Auto Repossession And My Motherinlaw
Q: Auto Repossession and my mother-in-law ? My mother-in-law has a car, which her (former) boss bought for her. She signed a promissary note with him to pay him her tax refunds and $75 a month until the vehicle was paid ($6500 total). She is the owner on the title with him as the lienholder.
She has made her payments on time and gave him her last refund, as agreed. She is current on her car payments. She now owes almost exactly half of the original balance, $3225. He has decided he no longer wants to receive the monthly payments and wants the balance in full. She told him she cannot afford that. He started repossession procedures and got to the point where the guy called to pick up the car. They do not know where the car is located and this guy claims that if we do not tell him where the car is, and hand it over he will file papers for a felonly warrant against her for "hindering a secured creditor".
Does this really fall under the "hindering a secured creditor" law, and can it be a felony charge?
I called her ex-boss and told him he basically had 3 options, a) he could continue to accept the payments as agreed until the car is paid in full. b) he could have his car back and give her a check for the amount she has already paid into it. or c) We can go down and file her for ch 13, and, since she and her younger daughter (my wife's sister) lives with us, and only gets $294/month in child support as her only income, he would get next to nothing for the car.
He said he would need time to think about those options, I said that I respected that, but told him to tell his repossession guy to back off he did so, he agreed.
any thoughts on this situation?
A: You messed up one of your options. If the promissory note doesn't give the boss the right to accelerate the note, then your mother-in-law could have simply continued