Preventing Repossessions

I guess this is a good place and time to show our readers how to make the sheriff back away from taking your property. This does not apply to wages, real estate or bank accounts, just PERSONAL PROPERTY.

1. Recognize the economics of a repossession. It costs the creditor money to send someone to your home and take something away, transport it someplace where it can be kept safe, hire an auctioneer (all states require the property to be auctioned), publicize the auction and actually sell the stuff. All these expenses have to be paid BEFORE the creditor gets dollar-one towards the debt. It is not unheard of for the movers (transport) to get $200, storage to be $5-$30 a day for a minimum of 30 days, the auctioneer to be $100 and the publicity to be $200. This all adds up to a MINIMUM of $650 and a maximum of $1400 in expenses. At storage yard auctions I have seen whole households'furniture go for $300. The moral of this story is simple - unless you have something of unusual value, the sheriff isn't taking anything. BUT, even if the Sheriff does show up, there are ways to stop him.

2. How to make a Sheriff decide not to repossess your stuff: The key here is OWNERSHIP. If you don't own it, they can't take it. Ownership is a matter of public record for land, autos, boats, airplanes, RV's and trucks only in most states. That leaves just about everything that came in your front door as having unregistered ownership. So..... if the Sheriff does show up with a Seizure Order, as soon as he touches something, just say something like "That belongs to my Aunt Tillie. She's in Europe now and I'm storing it for her until she gets back." Since you have just put a cloud on the ownership of the item, the Sheriff will decide not to take it. Of course, if you rent all your furniture (and the rental store isn't the place trying to sieze the goods) then just produce the rental contract and say "it isn't mine."

3. KNOW YOUR STATE'S EXEMPTIONS (like in the bankruptcy Exemptions). Whatever is safe in a bankruptcy is safe from the Sheriff in almost all states.

4. If it's not safe, make it safe. Condition, especially cosmetic condition, is very important in valuation. The car can work like a charm. If it has a banged up body, it's worth a lot less than the average book value. So.... since there is no law against vandalizing your own property - feel free to cause some damage to your stuff that has some value. You will lose some value, but the Sheriff will lose interest in it. As I used to explain it when I was in credit counseling - "would you rather have a car in your driveway with two banged up doors, or the nicest car in the auction?" By banging the stuff up a little, you will bring its value down to the point where the economics I pointed out in the beginning take over. I even had a person go to a junk yard, buy an odometer off a junked car with the same model as his but witha LOT more miles, and he switched odometers. HE knew the actual mileage, the Sheriff didn't. The odomoter showed over 200,000 miles and that the car was worthless. Is this illegal? I would say no more illegal than swapping a fender out with a fender from a junk yard.

This post is part of my series on dealing with credit. Other posts include "making Yourself Judgement proof", "Understanding the Collection Process" and "Understanding the Collection Agency, parts 1 and 2". All are public domain, but if you quote or copy, please give credit where credit is due.

 

bump for the Monday crowd

 

A poster e-mailed me and asked me to expand a bit on the act of Repossession.

There are two types of Repossessions:

1. Peaceful Repossession - which is the act of a repossessor coming onto your property and taking something. The repossessor's client must have either a specific lien on the property being taken, like a lien on a car, or a blanket lien created by a judgement, which is a lien on all non-exepmpt property. Specific Liens are not subject to or limited by Exemptions, blanket liens are. The key point here is "Peaceful", which menas no arguments or protests from you. As soon as you yell "Stop that" it ceases being peaceful. If you stand in the way and actively try to prevent it, it is no longer peaceful. If the police are called, they will probably prevent the repossession at that time. Peaceful repossessions have few guidelines, since they are almost always a done-deal before the debtor finds out about them.

2. Judicial Repossession - In this type of repossession, the creditor has obtained froma Judge a document called a Writ of Replevin which is a Court Order authorizing the seizure of certain property. The 4th Amendment to the US Constitution provides that no person may be deprived of property without due process of law, so if you were not served with legal papers, you must challenge the Writ of Replevin in Court immediately. DO NOT INTERFERE WITH THIS TYPE OF REPOSSESSION, YOU WILL BE ARRESTED IF YOU DO. It is a certainty the repossessor will bring the police.

Given the guidelines in the original post, it is almost a certainty that if the goods came in your front door, they are probably safe from a repossessor. If the goods are too big to come in your front door, they are probably not safe from a determined repossessor.

It is possible that, when you financed the goods, the dealer and the lender entered into an agreement wherein if the goods were repossessed within a certain time, or at all, or before a certain number of payments had been made, the dealer will pay off the lender and take over the debt. This arrangement is called "recourse" and you will not know if there is a recourse agreement or not. You could ask and see what you are told. In this instance, the repossessor has instructions to take the goods regardless of condition. When I was Collection manager for an Auto Finance Company we often had burned out hulks with bullet holes towed to a dealer's lot because of the recourse agreement.

 

Rolling back an odometer is illegal. Replacing an odometer is not, since odometers can break.

Transferring the title would be in fraud of creditors, which is illegal.

 

Re: Re: Preventing Repossessions

with intent to change the number of miles on the odometer.

No one ever said to change the number of miles on the odometer - just change the odometer. If the car is subsequently sold, the change of odometer should be disclosed.

 

Re: Re: Re: Preventing Repossessions

Neither - let them file and remain silent. Nowhere in the Sales contract does it say the debtror has to file a claim for every parking lot ding or dent the car endures.

 

Re: Re: Preventing Repossessions

No, since the lien stays with the car, the new owner is now in jeopardy of the repossession, but is not on the hook for any deficiency.