Auto Loan Reinstatement Phase

[chrisball]

I live in Michigan and my car was just repossessed last Tuesday. I called my finance company and they gave me the total amount that I had to pay them in order to get my car back from repossession. Now that the finance has been paid the money,I am having a very hard time getting my car back.

The finance company said that they had faxed to the repo company a form called the "Release Form" and when I call the repo company to ask if they received it they said that they hadn't. I finally called the finance company (this would have been the fourth time today and the first fax was made to them around 8:30 am) to explain that the repo folks had not gotten the form. The finance company put me on hold and when returned said that my car was now at an auction company and that they had tried to fax the form to them but the finance company was having fax machine problems and that they will refax again. The fax finally went through around 3:15 pm that day.

That same day the auction company re-keyed my car around 9 am and said that I would have to pay for that expense as well. This doesn't seem right to me. I thought that in Michigan I had 15 days to reclaim the repossessed vehicle so how can they send my car to the auction so soon and rekey it?

[aaron]

Take a look at MCL 440.9609 - 440.9611. Collateral may be repossessed after default, and "After default, a secured party may sell, lease, license, or otherwise dispose of any or all of the collateral in its present condition or following any commercially reasonable preparation or processing." You are ordinarily entitled to notice of any sale or auction.