Repo laws

Repo laws vary from state to state, and I'm not familiar with Florida. The following is common for many states.

Generally when they repo, they have to give you a redemption period in which you can pay the past-due balance to get the car back and reinstate the contract. Usually you would have 21 days to do that.

After the redemption period, if you have not redeemed the collateral, then they will sell that car to highest bidder at public or private sale auction.

The repo acts as en early termination of that lease. At that point they would accelerate all future payments and the entire contract balance becomes due, less any rebates and refunds of unearned premiums. They would apply proceeds from the sale of the chattel as a credit against your account, and you would still be responsible for any deficiency balance.

There may be certain ramifications. For example in Illinois, if you had paid at least 66% of your payments prior to repossession, then they could not come after you for any balance.

I would say your best bet is to call them. Lenders do not want to have to repo a car. Many times debtors feel there is no solution and so they just ignore the problem and do nt communicate with the lender; that lack of communication is mainly what will cause a repo. Many lenders will be happy to make some sort of arrangements instead of a repo. For example, they may be able to extend those payments to the back end of the loan. Or if you suggest making 1+1/2 payments for the next 4 months until you're caught up, they may work with you on that. Granted some companies are hard-ball and won't, but in this economy most will rather work with you than repo all the cars out there.

Chaper 13 is not "repo laws". Debtcruncher is very well versed in repo laws and what is involved. The OP made no mention of filing Ch 13.

what if your $70 behind

They probably will not repo over $70. Try to throw an extra $15-20 on each payment until it's caught up.

DebtCruncher, where did you obtain that information regarding the Illinois law? I live in Florida and would like to see if there are any stipulations like that here. I voluntarily repo'd my car with only 10 mos of lease payments left. I got a letter stating I owe 2x what that amount was. Not really sure if they will come after me or not for deficiency balance, waiting to see.

Guest,

Well, the Illinois laws I have to know because I run a finance company in IL. All the IL laws are on the state website @ www.ilga.gov

For Florida laws pertaining to sales finance & leases, go here: http://www.flofr.com/Finance/SF-Businesses.htm . Under "links" you can go to the actual statutes.

I haven't had time to look thru them, but if you have any other questions, let me know.

my brother in law is living in my house and his car is getting repossessed.. They came tonight but he was not home.. We intend on having him pay the fee tomm.. to keep from getting it repoed.. What are the laws.. i was going to have him park the car inmy garage.. can they force me to give it up?

A car that is parked on the street or driveway is generally "up-for-grabs." They don't need to get your permission to take it.

What they cannot do is break-in, or move other vehicles to get at it. If it is locked up in a garage, they cannot take it. Or if it is parked on a driveway but blocked by other vehicles, they can't move those other cars to get it out.

If the car is out for repo, it will be best for your brother-in-law to make arrangements with the finance company and pay what is acceptable to them. The car may be locked up at night, but they will do a stake-out and wait for him to leave; then they will grab it at work or the store, etc. Or if they know when he usually returns, they might be inclined to block the garage to keep him from pulling into it.