Can the car dealer sue me for the full balance even after the car was resold?

If they sold it for less than what was owed on it and the sale was a legitimate sale and if they gave you all the proper notices required by your state law, then, yes, they may be able to rightfully sue you for the deficiency balance owed but not for more than that. You have to read your finance contract to see what it says and each state's law can be a little different on the notices required and the procedure to be used, so you really should talk to a local car sales fraud lawyer near you. When you can no longer afford the payments for what you bought, your best course of action is the one that does you the least future harm. Turning over the car is treated the same as if they repo it, legally, in most states. Whether you might be liable for any of the debt after they sell it, that often depends on whether or not they followed the legal requirements carefully - and often they don’t. If you surrender the goods (here, the vehicle) to the seller or lienholder, they can resell them and if they don't get as much as what you still owe then in most states (and if they did the initial paperwork right) they have the right to make you pay for their financial loss. It's called a deficiency. If it isn't much, they may not care and let it go. After a repo has happened, virtually every state has a law that says the lender must send you a specific notice of their intent to sell your vehicle, including when and where and for how much, if you don’t “redeem” it by paying them what they want to let you have it back, assuming the amount is legally and properly calculated under your state repo laws. Of course they hardly ever sell it for what is owed on it and you often will get a “deficiency notice” saying that you still owe the rest of the loan balance. Virtually every state’s repo laws say that they have to send you a written explanation of the sale proceeds and how they were used and what, if anything, you still owe them. That’s when you have to be very careful. The law in each state is a little different but they generally all require this very specific kind of notice to be sent to you, saying some very specific things, within a specific and limited time from when the sale occurred, or they can’t make you pay the loan balance. Many lenders, including buy here pay here lots and both big and small finance companies, just don’t send the right notices, saying the mandatory things that have to be said to you, at the right time. Or they may not make their calculations right in the deficiency notice letter. And if any of that happens, they may not be able to collect a dime from you. But it all depends on the paperwork and your local laws. To find out what all this means in your situation, you need to talk to a local Consumer Law attorney who deals with this kind of case. You can go to this web site page for a Free Online 50 State National List of Consumer Law Lawyers (www.USLemonLawyers.com) and find one near you (lawyers don’t pay to get listed here and most of them are members of the only national association for Consumer Law lawyers, NACA.net). You can also look for one here on under the Find a Lawyer tab. Or you can call your local attorney's Bar Association and ask for a referral to a Consumer Law attorney near you. But act quickly because for every legal right you have, there is only a limited amount of time to actually file a lawsuit in court or your rights expire (it's called the statute of limitations), so don't waste your time getting to a Consumer Law attorney and finding out what your rights are. If this answer was helpful, please give a “Vote Up” review below. And be sure to indicate the best answer to your question so we can all be sure we are being helpful. Thanks for asking and Good Luck. Ron Burdge, www.CarSalesFraud.com