Repossession

[Halobear]

The state I'm in: South Carolina

I have a question about repossession laws in my state...my father in law has financed 2 ATV's last August, one for himself and my mother in law, and one for my husband and myself. The original owing cost was $6,200. In the beginning we doubled and tripled payments to help with the interest costs. Then, this June, my father in law had to have open heart surgery. He has been out of work since that time. We called the finance company and made arrangements with them to pay what we could, until such time that he could return to work, and they agreed. We missed one payment. After that, we received no more notifications of what we owed, or even what the monthly payment is. We kept sending $100 a month, even though the original payment was only $79/month, expecting that we were helping to catch up what was in arrears. A representative showed up this past Saturday morning to try and repossess the ATV's. My mother in law told him that she wished to try and clear up the matter, and would speak with the finance company this morning as we HAVE been making payments on the account, there was no notice of repossession, no certified letters have come to that effect, and so on. We have received one bill since then, within the last 3 weeks, that is actually dated for May or June. This morning we attempted to find out the exact amount that was in arrears so that we could settle that and resume regular payments. They said we had to pay the balance in FULL, which has now been jacked up to $5,800, only $400 less than the original amount. Do we have any legal recourse since they never notified us that they were intending to repossess, and never gave us a chance to catch the back payments up? Can they refuse a payment? Also they have a check in their possession right now that we paid last week that has not been cashed/deposited. Is there anything we can do?

Thanks in advance,
Angela

 

[john123456]

Have you reviewed the financing contract?

 

[Halobear]

In order to catch things up, here are the new developments. We talked with a lawyer, who in effect told us that the bill of sale we received is not correct because at the bottom in small print it says, refer to the terms and conditions stated on the back for mailing and billing information and terms of the contract. The back of the paper is blank. Also, we were not given anything in writing at the time of sale stating the APR, the number of months we would be paying, or the monthly payment. After my last post and after numerous phone calls to the company, we received a new bill (miracle of miracles! The first one in 3 months!). Also, after going to the bank we found out that there is not just one check outstanding that has not been deposited, but 2 checks and an online payment made directly to the company for $79.00, the result of all three payments is $358.00. The new bill said that the "past due" amount was $720.00. In effect, what has happened is since my mother in law called to tell the company that they would make payments as they could until which time my father in law could go back to work, they have ignored every payment that was made. There is proof from the bank that there was a $79.00 debit to their company in June, which was a payment my husband and I made for them to keep it from getting to be 2 months behind. The company claims they did not receive this payment. Since then, the man who was going to repossess the ATV's has called back and talked to my father in law, and asked him about his open heart surgery. My father in law told him that he is still under doctor's care and not cleared to work, but still making payments. The repo man says he does not agree with what this company is doing, and washed HIS hands of the whole deal. We have not heard anything else from any repo companies, so as of now this dispute is between us and the finance company.

In going back over our records from the past year and 2 months, which is how long we have had these ATV's, we found that we have already paid in well over $2000, in mailed checks alone. We are currently in the process of trying to get copies of my in laws' bank statements for the past year so that we can account for the online payments we made, since their online payment site for this finance company is blocked. Therefore they can't get their online payment history from them...this is a mess!

Here's what our question is right now: Since they sent us a current bill with a past due balance of $720.00, do they have to honor that? Of course seeing that they've thrown everything else out the window, I don't think so. It seems to me that they're just itching to take advantage of a man recovering from quintuple bypass surgery while he's down. The lawyer told us not to talk to them anymore. There is MUCH more to this story, but that is the skin and bones of it, believe it or not. We are waiting for results from an investigation by the better business bureau. I've done some online investigating myself and have found out that this company is INFAMOUS for this kind of thing...in fact are settling out of court for $484 million against numerous customers complaining of similar and related suits. We missed the deadline for sending in a claim on this settlement though.

Sorry so long! Thanks for any more advice,
Angela