I made a Voluntary Repo on my car...is it late to redeem it?

[luna1843]

First, THANKS TO ALL for an incredible helpful Forum!!

I'm going to see my atty to file Ch7, in Florida, very soon but I could not help but to post this question now.
I signed a Voluntary Repossession to BMW on Jul 11th; I thought that I was signing like a receipt of the car to them. Yet now, I realized that my signed form also says:"...As a result a my voluntary surrender of the vehicle, I understand that I will not be receiving a Notice of Default and intent to Accelerate or Notice of Acceleration. I further waive any rights to redeem the vehicle, and I undestand that I maybe liable for any deficiency balance due after disoposition of the described collateral."
The part of interest to me is "...I further waive any rights to redeem the vehicle...".
By reading notes in this forum, it seems that I could have kept the vehicle and buy it a lower price (provided someone..ie a family mbr, gives me the money) by filing a Motion to Redeem. Is this true? Is it too late now?..can I recover the vehicle now from bmw?
or it is late now?
Thanks so much for your feedback.

[lrprn]

Welcome to BK Forum, luna - glad you found us!

I'm not an expert in car repossessions, but my guess is that since six weeks have passed since you surrendered the car, it's probably too late to do much of anything. You didn't say which state you were in, but most only allow 30 days to undo a surrender like yours.

Call your lawyer and ask for his/her opinion. State laws typically control how these situations play out.

Even if you can still get your car back, don't assume that redeeming your vehicle is the right thing to do. Having a family member pay off your car could open it up to seizure and sale by your trustee if you can't protect its full equity value with your state's exemptions (and I can't think of a single state that can protect the full value of a paid-off fairly new BMW). The other option - getting a redemption loan that pays off the balance of your loan plus the repossession costs - can be quite expensive with high interest rates up to 25% - see http://722redemption.com/debtor_redemption.aspx .

Since you surrendered your car to BMW, it's probably a very expensive car. Before you do anything, check with your lawyer!! If it looks like doing a redemption loan will work in your case, do the math very carefully to see how getting a 722redemption loan plays out over time - you could be hurting yourself financially trying to hang on to a car that may be better off left at the dealer's.