'm not attorney. If you corrected the default and they accepted payment I don't think they would have the legal ground to repo. Also, in VA they must allow you 10 days to get the car back before they sell at auction. Lastly, they must give you the details of the deficiency within a reasonable amount of time or they are breaking the laws.

[robynhgl]

I was in court all afternoon dealing with almost the same type of situation.

First of all, did you talk to the bank at all prior to making the payment? Were any arrangements made? Did the bank contact you regarding the late payment? Did your bank offer any type of grace period? (If you don't know--call them and simply ask if there is a grace period for auto loan payments.)

Look closely at the contract you signed at the time of the purchase, does it say anything about modification of the contract? In other words, if you make alternate payment arrangements for a payment and they agree to it--they have modified the contract...much better if you have this modification in writing. It is a legally binding contract, if you fulfilled your part of the contract (made the payment by the specified date/time) and they repo'd--they breached the contract.

While they may say that you were late (which would have breached the contract) any type of arrangements or 'grace period' that the bank regularly allows is favorable for you.