Voluntary surrender listed as repossession?

House2021 · ‎03-12-2021

I have an auto lease I voluntarily surrendered in 2016, I just realized it is being reported as a repossession - is that accurate? Is there a credit letter for voluntary surrender or is that not an option? Does it make a difference? I would think it would. Also, it's past the SOL, I would like to dispute with the creditor but don't want to do anything that would restart the SOL, what should I do to correct this? I'd pay it now if I could but I don't have the funds and Toyota will not give any kind of reduction of principal. Also I don't feel the amount is fair. They charged me the full lease balance remaining, but I'm sure they resold it and didn't have that much of a loss but don't have the contract to look up what happens if you default.

Cowboys4Life · ‎03-12-2021

@House2021 wrote:
I have an auto lease I voluntarily surrendered in 2016, I just realized it is being reported as a repossession - is that accurate?  Yes. This is accurate.

Is there a credit letter for voluntary surrender or is that not an option? Does it make a difference? I would think it would.  It makes no difference from credit reporting whether it was voluntary or not. You breached the contract and that is all that matters.

Also, it's past the SOL, I would like to dispute with the creditor but don't want to do anything that would restart the SOL, what should I do to correct this?  Past the SOL for lawsuit? If that is the case disputing does not reset the SOL for suit. Signing a new payment agreement in many states does. Basically do not re-affirm the debt and the SOL for legal remedies does not reset.

I'd pay it now if I could but I don't have the funds and Toyota will not give any kind of reduction of principal. Also I don't feel the amount is fair. They charged me the full lease balance remaining, but I'm sure they resold it and didn't have that much of a loss but don't have the contract to look up what happens if you default. If you default you owe the balance of the lease and any late fees, interest etc. The problem with selling the car is if they sent it to auction the could have lost money on the deal between auction fees and lower selling point. You can get copies of all the documents to see what the car sold for and what they applied to your balance. How long was left on the lease when you surrendered it?

gdale6 · ‎03-12-2021

Voluntary or involuntary its the same as both are repos. There should be a comment that it was voluntarily done. If this is not updating monthly do not dispute it just for this as it will drop your current Fico score. If they sell the debt then the law requires them to update the balance to 0.

RobertEG · ‎03-12-2021

Status code for account status is reported, under the common credit reporting manual used by the big-3 CRAs, titled the Credit Reporting Resource Guide, under field code 17A, which provides for separate codes for paid in full voluntary surrenders (code 61) and for paid in full repossessions (code 63).

If there is still a balance due, such as is apparently the case in the posted scenario, there is a code 95 for reporting of voluntary surrenders, but the manual specifically excludes auto leases from that status reporting.

Early termination of a lease with a balance still remaining does not have a separate status code, and thus can be reported, using the repo status code, until the amount of the loss and thus balance due, is ultimately determined.