- Jurisdiction
- California
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
Good afternoon,
Thank you in advance for your help,
My lady has been leasing a car from a company and has been paying her monthly payments without ever being late. This month (June) she forgot that her lease ended in May. The Leasing company still charged her account for the month of June. Then on June 4th, while she was at work, without warning, the Leasing company towed and repossessed her car. On Saturday. She was stranded without her belongings all weekend.
When she was finally able to get a hold of the company on Monday, they told her the car is kept at a towing yard. But she would not be able to see the car or retrieve her belongings until she buys out the lease.
The reviews on the towing company mostly say the company steals peoples' property and damages their cars, and many lawsuits were filed against the company, but it's still in business.
This leads me to believe she is about to be put into a far worse situation than she is in now. Because she needs to take out a bank loan to pay off the lease, send it to the leasing company, which releases the car from the Tow Yard.
The tow yard has told her they are only charging her $15/day, which I think is a lie. There may be a large sum she would have to pay to get the car out.
I don't have any reason to trust either of these businesses, which is why, I think the following will happen:
-Once the lease has been paid off, she will find out that most of her belongings are missing,
-The car has had damage from being towed or broken into by the towing company, or even a broken transmission, axles, parking brake, etc.
-The towing company is going to charge her some ridiculous amount to get her car out of the yard, on top of what she already took out on loan from the bank, which she won't be able to afford
Nobody, in their right mind, would ever pay for a car they haven't inspected, and she is not even allowed to see it.
She insists on continuing to pay for the car, which I think is a mistake, but I want to make sure that she, and her money, are legally protected.
And I want to make sure she is getting the car and her belongings back in the exact shape they were before being towed.
------1. How can she protect herself against damages by the towing company in this process?
What actions would you recommend she takes? She does not even like the car and wants to sell it after buying out the lease
My advice to her so far:
She would demand that she sees the car and gets her property back before finalizing the loan, and that the cost of retrieving the car from the tow yard is both covered by the Value of the loan and by the Terms of the loan.
If denied, she should not proceed with the lease buyout, because she would suspect there is something wrong with the car that is being hidden from her,
and that a lawsuit is inevitable either way, so she would much be better off getting sued, and defending herself in court,
than having to sue a corrupt towing or leasing company and probably never get her money back.
So she would let the leasing company deal with the towing company, since it's still their car, she would probably never see her belongings again, which are only worth about $300
Next, she would close her bank accounts, etc. so they cannot illegally charge her again, like they did in June
She would let them auction the car, determine the difference between price of new car - lease total - sale price at auction = total owed to leasing company, etc.
if the difference seems reasonable, she would pay it off.
If they are crooks, as most automotive places are, and they try to bill her (for example more than $1000), claiming damage, towing storage costs, etc. She would refuse to pay and wait for them to summon her in court.
In court, she would try to settle for a smaller amount (under $1000), if they refuse, she would present that they broke the contract first, by charging her for a month they weren't supposed to charge, towing the car, refusing to return her property, and refusing to let her see the car before purchase.
If they still win, they will obtain a "judgement of deficiency"
According to this website: How Are Deficiency Judgments Collected? - AllLaw.com
The judgement still needs to be collected, and may not be worth it for the plaintiff.
In this situation, she is a minimum wage worker, without kids, she moves around the country a lot, and she already has $60,000 of college debt that she is slowly paying off, and her parents live in another country
In the above website, it states:
"Your lender won't sue you if they don't stand to recover anything. If you, like many borrowers in foreclosure, have no income or assets that your lender can seize with a deficiency judgment, you're considered "judgment proof," and your lender won't sue you for the deficiency."
------2. In this case, would she be "judgement proof"?
------3. Would she have any defense in court?
------4. What court would she be sued in? Small Claims?
The cost of the car new was around $22000, now, 4 years later, its $16,000 (this is what the leasing company is asking for)
Kelley Blue Book lists it lower, around $14,000. So if she does sell it after, she might lose somewhere around $2000.
I would suspect the bill sent to her by the leasing company would not be substantially larger.
------5. If anyone has had experience with this, can you tell approximately how much they may try to charge her?
------6. Can she add a condition for the loan, that would require the leasing company to have the car and property back to her in the same exact condition as before repossession, otherwise the loan may be reversed to the bank.
------7. And lastly, is my logic above correct? I keep telling her that until she takes out that loan to the leasing company, the car is not her problem, and once she does, then all of these problems become her problem. Right now she has an upper hand because it's not yet her car.
------8. If the leasing company wins the judgement, but she is no able to pay it off, can they seek a second judgement against her family, who co-signed on the lease, but are not in the country?
She is in a good position where she can just walk away, and let one bad business deal with another, and maybe settle a few months later for a small amount.
What do you think?
Any advice would be very appreciated.
