California
I just made my last payment on a car loan. Since the loan company is down the street from me I would often drop the payment in the mailbox on the due date, or at the latest, the last day before a penalty was accessed. A few times the door was locked from them closing early as to why I used the drop-box, and often since it's a busy street I would park, hop out, drop the payment in the box and drive away. Little did I know that they were never collecting the drop-box until the next day in which my payment was marked as late and a $20 penalty was accessed. I would have figured this out but they never sent any documents, or any paperwork such as a bill to show this. All I was ever given was a payment booklet the second month after I opened the loan. So I have accumulated around $400 in late payment penalties over the course of 3.5 years. Should I be liable for these penalties? I only found out about the penalty charges after calling to make sure the account would be paid off after I finished with my payment booklet.
Would "estoppel by laches" be the deciding factor here? The fact that I was never notified that these fees were accumulating.
On another note!: The first month I had my car it was towed. I put down $3500 and hadn't received anything from the loan company yet, when repo people showed up at my door at 6am, 4 weeks after my initial down payment. I gave them the keys and paid $400 to get my car out of the lot. (The tow company also would not give me a receipt, so instead they handed me a piece of scratch paper and wrote -400 on it, thats it). I called the loan company when they opened and they said although I hadn't received my paperwork yet, it was passed the due date, and they towed it. I told them I didn't even know when the due date was or where to send the payment. They said, ya know all those papers you signed when you bought the car, it says it in there somewhere.
Lastly, I would get texts about every other month asking to send in proof of insurance, which I did twice! and I would still get these texts. I think that alone shows their system is very messed up. The company is called Foreman Financial and it is based in N Hollywood CA.
I just made my last payment on a car loan. Since the loan company is down the street from me I would often drop the payment in the mailbox on the due date, or at the latest, the last day before a penalty was accessed. A few times the door was locked from them closing early as to why I used the drop-box, and often since it's a busy street I would park, hop out, drop the payment in the box and drive away. Little did I know that they were never collecting the drop-box until the next day in which my payment was marked as late and a $20 penalty was accessed. I would have figured this out but they never sent any documents, or any paperwork such as a bill to show this. All I was ever given was a payment booklet the second month after I opened the loan. So I have accumulated around $400 in late payment penalties over the course of 3.5 years. Should I be liable for these penalties? I only found out about the penalty charges after calling to make sure the account would be paid off after I finished with my payment booklet.
Would "estoppel by laches" be the deciding factor here? The fact that I was never notified that these fees were accumulating.
On another note!: The first month I had my car it was towed. I put down $3500 and hadn't received anything from the loan company yet, when repo people showed up at my door at 6am, 4 weeks after my initial down payment. I gave them the keys and paid $400 to get my car out of the lot. (The tow company also would not give me a receipt, so instead they handed me a piece of scratch paper and wrote -400 on it, thats it). I called the loan company when they opened and they said although I hadn't received my paperwork yet, it was passed the due date, and they towed it. I told them I didn't even know when the due date was or where to send the payment. They said, ya know all those papers you signed when you bought the car, it says it in there somewhere.
Lastly, I would get texts about every other month asking to send in proof of insurance, which I did twice! and I would still get these texts. I think that alone shows their system is very messed up. The company is called Foreman Financial and it is based in N Hollywood CA.
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