Surrendered a car, they still haven't gotten it

[radonskies]

This is my 1st post - I've read a bunch of posts and have learned a lot from you all so far. We filed Chpt 7 on Oct 12 in Texas, and decided to reaffirm one of our vehicles, and surrender the other one that has more miles and is upside down in the loan. We got a letter in November asking if they can contact us directly to arrange to pick it up. We signed the letter, as did our attorney. I expected to get a call from them within a couple weeks, but as of now we STILL have the car we listed to surrender. Can I keep driving it until they finally make arrangements to come pick up the car, or is it my responsibility to contact the lienholder and arrange to take it back to them? I've kept the vehicle insured and have been driving it. We had our creditor meeting on Jan 30. Thoughts? Hubbie says might as well keep driving it for now and save the mileage on our better car. If they want it bad enough, they'll come get it - right?

[swiminindebt]

Drive on

I would just keep on driving it. As long as the insurance and tags are current, you should be legal. When they want it bad enough, they'll come and get it. I also had to surrender a vehicle in a bk7 last month. I chose to drop off the vehicle at the bank myself before it even got behind to avoid some midnight repossesion. They were cool about it and thanked me for being a "loyal customer". Good luck.............

[Viper]

They cannot repo the car while the automatic stay is in place unless they file a relief from stay. If they choose not to file for a relief then they will have to wait until you are discharged (or dismissed worst case scenario) before they can legally take the car. You could surrender the car without them filing for relief, however they still wouldn't be able to sell/auction it until discharge or relief granted.

- Viper

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Not only would I continue driving it (as long as legally insured and plated as previously mentioned), I would drive it SILLY. LOL. I would put every mile I could on that car to preserve the car you are keeping. Oh yeah, and if you were looking to do some off-roading, now is the time.

[Minnymouth]

Also be sure to cancel insurance on the vehicle when you do turn it back in... and get a refund on the balance...

[lilgoose]

We did the same thing....Only it was a brand new one and we never made the first payment. Too avoid paying the extra for the insurance, we dropped it and handed the keys to our atty. That really makes them mad. It was 5 months after the atty originally filed before they really starting "looking" for the van. They supposedly looked for it (it was sitting in the middle of the backyard, right off an alley). They called the atty and wanted to know why we were driving it illegally???? He just laughed and told them that unless it was a magic carpet, they (us) couldn't drive it as he as had the keys the whole time.

We did this to avoid the hassels. So, if you don't want the hassel and want to save on insurance, you can do what we did.

Good Luck!!

[StaciMM]

That may not be a good idea in all states...

In GA you can be cited/fined for not having valid insurance & tag, even if you're not driving it.

You can always call and make arrangements to leave it at a dealership.

We did the same thing....Only it was a brand new one and we never made the first payment. Too avoid paying the extra for the insurance, we dropped it and handed the keys to our atty. That really makes them mad. It was 5 months after the atty originally filed before they really starting "looking" for the van. They supposedly looked for it (it was sitting in the middle of the backyard, right off an alley). They called the atty and wanted to know why we were driving it illegally???? He just laughed and told them that unless it was a magic carpet, they (us) couldn't drive it as he as had the keys the whole time.

We did this to avoid the hassels. So, if you don't want the hassel and want to save on insurance, you can do what we did.

Good Luck!!

[Minnymouth]

To PROTECT YOURSELF, you should keep insurance on vehicle on home, property, until you no longer have it in your possession..........

What if somebody hit it, or burned it - then you'd have to pay for it................

Your reponsibility as long as you have it in your possession..

[radonskies]

Thanks for all the good advice - we are definitely putting a bunch of miles on it and keeping it insured. Come to think of it, the off-roading sounds kinda tempting!