Volvo called today-threatens to REPO my mom's car....

[Beeheery]

Hi all,
To make a long story short, my mom (lives in CA), is 90 days behind on her car payment. She received a call from Volvo today stating that they wanted to know her physical address so that they could come get the car. They didn't ask my mom for any partial payments, didn't offer any options etc. My mom hasn't filed BK yet and she is afraid if she doesn't file now, that they will take her car. I told her not to worry, to just keep the car in the garage (since they legally cannot enter it to take it) and the fact that they don't even know where she lives is a sign that it isn't going to happen anytime soon. I told her that if it is repossessed, or if someone comes to repo it, to ignore them and file an emergency BK petition with the court to prevent repossession. I just want to make sure I gave my mom the correct info. If she loses that car, she is screwed. She wants to reaffirm the car @ the 341 meeting. I assume Volvo won't want the car back so it works out for the both of them. But does anyone know if her being behind already makes her ineligible to reaffirm? Also, do they ever reaffirm at a reduced interest (she is paying 15%) or take off some of the principal? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks so much!

[Beeheery]

Also, my car (that I paid off myself) is still in her name. It's value is prob 8K. She lives in CA and I live in FL. Does anyone know if the BK court will try to take "my" car back when she files? I don't want to transfer it into my name of course because I still have to file BK sometime soon and I don't want her being charged with transfer fraud. Sigh.....

[mama2three]

Also, my car (that I paid off myself) is still in her name. It's value is prob 8K. She lives in CA and I live in FL. Does anyone know if the BK court will try to take "my" car back when she files? I don't want to transfer it into my name of course because I still have to file BK sometime soon and I don't want her being charged with transfer fraud. Sigh.....

If the car is in her name and she doesn't have enough exemptions to cover the equity they could try to take it. Doesn't matter if you paid it or not. You can't transfer it to your name because the Trustee will look for any transfers to relatives and could see that as fraudulent. I forget how long the look back period is, but I believe it is 2 years (hopefully someone more in the know can chime in on that).

[mama2three]

Relating to your mom's issue with the car if she is filing Chapter 7 she needs to be current when she files if she wants to keep the car. If she is behind the lender can move for relief and reposses the car.

[NoMoreCards]

I told her not to worry, to just keep the car in the garage (since they legally cannot enter it to take it) and the fact that they don't even know where she lives is a sign that it isn't going to happen anytime soon. I told her that if it is repossessed, or if someone comes to repo it, to ignore them and file an emergency BK petition with the court to prevent repossession.

If the garage is closed the car "should be" safe, but if she drives it to the local grocery (or anyplace) she may come out to a missing car. Also, telling her to ignore them if they come to get the car is bad advice IMHO. Permission isn't needed to repossess a car, and once the car is gone it will be too late to for the BK filing to help retrieve her car. (I believe). Either way, she would have the fight to get the car back and be car-less for that length of time as well.

She needs to either make payment arrangements with the finance people, or get that BK filed. If she is already a few months behind, I don't think she has much time before they come to pick it up.

[Jengo]

Hi all,
To make a long story short, my mom (lives in CA), is 90 days behind on her car payment. She received a call from Volvo today stating that they wanted to know her physical address so that they could come get the car. They didn't ask my mom for any partial payments, didn't offer any options etc. My mom hasn't filed BK yet and she is afraid if she doesn't file now, that they will take her car. I told her not to worry, to just keep the car in the garage (since they legally cannot enter it to take it) and the fact that they don't even know where she lives is a sign that it isn't going to happen anytime soon. I told her that if it is repossessed, or if someone comes to repo it, to ignore them and file an emergency BK petition with the court to prevent repossession. I just want to make sure I gave my mom the correct info. If she loses that car, she is screwed. She wants to reaffirm the car @ the 341 meeting. I assume Volvo won't want the car back so it works out for the both of them. But does anyone know if her being behind already makes her ineligible to reaffirm? Also, do they ever reaffirm at a reduced interest (she is paying 15%) or take off some of the principal? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks so much!

I also live in CA and going through a Chp 7 now. To my understanding and what I was told by my attorney is that in order for me to reaffirm the car you have to stay current on payments. Given that she is so far behind and repo is likely, filing a Chp 7 will only delay the inevitable. Since she is not current on payments, the Court will probably deny the reaffirmation. Since she can't pay for the car now, what will make the Court believe that she will be good on the reaffirmation and making the car payments in the future?? She will have to give up the car either way. Either it will be now or after the discharge in a few months or the car company may very well file a motion for relief of the automatic stay in the middle of her BK filing so they can take the car back.

[Jengo]

Also, my car (that I paid off myself) is still in her name. It's value is prob 8K. She lives in CA and I live in FL. Does anyone know if the BK court will try to take "my" car back when she files? I don't want to transfer it into my name of course because I still have to file BK sometime soon and I don't want her being charged with transfer fraud. Sigh.....

If the car is in her name, although you paid for it, it would probably be considered an asset but there are EXEMPTIONS up to a certain amount. My husband will be filing soon for Chapter 13. When we spoke with the attorney, he told my husband who owns two cars straight out, that he could keep those cars if they fall under $25,000 which is the allowable exemption for his case or Chapter or some such deal. I don't know about Chapter 7 though and what is considered an allowable exemption when you have assets because it's a complete liquidation of allowable debt to be discharged. I'm not sure because my case is no asset case.

Don't transfer it because the trustee will seriously frown on this. Be extremely honest and up front. Tell her not to start moving huge accounts around, money, hiding money or anything else. If the trustee finds this, he will question it.