At what point do you sue the bank that comes to repo your car because of constant harassment from the repo guys?

Yeah, it’s a tuff one. If you are in default, the car isn’t yours, but they don’t have the right to harass people. You need to call a civil liberties lawyer. They are paid by the government to take cases like yours, but really….. it is hard to take these things to court. One person’s harassment is another person just doing their job. They can’t threaten people, but offering money isn’t illegal. Calling at 3am is, I think, but if they are calling at normal times trying to find you, that’s just them doing their job.

If you are in default and keeping the vehicle by means of deception, it is fraud. Sorry things are tough for you right now, but it is what it is.

I don’t know about being arrested for this, and it probably depends on what state you are in, but try contacting a lawyer who works in civil liberties. If you can’t work out a payment plan with the bank and get the repo order cancelled, the bank has a right to the property that was offered as security for the loan.

It sounds as if you are in a tough situation but the facts are if you are not making your car payments the bank has the right to repossess the car. If you gave it up they would stop using all these methods you find harassing. Unfortunately you are in the wrong so I can’t imagine you could sue and win. As @cazzie suggests, your best bet is probably to go to the bank and work out a payment plan. Good luck.

The repossession company is not the bank. You have to realize they are two different companies, and make sure you ask your lawyer to sue the company that is actually breaking the law.

The bank has hired a company to repossess the property you pledged in exchanged for a loan of money which you agreed to pay back. The company that follows through on the repossession is the one you have to sue, if they did, indeed, break the law.

If you want them to stop harassing your friends and family….give them the car.

It’s their job to find the property in question and recover it….you may not like it….but they are in their rights to do it…...and you are 100% responsible because YOU signed the lending agreement and defaulted…...and kept the car….It sucks but it is what it is.

like stated above I would contact the lending party ASAP too see if a mutually beneficial arrangement can be made…

I would like to also add, be careful of yourself too. Don’t loose your temper. I can’t imagine how hard this time must be for you, but you could add to your woes if you loose your temper and threaten the Repo guys or someone at the bank. For 5 years or so, I was engaged to a regional credit manager in New Zealand. He had some tough cases where property like cars and boats had to be repossessed and the person with the property defaulting on the loan would call him personally and threatened to harm him physically. He started recording conversations like that and handing them to the police to protect himself and his staff.

Find someone to talk to. You’re going to need to pick yourself up and dust yourself off after all this and you’re going to want to be able to look yourself in the eye in the mirror. Stuff is just stuff, but your integrity and self respect is something you give yourself. I don’t mean that to be a platitude. It is very real.

Send me a message if you want to talk. Sincerely.

It is incredibly illegal for them to harass you. Especially your friends and relatives.

They have the right to come to your house as frequently as they want, but they aren’t allowed to lie to you or your g/f about arresting you, and they’re not allowed to harass friends and family members. Call the civil liberties lawyers, or a lawyer you already have (but judging by the finances you probably don’t).

Also though, you can pretty much kiss the car goodbye. They’ll get it, they’re the scum of the earth and they’ll find a way.

Most of the above answers are correct. i assume you are aware that you can kiss your credit rating goodbye. hiding your car is only hurting yourself and your future credit rating. the repo guys are like headhunters and unfortunately, the law is on their side. repoing a vehicle is a civil matter, unless a criminal law is broken. then, the police become involved. you can cuss, you can fuss, but you cannot assault a person. harassing you and your family is just like any other bill collector. they know just how far they go, without breaking the law.

After all, your vehicle is not your vehicle anymore. save your families embarrassment and turn in the auto.

As soon as you square up with the bank you can start thinking about litigation. How dare those scummy people expect their money to be repaid?

They are most definitely scummy! This is girlfriend and I was home one night when one of them called and pretended to be interested in something we had advertised on craigslist! Really?! He got the address and then never showed, when I called him after he didnt show I got the creditors voicemail… isnt that illegal for them to misrepresent themselves as well as threaten arrest?!

Oh and a question i have about all this is… since he’s quite over due to make his payment can he still keep the car IF he makes one now or will they just repo it now after all this?

@amberrae He needs to talk to the lender and work out a payment plan and get the repo order rescinded. Get him to call where ever he is to make the payments to.

I put a huge wad of cash into my husband’s credit card when he got in the shit, hoping they’d take the cancel order off it, and they didn’t. In hindsight that was good they didn’t give him the card back, but I didn’t know it at the time and I got annoyed. I was under the wrong impression of what a lump sum payment would do, so you have to talk to them first.

Oh ok… I hope this all gets resolved… thanks for the good avdice and words of experience…