Thank you,
Good afternoon,
Thank you in advance for your help,
My lady has been leasing a car from a company and has been paying her monthly payments without ever being late. This month (June) she forgot that her lease ended in May. The Leasing company still charged her account for the month of June. Then on June 4th, while she was at work, without warning, the Leasing company towed and repossessed her car. On Saturday. She was stranded without her belongings all weekend.
When she was finally able to get a hold of the company on Monday, they told her the car is kept at a towing yard. But she would not be able to see the car or retrieve her belongings until she buys out the lease.
The reviews on the towing company mostly say the company steals peoples' property and damages their cars, and many lawsuits were filed against the company, but it's still in business.
This leads me to believe she is about to be put into a far worse situation than she is in now. Because she needs to take out a bank loan to pay off the lease, send it to the leasing company, which releases the car from the Tow Yard.
The tow yard has told her they are only charging her $15/day, which I think is a lie. There may be a large sum she would have to pay to get the car out.
I don't have any reason to trust either of these businesses, which is why, I think the following will happen:
-Once the lease has been paid off, she will find out that most of her belongings are missing,
-The car has had damage from being towed or broken into by the towing company, or even a broken transmission, axles, parking brake, etc.
-The towing company is going to charge her some ridiculous amount to get her car out of the yard, on top of what she already took out on loan from the bank, which she won't be able to afford
Nobody, in their right mind, would ever pay for a car they haven't inspected, and she is not even allowed to see it.
She insists on continuing to pay for the car, which I think is a mistake, but I want to make sure that she, and her money, are legally protected.
And I want to make sure she is getting the car and her belongings back in the exact shape they were before being towed.
------1. How can she protect herself against damages by the towing company in this process?
What actions would you recommend she takes? She does not even like the car and wants to sell it after buying out the lease
My advice to her so far:
She would demand that she sees the car and gets her property back before finalizing the loan, and that the cost of retrieving the car from the tow yard is both covered by the Value of the loan and by the Terms of the loan.
If denied, she should not proceed with the lease buyout, because she would suspect there is something wrong with the car that is being hidden from her,
and that a lawsuit is inevitable either way, so she would much be better off getting sued, and defending herself in court,
than having to sue a corrupt towing or leasing company and probably never get her money back.
So she would let the leasing company deal with the towing company, since it's still their car, she would probably never see her belongings again, which are only worth about $300
Next, she would close her bank accounts, etc. so they cannot illegally charge her again, like they did in June
She would let them auction the car, determine the difference between price of new car - lease total - sale price at auction = total owed to leasing company, etc.
if the difference seems reasonable, she would pay it off.
If they are crooks, as most automotive places are, and they try to bill her (for example more than $1000), claiming damage, towing storage costs, etc. She would refuse to pay and wait for them to summon her in court.
In court, she would try to settle for a smaller amount (under $1000), if they refuse, she would present that they broke the contract first, by charging her for a month they weren't supposed to charge, towing the car, refusing to return her property, and refusing to let her see the car before purchase.
If they still win, they will obtain a "judgement of deficiency"
According to this website: How Are Deficiency Judgments Collected? - AllLaw.com
The judgement still needs to be collected, and may not be worth it for the plaintiff.
In this situation, she is a minimum wage worker, without kids, she moves around the country a lot, and she already has $60,000 of college debt that she is slowly paying off, and her parents live in another country
In the above website, it states:
"Your lender won't sue you if they don't stand to recover anything. If you, like many borrowers in foreclosure, have no income or assets that your lender can seize with a deficiency judgment, you're considered "judgment proof," and your lender won't sue you for the deficiency."
------2. In this case, would she be "judgement proof"?
------3. Would she have any defense in court?
------4. What court would she be sued in? Small Claims?
The cost of the car new was around $22000, now, 4 years later, its $16,000 (this is what the leasing company is asking for)
Kelley Blue Book lists it lower, around $14,000. So if she does sell it after, she might lose somewhere around $2000.
I would suspect the bill sent to her by the leasing company would not be substantially larger.
------5. If anyone has had experience with this, can you tell approximately how much they may try to charge her?
------6. Can she add a condition for the loan, that would require the leasing company to have the car and property back to her in the same exact condition as before repossession, otherwise the loan may be reversed to the bank.
------7. And lastly, is my logic above correct? I keep telling her that until she takes out that loan to the leasing company, the car is not her problem, and once she does, then all of these problems become her problem. Right now she has an upper hand because it's not yet her car.
------8. If the leasing company wins the judgement, but she is no able to pay it off, can they seek a second judgement against her family, who co-signed on the lease, but are not in the country?
She is in a good position where she can just walk away, and let one bad business deal with another, and maybe settle a few months later for a small amount.
What do you think?
Any advice would be very appreciated.
Thank you,
