Co signers ability to repo auto

[Russell Hoffman]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania, Can a co signer repo an auto because the user is not making the payments for three months in a row?
First party refuses to reply to co signer and payments are becoming financially challenging.

 

[justalayman]

generally; no


That is presuming by the term co-signer you are speaking of a guarntor.



Unless you were a cobuyer where your name would also be on the title, your recourse is to pay the bill and sue the other party for your money.

 

[adjusterjack]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania, Can a co signer repo an auto because the user is not making the payments for three months in a row?
First party refuses to reply to co signer and payments are becoming financially challenging.

Yeah, that's what happens when you co-sign a loan for somebody who can't qualify for a loan at a bank. There's a good reason that the bank wouldn't lend him/her any money and that's the same reason you should never guarantee a loan for somebody else.

 

[FlyingRon]

A cosigner has no rights other than to pay the debt.
If you are also an owner on the title, you're entitled to take possession of your own property.

 

[Litigator22]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania, Can a co signer repo an auto because the user is not making the payments for three months in a row?
First party refuses to reply to co signer and payments are becoming financially challenging.

Yes, under certain circumstances you could lawfully repossess the vehicle! BUT only if:

1. You co-signed the loan strictly as an accommodation. (Meaning you never received any material benefit from the loan. Example: The vehicle was purchased for the sole purpose, use and benefit of the primary obligor and has never been registered nor title issued in your name), and

2. If you were to pay the lender the entire balance of the loan.

If such conditions are present then by paying off the loan you would be subrogated to all the rights of the lender including the lender's security interest in the vehicle and the right to repossess and dispose of the collateral in the manner required by Pennsylvania law (i. e. , in a reasonably commercial manner) and the right to seek a deficiency judgment against the primary obligor.

The hitch here seems to be your present inability to pay off the loan. Unless you are able to do so, your legal remedies differ and will be in the nature of suing the primary obligor for contribution, but absent the right to repossess the vehicle.

 

[Zigner]

Yes, under certain circumstances you could lawfully repossess the vehicle! BUT only if:

1. You co-signed the loan strictly as an accommodation. (Meaning you never received any material benefit from the loan. Example: The vehicle was purchased for the sole purpose, use and benefit of the primary obligor and has never been registered nor title issued in your name), and

2. If you were to pay the lender the entire balance of the loan.

If such conditions are present then by paying off the loan you would be subrogated to all the rights of the lender including the lender's security interest in the vehicle and the right to repossess and dispose of the collateral in the manner required by Pennsylvania law (i. e. , in a reasonably commercial manner) and the right to seek a deficiency judgment against the primary obligor.

The hitch here seems to be your present inability to pay off the loan. Unless you are able to do so, your legal remedies differ and will be in the nature of suing the primary obligor for contribution, but absent the right to repossess the vehicle.

Care to site your source(s)?

 

[FlyingRon]

Well, unfortunately, debt subrogation doesn't quite work that way in Pennsylvania. The hitch under Pennsylvania law is that you have to be protecting your interest and you were not primarily liable for the debt (and you still have to show that you weren't being equitably unfair to the others involved).

The cosigner in this case has primary liability (especially after the other signer has not paid).

 

[Russell Hoffman]

Well, unfortunately, debt subrogation doesn't quite work that way in Pennsylvania. The hitch under Pennsylvania law is that you have to be protecting your interest and you were not primarily liable for the debt (and you still have to show that you weren't being equitably unfair to the others involved).

The cosigner in this case has primary liability (especially after the other signer has not paid).

FlyingRon ? The vehicle was purchased for the primarys sole use. It is titled in her name and financed., If I pay it off would that give me the ability to
take the next step?

 

[FlyingRon]

No. You're obligated to the loan, that won't allow you to get the lien subrogated to you. Are you on the title or not?

 

[Russell Hoffman]

No I am not on the title.

 

[Litigator22]

Care to site your source(s)?

"Site"?

Sources? Sure. Absolutely. (Normally taken for granted as did the U. S. Supreme Court below, but then I sometimes forget that you've never studied/practiced law.)

So, how about a somewhat "judicial notice" comment from the United States Supreme Court on the subject of the right of a surety to be subrogated to the rights of the creditor as being "so often and so fully discussed that nothing further need be added on that subject". (See: United States vs. Ryder, 110 U. S. 729; 4 S. Ct. 196; 28 L. Ed. 308 (1884) (Emphasis mine.)


What the high court was talking about is the acknowledged principal of common law - grounded in fair play and equity with its roots said to reach back to ancient Roman Law - (but don't quote me on the B. C. bit) that one who is obligated to pay another's debt and pays that debt gets the rights of the creditor whose debt was paid. A right of substitution that can exist by contract or by operation of law.

For further reading and citations of authority try: https://www.mwl-law.com/defending-subrogation

Hopefully you won't quarrel with the notion that if the OP cosigned the loan documents strictly as an accommodation that his relationship with the lender is not purely as a co-obligor, but that of principal and surety.

 

[HRZ]

you failed to post up front that you were on title...that might have given you a right to just go grab your car .

now you are left to,sue the other party...and as far as know wage garnishments are not in the cards for that kind of debt in Pennsylvania even if you win your point in DJ court ...
Hope you have lots of hidden leverage on other person to pay up!

 

[Zigner]

"Site"?

A simple typo.

 

[FlyingRon]

You are obligated to pay if the other party doesn't. If you are on the title, you have as much right as anybody else to come take the car (of course this my devolve into a tug of war game over it).