State of California:
My sister is currently trying to get a home loan, and out of nowhere the underwriter is balking about a car she owned with her ex-husband.
My sister and her ex-husband divorced in 2005, and in November 2005, he filed Ch. 11 bankruptcy. They surrendered the vehicle and she received a notice that they sold it at auction for $9000, but that was the absolute last thing she heard on the vehicle.
We assumed since he filed for BK that the car was discharged, but the loan agent pulled up the BK and apparently the car was not discharged with everything else. It shows that the vehicle was "Charged off" in 2005, but now the collection agency that sold the car is demanding she pay $12000 which was supposedly what was left on the loan.
The odd thing however, is that in 5 years since then there have been no collection attempts. There have been no calls, no letters, and none of the family who were listed as references (such as myself) have ever been contacted about collecting this debt. Also, there was another vehicle and a quad that were sold off in the same manner, listed as "Charge off", but given a $0 balance.
My sister wants to go ahead and pay the $12000, but this sounds fishy to me. If youre even a few days late on paying your cellphone bill, they blitzkreig you with text messages and phone calls, so its hard to believe a collection agency would have a discrepancy of $12000 and never as much as call my sister.
I mean, in the last 5 years she has purchased 4 new vehicles and a home, and this has never shown up until now. If she owed $12000 on a vehicle from 2005, wouldnt that come up when she was getting a loan on a new car or the one home she already owns?!
Could this possibly be a scam??! And how would we go about investigating if this debt really does exist?
Thank you in advance for your help!

