My Daughter had new car repoed that I signed for and I did n

Submitted by bioya on Fri, 11/06/2009 - 21:20
Forums

Hi folks.
I co-signed (like an idiot) for my daughter to buy a new Honda. She lived in Texas, we are in WV. I did not know it but she allowed the car to be repoed. This was something like 1.5 or 2 years ago and I have never been contacted by anyone from Honda finance or a collection agency. I checked my credit report after I found out about it and it is on there but did not hurt me too badly (I guess). I talked to a lawyer who told me to wait till I was contacted to arrange payments. He indicated its already on my credit report and for some reason they have not called or sent a letter.
What do I do? Can they come from Texas to WV and get judgement against me? Do I have any rights since I have never been contacted? Is there a limit on how long Honda has to sue me? I am really at a loss on this. Had I have known when it happened, I would have done something but now, almost 2 years later... I just don't know what to do. Thanks in advance for your replies and please don't be too mean.

Welcome to the forum, don't worry about meanies, we chew them up for breakfast here.
You are not the first parent to be in this position and I am sure that you will not be the last, unfortunately this happened and now you have to deal with it. Hopefully you still have a good relationship with your daughter, chalk it up to a lesson learned and move on.

They can come from Texas and sue you, unfortunately since you co signed you are responsible. I would wait and see what they are going to do, if it is already on your report that status would not change either way. They really should have contacted you a long time ago. If it were me, unless you have some burning desire to pay them and clean up your credit, I would leave it alone like the attorney said.

Sat, 11/07/2009 - 01:19 Permalink

Hello, Goodnatured gave you some really good advice. I would hope your relationship is still good with your daughter. I know it can be stressful but maybe between the two of you there can be an agreement reached about clearing up this debt. I am sure it is not past the SOL since it is so new. Maybe if you really wanted you two could contact the original creditor who gave you the loan and ask for repayment agreement that both you and your daughter could agree to. I only suggest this because I would imagine the amount of interest being added to this account and it could turn out costly.
Now if worse comes to worse and they do sue you for the money and your daughter is not willing to help out you could take her to small claims court to get back some of your money. Unfortunatly most small claims courts only allow a certain amount of money to be awarded..usually below $7,000.

Sat, 11/07/2009 - 01:55 Permalink

That is the bad part, and now the daughters credit is ruined too, she is off to a rocky start in life as far as credit goes. Hopefully you can take some steps to clear this up and not get into a financial obligation for anyone else again.

I wish you luck, you have some hard work to do, I am sure that it will all work out one way or another.

Sat, 11/07/2009 - 02:01 Permalink

I am sure this is a tricky situation. The worse part may be the distance between the mother and the daughter. Going to small claims will be a little more difficult. I do believe though if the mother files then the daughter has got to travel to west virginia. Maybe one of our more knowledgable members whom may have a little more info will drop in on this post. We do know one thing for sure the poster will be responsible. i just can not see her having to pay the bill when they did not contact her. She could have taken over the payments and kept the car.

Sat, 11/07/2009 - 02:10 Permalink

But what if the finance company files a summons, they really should go after the daughter first right? So can they file two different summons in two different states for the same debt?

Sat, 11/07/2009 - 03:04 Permalink

I'm just wondering do you think the finance good say that the daughter should have informed her mother of what happened. So they could both make some kind of arrangement to get this taken care of. I've never heard of a situation like this going on for 2 years without the finance company doing everything they could to get there money. Or they may have already taken the daughter to court and she made some kind of arrangement with them then. If so I wouldn't think they would have any reason to call the mother would they? Unless she didn't hold up her end in the agreement.

Sat, 11/07/2009 - 04:49 Permalink
jamie (not verified)

hello my car was repoed feb 16 2010 and i feel kind of bad but it was because i want to help my family out. How long will it stay on my cradit

Mon, 02/22/2010 - 08:17 Permalink