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Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?

By act of a miracle I managed to get out of my car loan reaffirmation which was signed by me 7 months ago. The reaffirmation was never signed by the judge and therefor invalid. I have read on various sites that if you cancel you can get the payments you made back. Just wondering if there is any truth to this and if it is an avenue I should persuse?

Message 1 of 12
11 REPLIES 11
StartingOver10
Moderator Emerita

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?


@Anonymous wrote:

By act of a miracle I managed to get out of my car loan reaffirmation which was signed by me 7 months ago. The reaffirmation was never signed by the judge and therefor invalid. I have read on various sites that if you cancel you can get the payments you made back. Just wondering if there is any truth to this and if it is an avenue I should persuse?


^^^Fortunately the judge did not sign your reaffirmation or you would be on the hook for the balance of the loan. I am assuming it was never really filed with the courts, right? You can download your BK file from PACER to see if it was filed or not.

 

I don't know about getting your payments back from the lender. It doesn't make sense to be able to get the payments back because you had use of the vehicle even if it wasn't reaffirmed. After all, many people keep the vehicle and make payments without any sort of reaffirmation. It is referred to as a 'ride through'.  Your best bet is to get in touch with your attorney to see if a return of your payments is possible.

Message 2 of 12
ezdriver
Senior Contributor

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?

The bankruptcy judge simply sign the discharge and any decisions made along the way via a court hearing. The trustee signs it, along with the applicant, creditor and attorney [if one is used]. Something does not add up with the posted claim.

Message 3 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?

I'm sorry, but I am not sure what you mean by "does not add up with the posted claim"?

 

We had our hearing for the BK 7 months ago with the trustee, and i signed the reaffirmation after it at attorneys office. I contacted the lender when I got the discharge paperwork (months later) to confirm they got a copy of the discharge. They said they did and I'd have access to my account in a week. I never got access. After many calls I even had my attorney call and the lender said since it's an assest case I will have access once all the creditors stake their claim and the money is disbursed. (This is chapter 7).

 

No one ever mentioned the reaffirmation again and I ASSSSSUMED it was all good..

 

Fast forward to last week. I sat and thought about the car loan and panicked. During the BK process I was concerned with the debt and the house. Not the cars because we were keeping them. Contacted lawyer by email friday asked if there any way I can ammend the bk or get out of the car. She called back monday and said she looked up the paperwork and the judge never signed it. That's all she said. She didn't say it wasn't filed, but I am thinking that is what happened. I have a copy of the reaffirmation and my attorney did not represent me for it. At the time she said "it's so it doesn't look like I talked you into it" which of course I question now and it did raise an eyebrow at the time. The only signatures on the copy I have are mine.

 

I had a financial friend look over my paperwork (not including raffirmation) and current credit report and they said everything looks really good regarding the bk and that he's seen some people with a bk and it's all over the place. (cards not included and paperwork errors). But this person is not a lawyer, just has some semi-experience with bk.

 

I didn't know about PACER until last week. I've registered and I am waiting for my information to come in the mail. So I can't access it yet.

 

Regarding the question about the payments....It was just curiousity as I had read that someone had got some back. If that's not an option for me that's fine. I'll just consider it as an expensive rental for the time I used it.

Message 4 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?

Once I can get into PACER....would I have to download the whole bk paperwork? It charges by the page right?

Message 5 of 12
TRC_WA
Senior Contributor

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?


@Anonymous wrote:

Once I can get into PACER....would I have to download the whole bk paperwork? It charges by the page right?


Yes it charges by the page but if you spend under a certain amount (like $15 or $20 a quarter as I recall) you get them at no charge... so basically printing a handful of pages at $0.10 each will result in no charge to you.

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Message 6 of 12
StartingOver10
Moderator Emerita

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?

It is worth it to look at your entire file but as pointed out above the charge is nominal and only kicks in when you reach the minimum threshold.

