[Howiedog]

California

I bought a van in 1999 and it was a lemon! I thought when I returned it to the dealer about 5 years ago, it was returned under the lemon law. A credit company that claims they bought the loan in February 2007 has started contacting me and demanding payment and keeps tacking on interest. When I wrote requesting information as to the loan balance that was suposedly defaulted on and the desposition of the van, all I received was the information indicating the date of the original loan and the date the loan was originally taken out. I do not even know what happened to the van. No one has contacted me in the 5 years since I thought I had turned the van in under the lemon law until the last couple of months. Aren't they required to tell me what happened to the van and what the salvage value and the balance on the loan was?

[aaron]

To be clear, you "turned the van in" to the dealership, heard nothing afterward, and never followed up to see if the loan had been paid off? Do you actually know that the lender recovered the van and if so, how?

[Howiedog]

This Van was a Chevy Astro and after putting 7 starters in, the engine blew up and the finance company wouldn't lend me the money to put in a new engine (I had already paid 4 years on the loan and had less than a year left on the loan). I told them to come and get the van and they did. I don't know what happened to the van, what the payoff was at the time, what the salvage value was or anything. The collection agency sent me the first notice in March 2007 and I replied requesting information about the loan and the disposition of the van. In July, they sent another letter stating I hadn't responded. When I called them, they admitted they had my March letter, but only sent me the date of the original loan and the name of the original finance company. No informtion about the loan itself or the disposition of the van. How can they go so long without contacting me? I've lived at my current address for the last 4 years!

[aaron]

In other words, this was not a "lemon law" claim. You personally believed the car to be a lemon, and you chose to let the vehicle be repossessed. From what you say, the debt has been sold to a debt collection firm. They are having difficulty providing you with the documentation you requested, most likely because they don't possess that information (it's in the hands of the original creditor).

I suspect that the statute of limitations on the debt was four years, and thus that the debt is probably no longer collectable. Take a look at the sample dispute letter in this thread.