Our firm represents finance companies and auto dealerships. Often, we’ll file suit to attempt to recover a loss that our client may have incurred on a loan. There are numerous areas that companies get “tripped up on” when attempting to recover an unpaid balance on an auto financing contract. First, if a customer’s vehicle is repossessed, the company is required to notify this customer of certain rights the customer has in regards to the vehicle. A letter notifying the customer of these rights must be mailed to the customer within ten days of the company recovering the vehicle. There are several pieces of information that the letter must contain, such as the customer’s right to pay the loan off to get the vehicle back, the customer’s right to have the car sold at a public auction, and letting the customer know that he or she may have to pay any balance that is left owing after the vehicle is re-sold. An area that is sometimes litigated is whether the company mailed this letter to the correct address. The relevant statute requires the letter to be mailed to the address on the contract or the address provided by the customer. A suggestion we make for all of our clients is to take thorough notes on a customer’s account, and if a customer does provide a new mailing address, make sure that this is notated on the account.
If you are a finance company or car dealership that is interested in attempting to recover losses that have been incurred on financing contracts, give us a call and we’ll be happy to discuss this with you.
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