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While homeowners might be
losing their properties due to economic difficulties, the
same is not true for automobile owners, according to local
dealers and a national organization of vehicle repossessors.
“It’s about the same,” said Don Wall, owner of Don’s Auto
Sales & Repairs, East Norwegian Township. “We work with
people.”
“Ours have been decreasing,” said Scott Mitchell, a salesman
for Ed’s USA Auto Rentals, Pottsville.
Businesspeople say it is not in their interest to repossess
vehicles, and that they will do whatever they can to help
their customers keep them.
“The banks have done everything in the world to prevent
repossession,” said Les McCook, executive director of the
American Recovery Association Inc., Irving, Texas. “They’re
doing everything they can to keep people in their cars.”
Many local dealers, in fact, do not involve themselves in
the process.
“We don’t repossess any vehicles,” said a spokeswoman for
Rottet Motors Inc., Tamaqua. “Once the contract’s assigned
to Ford Credit (Ford Motor Credit Co.), they’re
responsible.”
“We do no vehicle repossessions,” said a spokesman for
Boardman Brothers Motor Car Co., Cumbola.
Local dealers that repossess vehicles agree that
repossession often is more trouble than it’s worth, and that
both sides profit if repossession is avoided.
“I try to work with people,” Wall said. “If they’re honest
with me, I’ll give them a break.”
But that approach has its limits, he said.
“If they’re pulling my leg, it gets (repossessed),” Wall
said. “I don’t care if it’s a little one or a big one.”
Necessity also plays a role in the lack of repossessions,
since for many people, the vehicle they have bought or
leased at Ed’s is their only one, Mitchell said.
“People need to get to work,” he said. “They just seem to be
following the rules a little more.”
However, Ed’s does not hesitate to take back a vehicle from
someone who has defaulted on a contract, Mitchell said. It
will charge a defaulter $125 for a local repossession and
$175 for a more distant one, he said.
Repossessions tend to be cyclical, with January being the
worst time due to Christmas overspending and weather
problems, McCook said.
“People catch up on past-due payments” when they get their
tax refunds, so repossessions tend to drop in March and
April, said McCook, whose organization was founded in 1962.
June also tends to be a big time for repossessions, with
August seeing an improvement, he said.
“You just kind of ebb and flow with the recoveries,” McCook
said. “This is nothing extraordinary.”
Pennsylvania doesn’t keep track of vehicle repossessions,
either statewide or by county, according to Daniel Egan,
assistant press secretary for the state Department of
Banking. The department licenses collector-repossessors,
which are companies that perform repossessions for other
businesses, but businesses are allowed to perform their own
repossessions, and the department does not license them,
Egan said.
Whether a collector-repossessor or a company that
repossesses its own vehicles, all such businesses are bound
by Pennsylvania’s Motor Vehicle Sales Finance Act.
Under that law, the dealer or the holder of the installment
sales contract has the right to repossess the vehicle of a
buyer who has defaulted on the contract.
The dealer or contract holder does not have to go to court
to repossess a vehicle, as long as the repossession can be
done without a breach of the peace. However, if a
repossession cannot be done peacefully, the dealer or holder
may file a lawsuit, called an action in replevin, to obtain
the vehicle; if it wins, then a public official must perform
the repossession.
Once it repossesses the vehicle, the holder must retain it
for 15 days after mailing notice of the repossession to the
buyer. During that time, the buyer may regain the vehicle by
paying the entire unpaid time balances, any default charges
and, if he or she has been in default for more than 15 days,
the holder’s costs of retaking, repairing, repossessing and
storing the vehicle.
After the 15-day retention period, the buyer loses all right
to the vehicle and the holder may resell it privately or
publicly.
