I'LL BET THIS QUESTION HAS NEVER BEEN ASKED ON HERE

[Anonymous]

Ok. I financed a car in 1997. I defaulted on the loan and they tried to repossess it over 15 years ago. They never found the vehicle, I still have it. Now I just want to get rid of it but have no title. All my credit scores are hovering around 700, a repossession would be catastrophic. This vehicle has sat in a garage for over 12 years but I can't sell it or even take it to a junkyard. I don't want to approach the lender for fear that they will repossess it and mistakes I made 15 years ago will now show up on my credit. Any advice or suggestions?

[kilroy8]

Only option is to leave it by the side of the road and have it impounded as an abandoned vehicle (take the plates off, of course). I don't know of any state where a 15 year old loan default is still a valid collectable debt, unless they sued you at some point and got a judgement.

[Dalmus]

Don't feel bad...

I surrendered my vehicle in my BK7, and the lender refused to take it.  I contact them once a year, and they still refuse to take it.

The problem with leaving the vehicle somewhere is that you are still techinically liable for it... the VIN will come back to you if a kid gets hurt while playing in it or another vehicle runs into it or parking tickets it racks up while sitting on the roadside.

How much do you technically owe on it?  You can always sell it to CarMax.  At least you'll get something for it.  Then let CarMax deal with the title issues.

[Anonymous]

Leave it in a high theft area with the keys in it. Chop shops don't care if they don't have the title! 

[RobertEG]

As for the defaulted loan reappearing in your credit report, if they were to report their loan, any adverse information under the account is subject to the credit report exclusion provisions of FCRA 605(a).

More specifically, any monthly delinquencies under the account would be required to become excluded no later than 7 years from their dates of occurence.  Any repo that were taken with a loss or any charge-off taken in lieu of a repo would be subject to exclusion no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the reported DOFD.  Absent a misreporting of the DOFD, no charge-off or collection could now be included in your credit report.

As for the title, all states have provisions for replacement of a title to a vehicle.  Why not simply apply for a duplicate copy of the title?

[Anonymous]

I was hoping you would chime in on this one Robert. Thank you so much again for the advice!

[Dalmus]

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@RobertEG wrote:

As for the title, all states have provisions for replacement of a title to a vehicle.  Why not simply apply for a duplicate copy of the title?

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 The replacement title would still have the lien attached to it.  The OP still would not be able to legally sell or junk it.

 Some states do provide for obtaining title to an abandoned vehicle...  But you'd have to go through the process of justifying that.

[Anonymous]

Any lakes nearby?

[Anonymous]

Does it run? Don't leave it on the side of the road as they said. Leave it in a parking lot somewhere. I'd say walmart. I work for a tow company and we always pick up abandoned junk vehicles from Wal-Mart. Its like people like to abandon them there for some reason. Then all we do is put a lien on vehicle owner for 14 days until we get the title. Then the lien is removed once title is achieved. Easy as that your car is gone. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok. I financed a car in 1997. I defaulted on the loan and they tried to repossess it over 15 years ago. They never found the vehicle, I still have it. Now I just want to get rid of it but have no title. All my credit scores are hovering around 700, a repossession would be catastrophic. This vehicle has sat in a garage for over 12 years but I can't sell it or even take it to a junkyard. I don't want to approach the lender for fear that they will repossess it and mistakes I made 15 years ago will now show up on my credit. Any advice or suggestions?

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Go to your local DMV and tell them you want to get a new title for an abandoned vehicle on your property. They will let you know the procedure.