Long story but I will try to make it brief. My wife & I have a friend in Florida (we live in Alabama) that is an 89 year old disabled veteran. We have known him for about seven years ever since he drove up from Florida to adopt a cat, and later a second one, from my wife’s cat rescue. He can’t walk far and uses an electric scooter to get around. But he could drive. We would always stop by to visit him whenever we were in Florida and took care of his cats whenever he was in the hospital for any length of time. Last year we couldn’t get him on the phone and were starting to worry. We drove down to his house and found out from his neighbors that he had fallen and was in the hospital and had been transferred to a nursing facility. We went to the nursing home and visited with him. We asked him where his car was and he said it was repossessed because he forgot to make the payments. He said he paid it off but before he could get it back, he fell and ended up in the hospital. None of his bills had been paid for approximately six months. It was obvious that he was not getting out any time soon, so his social worker recommended that he give my wife power of attorney so she could take care of his finances. He was happy to do it. So my wife has been paying his bills for him since last summer. She found out which towing company had his car and contacted them. They told her the storage fees were so high that she should just let them keep the car! She said no way, the fees were $6000+ but the car is a 2018 Subaru Outback, worth way more than $6k. She sent them a copy of her P.O.A. and said we were coming to get the car. They said she couldn’t have it because their attorney didn’t like how the P.O.A. looked! She threatened to get an attorney involved so they said she had to bring his drivers license before they would give her the car. We finally found Marvin’s license and she called them and she said we were coming to get it. They told her that she also needed a certified check for the storage fees, plus, now the license wasn’t enough, now Marvin had to come in person! After many more calls including to the police, we finally got his car back. We discovered his car had a long-expired temporary tag on it. We contacted the highway department and they said we needed the title. We went through all his mail and did not find a title. We contacted the selling dealer (in Arizona, he bought it online) and they said to contact the loan company. The loan company confirmed it was paid off but had no idea where the title was and to contact the selling dealer. My wife has been going back and forth between the dealer and the loan company with no results. Once, the dealer said they had mailed the title the week before but it never showed up. She called them back and they said they would not mail a title, only a release of lien. Which they never mailed. I would have thought since it was financed by another company and not the dealer, the finance company would have the title. Anyway, after seven months of trying, my wife has not been able to get the title from anyone! Anybody know what we should try next? We don’t know what to do at this point.
First off them sorry sacks of **** at the tow company need to drug by thier toes down a gravel road 2nd the finance company has the title...and a quick call from a lawyer will get that on the way asap...finance companies mail titles every day Get a copy of the proof it's paid off and contact the state troppers...they may can persuade the finance company to "find" or file for a duplicate
Yes, the towing company kept dragging things out. What we went through with them was over a few months. They wanted the car bad but they weren’t getting it! But it did increase their storage fees!
A good 95% of tow companies are crooks....we have them charge us "gate fees".....$100 to open the gate......jump start fees.....flat tire fees....the color blue on Tuesday fees.....they are something else
Maybe you can get the state to reissue the title. I have doen that here (WA) when I misplaced one of my Buick titles. Since the car is in my name and they had the computerized record, it was no big deal and they gave me the new title that day. Worth checking into... If the previous title was in the finance companies name, a notarized letter from them saying the load was paid off might be needed. Sorry for all your woe, no good deed goes unpunished as they say.
...we can all see what's going on here, towing/finance companies taking advantage of a sick old man. You and your wife are the best kind of friends, most would have given up long ago. I'm confident you two have what it takes to see this thru, and I hope your friend gets the chance to enjoy your efforts. Nursing homes are a bad place for old people...
Thanks! Yeah, it’s tough seeing him in the nursing home. He has always been fiercely independent even having to use a walker or his scooter to get around. He was still driving up until this last fall put him in the hospital. He even had/has an eBay business that he was still running up until this happened. He is always so happy to see us when we visit him. He has a couple of brothers and a sister up in NY but they don’t have anything to do with each other and a stepson out west that couldn’t care less about him. Even his neighbors that are 20 minutes away don’t visit him.
Go to the Florida DMV with the loan satifaction letter and apply for a duplicate title. I had to do that once when I traded-in a car and realized the finance company never sent me a title.
If the finance company acknowledged that the car was paid off then the next step is to sue the finance company for the repo fees. The towing company acted on behalf of the finance company, they were told to repo the car. The old man should not be responsible for a penny of that..
I would get a good highly reputable lawyer and sue the finance company. I would sue them for the title, all the towing bill, attorney fees and all the time that you have invested. It's the only way that your going to get favorable results in this situation. Keith
Sounded to me like it got repo'd, then he paid it off, but then fell before having a chance to get it back.
Yes, this is correct. The repo/towing company had his car for about six months before we found out what was going on. Then they jerked us around for another month or two before we got it back. I am really upset with his neighbors, they knew what was going on but did nothing to help him get his car back. We think he just forgot to make his car payments, he had the money to pay them. His last car was paid off so he was not used to making car payments. Whatever is was, he paid the car off after they repossessed it. The loan company has confirmed this with my wife.
