I've been reading this forum for days as I have an interest in law. My own attorney hasn't answered my question yet and it's causing me stress so I want to ask my question here.
For the past three months we have not been making mortgage payments because we were going through the Short Sale process with Wells Fargo. During this time, our only vehicle broke down (very costly issues) so we purchased a new car. Even though all our debt is in my husbands name (including house) I didn't think I would get approved for a loan. I worked with a dealership I've used before via email to make sure I could get approved before I even came in. They told me I was approved if I put $1000 down. I went in the next day and signed the papers. They said they needed to verify employment on both of us as and got our bosses phone numbers. We drove the car off the lot and was told our first payment would be November 16th. A few days later, I received a call from the lender to verify my application. On October 25th the dealer emailed me and asked for my bosses cell phone number as they had been unable to reach him. I emailed that to them and was told "everything is fine, we got it handled".
On Thursday, November 1st we found out that Wells Fargo screwed up somewhere and our short sale was not approved and a foreclosure date had been set for November 6th. I almost had a nervous breakdown and my realtor told me I should just contact an attorney to stop the foreclosure. We met with an attorney on November 2nd and decided to file Chapter 13. I didn't want to be included at first as I don't have much debt. But because my credit score is low anyways I ended up filing as well. On November 3rd our bankruptcy was filed with the court. The schedules and payment plan and all that is due 14 days from that date so they don't even know who are creditors are at this point to notify them.
Wednesday, November 7th I received an urgent email from the car salesman to have my boss call the lender right away, that it was very urgent and important. He did, and was told this application is no longer active. Because you (my boss) didn't return our call to verify employment we rejected the loan. The loan was sent back to the dealer on November 25th and we told them NOT to send it back. Of course I freak out, I call the salesman and he tells me yes, that's true. I asked why no one had informed me of this and he said they just found out. I don't believe that. I believe they have been secretly freaking out or someone just dropped the ball there.
I call my attorney and without reviewing the paper he tells me I would probably have to just take the car back. He said he would help us find another car as he has many resources available to us. He is ONLY a bankruptcy attorney.
This doesn't make sense to me, I've had this car almost a month. The title has been put in my name! It has to have, they called me to pick up my license plates. How could they come back after all this time and just take it back? So I do research. I find that this is called a spot sale and used to be illegal but as of 2009 in Texas it's legal. However, the conditional sales agreement we signed is only valid for 15 days by Texas law. It's been almost double that time. I don't see any way they will find another lender since I just filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Because we bought the car within the 90 days proceeding the bankruptcy filing the car isn't even really involved. We will pay for it as planned. The ONLY reason we filed Chapter 13 was to delay the foreclosure as we have children and no savings and no where to go.
I sent our attorney the statute I found regarding Texas law and have not heard back from him (it was Friday). I'm really really stressing about this so hopefully someone here can interpret the law for me. Here is a link to what I found online http://goo.gl/mNz3i with conditional agreements starting on Page 16.
My questions- Who does this car belong to? If they don't find a lender what happens? I saw an old post as of 2009 where a Texas attorney told someone that the dealership would just have to allow the buyer to make payments to them. Is that true?
Even if they have the right to get the car back, can they since bankruptcy has been filed? I know they now know because it's already on my credit report.
Thanks in advance! Sorry so long! I just want to stop worrying myself sick about this.
For the past three months we have not been making mortgage payments because we were going through the Short Sale process with Wells Fargo. During this time, our only vehicle broke down (very costly issues) so we purchased a new car. Even though all our debt is in my husbands name (including house) I didn't think I would get approved for a loan. I worked with a dealership I've used before via email to make sure I could get approved before I even came in. They told me I was approved if I put $1000 down. I went in the next day and signed the papers. They said they needed to verify employment on both of us as and got our bosses phone numbers. We drove the car off the lot and was told our first payment would be November 16th. A few days later, I received a call from the lender to verify my application. On October 25th the dealer emailed me and asked for my bosses cell phone number as they had been unable to reach him. I emailed that to them and was told "everything is fine, we got it handled".
On Thursday, November 1st we found out that Wells Fargo screwed up somewhere and our short sale was not approved and a foreclosure date had been set for November 6th. I almost had a nervous breakdown and my realtor told me I should just contact an attorney to stop the foreclosure. We met with an attorney on November 2nd and decided to file Chapter 13. I didn't want to be included at first as I don't have much debt. But because my credit score is low anyways I ended up filing as well. On November 3rd our bankruptcy was filed with the court. The schedules and payment plan and all that is due 14 days from that date so they don't even know who are creditors are at this point to notify them.
Wednesday, November 7th I received an urgent email from the car salesman to have my boss call the lender right away, that it was very urgent and important. He did, and was told this application is no longer active. Because you (my boss) didn't return our call to verify employment we rejected the loan. The loan was sent back to the dealer on November 25th and we told them NOT to send it back. Of course I freak out, I call the salesman and he tells me yes, that's true. I asked why no one had informed me of this and he said they just found out. I don't believe that. I believe they have been secretly freaking out or someone just dropped the ball there.
I call my attorney and without reviewing the paper he tells me I would probably have to just take the car back. He said he would help us find another car as he has many resources available to us. He is ONLY a bankruptcy attorney.
This doesn't make sense to me, I've had this car almost a month. The title has been put in my name! It has to have, they called me to pick up my license plates. How could they come back after all this time and just take it back? So I do research. I find that this is called a spot sale and used to be illegal but as of 2009 in Texas it's legal. However, the conditional sales agreement we signed is only valid for 15 days by Texas law. It's been almost double that time. I don't see any way they will find another lender since I just filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Because we bought the car within the 90 days proceeding the bankruptcy filing the car isn't even really involved. We will pay for it as planned. The ONLY reason we filed Chapter 13 was to delay the foreclosure as we have children and no savings and no where to go.
I sent our attorney the statute I found regarding Texas law and have not heard back from him (it was Friday). I'm really really stressing about this so hopefully someone here can interpret the law for me. Here is a link to what I found online http://goo.gl/mNz3i with conditional agreements starting on Page 16.
My questions- Who does this car belong to? If they don't find a lender what happens? I saw an old post as of 2009 where a Texas attorney told someone that the dealership would just have to allow the buyer to make payments to them. Is that true?
Even if they have the right to get the car back, can they since bankruptcy has been filed? I know they now know because it's already on my credit report.
Thanks in advance! Sorry so long! I just want to stop worrying myself sick about this.
