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being sued
I was just notified that im getting sued by a company that holds my car title. i have the car in possession -it doesn't run anymore. i bought it from a company that sold the title & i began paying this new company over the years. my contract says if i dont pay, they come get the car. when my car broke down i told them i wasnt paying anymore & for them to come pick up the car. they wouldnt. all i owed was 1,000. they said at least twice over the phone over a span of months that they refused to pick up the car. then without my knowledge sold the title to another company. i tried calling this next new company & they would never answer the phone nor respond to a voicemail. once months later i get ahold of them but hung up when they started asking for more information because the company before that one wrote my debt as a delinquency on my credit so i was afraid that might undo or make me again accountable credit-wise. i find out they are now in local capital(must be another new company holding title) & they are suing me for the car of which i owe 1,000. -are they in the right? could they settle for just getting the car towed as fair share? this doesnt seem right to me but i have little legal knowledge.
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Its true that you promised to make monthly payments and theres probably no clause that says you don't have to pay if it stops working.
If you have a contract that says they pick up the car if you don't pay, which has happened, then all you can pursue with a lawyer is finding out if you can use that contract which you need to show a lawyer to see if they will come pick up the car. The contract will not say they come pick up the car if it stops working, only if you stop paying. Yes, they can change title holders but with that, the new holder of your contract doesnt have the full back story and probably don't need to honor the contract you signed with the orginal company.
So you will have to talk to a lawyer, a preliminary meet to see if there are any loop holes only a lawyer would know of. At this point, it seems you don't want to pay to have it towed to the current contract holder and they also don't want to come and repo the car. It's likely a move companys are doing in recent times to lower their costs of hiring a repo company or doing it themselves if they have such a department.
If getting a lawyer will cost you more than paying for it to be towed, you might want to pay up to have it towed before a court date. I wouldn't wait to see how a judge rules if no lawyer is involved as you likely would lose. But a lawyer will know if a new company has to honor the promises on the original contract they purchased. If its there in print, you just might have a case to not owe everything, only the payments before you informed them you were giving up the car, not making any more payments and telling them to come get it as stated in the contract.
I am not a lawyer but common sense says it is best to have an initial meet with a lawyer which you still have to pay for but at least you find out if there is a case here or not. I know my husband and I would contact a lawyer if this happened to us.
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When you purchased the car you said you would pay the lender so much per month until the amount lent you was paid back. Just because the car isn't running any longer does not mean you don't owe that person the remainder of the amount owed. Even if they reposes the car you owe them the difference between what you owe on the car, and what they get for it at auction plus their cost to reposes and sell the car. The law is on the side of the lender and the lender does have the right to sell of the note you signed especially if you are in default.
My suggestion is to pay the lender the $1000 before you go to court. If it is possible to fix the car economically then do so. If not take it to a junk dealer and sell it for junk and then go bu a new one. This time make sure you buy from a reputable dealer. If you are buying a used car even from CarMax ask to take it to a trusted mechanic for an inspection before you purchase it.
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