 

Your attorney was suppose to sign off on your reaffirmation. It is part of the duty of being your attorney. The attorney can't represent you in part of your Bk and not another part of the Bk so based on what you said - it sounds like the attorney was not willing to sign off on your reaffirmation and she gave you another excuse.

 

You will know for sure once you look at PACER. Every document is there. If the reaffirmation is not there, then it was never filed. It doesn't matter now, because you want to give the car back. In fact, it is almost always better to not reaffirm. It could be the attorney you used is cautious with reaffirmations based on her experience with Bk filers changing their mind after the fact. Who knows? But it is to your benefit now if it hasn't been reaffirmed because you can give it back without repercussions.

Message 7 of 12
ezdriver
Senior Contributor

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?


@Anonymous wrote:

I'm sorry, but I am not sure what you mean by "does not add up with the posted claim"? SImply that the scenario makes no sense.

 

Did you ever see a copy of the reaffirmation document that had your signature along with the creditors and your attorney's? If not, there was never any reaffirmation.

The trustee will never accept the document without your attorney's signature [if represented by counsel]. I call bs on your attorney's claim that the judge did not sign it because, as I stated before, it is the trustee who signs it. I know. I reaffirmed my car loan. I was represented by an attorney. I have independently researched everything about reaffirming debt in a abnkruptcy ... and you can too.

 

 

We had our hearing for the BK 7 months ago with the trustee, and i signed the reaffirmation after it at attorneys office. I contacted the lender when I got the discharge paperwork (months later) to confirm they got a copy of the discharge. They said they did and I'd have access to my account in a week. I never got access. After many calls I even had my attorney call and the lender said since it's an assest case I will have access once all the creditors stake their claim and the money is disbursed. (This is chapter 7).

 

No one ever mentioned the reaffirmation again and I ASSSSSUMED it was all good..

 

Fast forward to last week. I sat and thought about the car loan and panicked. During the BK process I was concerned with the debt and the house. Not the cars because we were keeping them. Contacted lawyer by email friday asked if there any way I can ammend the bk or get out of the car. She called back monday and said she looked up the paperwork and the judge never signed it. That's all she said. She didn't say it wasn't filed, but I am thinking that is what happened. I have a copy of the reaffirmation and my attorney did not represent me for it. At the time she said "it's so it doesn't look like I talked you into it" which of course I question now and it did raise an eyebrow at the time. The only signatures on the copy I have are mine.

 

I had a financial friend look over my paperwork (not including raffirmation) and current credit report and they said everything looks really good regarding the bk and that he's seen some people with a bk and it's all over the place. (cards not included and paperwork errors). But this person is not a lawyer, just has some semi-experience with bk.

 

I didn't know about PACER until last week. I've registered and I am waiting for my information to come in the mail. So I can't access it yet.

 

Regarding the question about the payments....It was just curiousity as I had read that someone had got some back. If that's not an option for me that's fine. I'll just consider it as an expensive rental for the time I used it.


 

Message 8 of 12
vtguy25
Contributor

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?

When I reaffirmed my car I had to have a special hearing in front of a judge and she had to review it and sign off on it.  This was seperate from my 341 meeting and the trustee was never involved in my reaffirmation hearing.  So this sounds correct and that your not on the hook with the car.  And by the sounds of it your lender never received it or they prob would have given you access to your account after discharge.  This is what happened with me with santander consumer.

Message 9 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Canceled Car Reaffirmation after 7 months Payments back?

ezdriver: For what ever reason you seem to be quite irritated by my question. Please forgive me for posting a bankruptcy question on a bankruptcy message board. I am so happy for you that you researched your bankruptcy independently! That's great! I also have done a lot of research myself. Infact this question is just that....research. No need to repeat yourself in each post, fortunatly I am able to read. For whatever reason my attorney told me what I said she told me. You seem to have the opinion I made the whole thing up or something. God forbid an attorney tell a client one thing and do another. All attorney's are saints right? Thank you so much for your massive amount of judgement as well as insightful glances at your greatness as well as your great success in bankruptcy. You should go into law!

 

 

 

Message 10 of 12
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