Reaffirmation Not Filed - Options

[Anonymous]

My mother likes to say that I have the best luck...and sometimes I agree.

I signed a reaff for my car (2012 SUV), which I will admit was DUMB. It needed new tires soon and new brakes, also something was wrong with the catalytic converter at that time...but it was miiinnne and my first car that I had bought, current on payments :"(

And then, the DAY of my discharge, I was in a fenderbender and crunched in the front. Not bad damage, but enough that it will need to be fixed... but still driveable, this was all a month ago (2/1).

I read around and found out you can rescind a reaff agreement in certain circumstances... called my lawyer and they told me that the bank actually never filed the reaff agreement with the court... So between needing two new tires, new brakes, new catalytic converter and a crunched bumper... I'm happy to get rid of it.

But now I need to confirm something fishy that my lawyer advised me - they said that I could still use it as collatoral against a new vehicle... This seems off to me as I don't OWN it, nor do I believe I have a legal claim to it since it was now apparently IIB without reaff and I've just been driving it around the last month+ on someone else's dime. My assumption is that I need to get a new car without much of any collatoral (don't have much at all post BK) and then call the bank and ask them to pick it up... Which likely hasn't happened yet since I'm not in arrears on the payment and the CU is small and in PA, with me and the car in FL. The loan and value were roughly the same (less than 1k difference) based on the car being in pristine condition.

Can a vehicle that was IIB, but not reaff be used as collatoral for a new (to me) car? Or do I need to go into the car buying as someone without any DP/trade-in? Any recommended banks to even try requesting something like that? I can't afford hundreds more on the car payment

[Anonymous]

There are lots of problems I see with this post.

In short, if you signed a reaffirmation agreement for your auto loan, it's likely you do not have  the title for the vehicle. Do you have the title? If not, you won't be able to hand it over to a new lender to obtain a  vehicle loan. Whether you can do it or not, you should not do it. It reeks of fraud to me.

As far as whether the reaffirmation agreement was filed with the court or not... I'm not really sure that's important. If you want to check, pull up your case in PACER and see if there's an order on file regarding the reaffirmation agreement.

The real question is if you want to walk away from a loan that you signed a reaffirmation agreement for, will the lender be able to provide that to agreement, along with the original promissory note, in an attempt to obtain a judgement? I don't know the answer to this -- but your attorney should. If you reaffirmation agreement was approved by the bankruptcy court, then this question is moot.

Why not file an insurance claim to get the vehicle repaired?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input!

I agree on the fraud issue. I didn't think it sounded right, which is actually why j came here to ask, I've not seen any posts where the CU forgot/didn't file it or anything. How could I sell something I have no legal claim to? Just didn't sound remotely correct to me.

The reaffirmation agreement isn't part of the docs in Pacer, there is nothing I'm there at all regarding the car specifically (just notices being sent out by the court). Ive checked every screen/document including history and all court orders... unless it's entered somewhere weird. That's why I reached out to my lawyer to begin with - to confirm when it was filed since there was zero indication online.

In FL you can actually rescind a reaffirm the later date of either your disharge or 60 days after it's filed with the court. Since it wasn't filed with the court yet, I assume this means I could simply rescind if they would ever try to file. I don't know if they even can file since I was discharged on 2/1.

When I was cleaning up my credit reports in Feb, this loan and the CC I had with that CU both show open still. The CC shows open with a zero balance/credit avail. That CC just disappeared from their website this week, so I assume it will update shortly.

[Anonymous]

Oh - and the reason I don't want to fix via insurance is that the car in pristine condition is worth about 6.5K.

Loan is about 6k.

I have a 1k deductible I'd have to pay to get repaired through insurance. Then even still, I need new brakes ($400), two new tires(~300), new rotors due to waiting too long on brakes, new catalytic converter (check engine light is on), the transmission slips and sometimes doesn't shift up a gear during accelleration, and it honestly is either burning oil or leaking it slowly for the last year, I add a quart every 60ish days. Also, it's a 6 yr old SUV with over 100k miles. I had a good deal on it when I got it, due to high mileage, but it's definitely showing it's age and in need of not just accident, but general repairs.

I feel like in hindsight it was a bad idea to reaffirm at all (I was mostly just scared I'd end up car-less for awhile if I didn't reaffirm), and in light of the brake/tire/accident issues, I'd be better off just dumping it at this point.

[Anonymous]

It appears to me that the  reaffirmation isn't effective. The agreement needed to have been filed within 60 days after your 341 meeting. Given that this date has passed, the only way it can be filed now is if a motion is made to extend the deadline, and possibly reopen the case, if it is already closed.

Not being an attorney myself, it looks like you are good to go if you wanted to return the car. What I don't know is if you will have a hassle with late payments and a collections added to your credit reports. Just because they didn't file the agreement doesn't mean they didn't update their own systems to reflect a  reaffirmation. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thank you 

Now to gete a new car with no down payment, transfer my plate and figure out where I can safely park it without a license plate for awhile until they take it back :/

THat last part is going to be problematic I fear as everywhere in southern florida seems tow happy :/

Even my own complex will tow it even if it is registered if it's missing a plate :/

[Anonymous]

Following up on this...

Spoke with the CU that the loan is with and they basically said that they don't really want to pay to repo / auction the vehicle due to it's condition. They asked me to take it to a local Carmax and get a quote from them, then they will release the title. This feels... weird. 

Has anyone else ever been given similar direction? Is there any recourse to get them to take care of it/get rid of it? It's currently parked in a parking garage at my work (will be OK there for a week or two), has no license plate and since I started insurance on my new car, no insurance :/

On the bright side, getting the new car was fairly painless, payment is about 30$ more than what I was paying per, but the car is 3 years newer and comes with ~60k miles of power train, bumper to bumper warranties and 3 years of oil changes. The loan was approved by Nissan Motors Auto Finance (through the dealership). Loan was secured about 40 days post discharge (disch 2/1, loan applied/approved on 3/8). This is with interest rate of 14.85... hoping to refinance it in 6-12months with NFCU once I have more history with them :]