Experts: Is it illegal to duck and hide from the repo man?

Posted by mk_378 (164.106.129.132) on February 18, 2004 at 20:50:00:

In Reply to: Re: do car liens ever fall off? posted by It's illegal on February 18, 2004 at 10:13:13:

I was under the impression that it wasn't; if it were, repo men would be calling the police every time and using them to help find the car (In most cities, the police have better things to do). I could see if they had a judgement or other court order requiring the buyer to give up the car, then failing to do so would be contempt of court. But I thought the police couldn't get involved in a "self-service" repossession. And in any case it would always be a civil matter, not a criminal one.

Clearly it wouldn't be legal to sell a car without paying off the lien, and it is useless to buy such a car.

The potential buyer could try approaching the lienholder and offering more than they would be able to get at auction if they repo'd the car. Considering the situation now (zero dollars coming in, and the car hardly worth the trouble to find and repo) now they might take that offer. But it would have to be done very carefully to not let them find the car and just repo it. And they would also want to continue to attempt to collect the deficiency from the original buyer.

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