GA repossion laws

The repo company's statements are not true. If you have a valid finance agreement with a lender and are in breach of that agreement, it is a contract dispute and not a criminal matter. It is unlawful for the repo company to threaten criminal action for a breach of contract case. The repo company knows that it cannot reposses your vehicle over your protest and is attempting to coerce you into voluntarily surrendering your vehicle. If you are in breach of your finance agreement however, the repo company can repossess the vehicle when you are not around.

Unfortunately Georgia does have a criminal offense that is not theft related that does apply to situations where there is a defaulted car loan. I have clipped a copy of the code section below. I have had numerous clients over the years that have had a repo agent apply for a warrant. When this is done, there is often a warrant application hearing to determine the facts and whether it amounts to criminal concealment of the car. Some magistrates rubber stamp this hearing and routinely issue warrants. You want to avoid this. Reading between the lines, if they actively pursued you for some time and it has been over a month since you heard from the repo company, it is possible that they have in fact applied for a warrant. Do not ignore this. Fortunately it is only a misdemeanor (albeit of a high and agravated nature, which allow for higher fines in GA as well as other sentencing penalties.) If they even mentioned warrant, I would strongly suggest contacting the DeKalb county magistrate court to see if in fact they have applied for a warrant or if one was issued. If so, I think it is in your best interest to speak to an attorney. If not, you may want to consider doing a voluntary surrender of the vehicle. Feel free to contact us for a free consultation regarding your rights. It has also been our experience that people who have an auto that went into default, often have other debt issues either with loans, credit cards or medical debt. If you are getting calls from collectors on those other matters, save the messages and the letters and give us a call. Often the letters they send and messages that they leave violate the federal fair debt collection practices Act. Something as simple as failing to leave the company name or stating they are a debt collector is a violation. If so, it may entitle you to statutory damages of up to $1,000 plus it covers attorney fees. Ironically, you may end up being able to "rob Peter to pay Paul," by using FDCPa settlements from collectors that violate federal collection laws to cover your balanced owed on your auto that is in default. Jim Feagle TITLE 16 - CRIMES AND OFFENSES CHAPTER 9 - FORGERY AND FRAUDULENT PRACTICES ARTICLE 4 - FRAUD AND RELATED OFFENSES O.C.G.A. 16-9-51 (2010) 16-9-51. Destruction, removal, concealment, encumbrance, or transfer of property subject to security interest (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this Code section, a person who destroys, removes, conceals, encumbers, transfers, or otherwise deals with property subject to a security interest with intent to hinder enforcement of that interest shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. (b) A person who destroys, removes, conceals, encumbers, transfers, or otherwise deals with property subject to a security interest with intent to hinder enforcement of that security interest and in so doing does damage to such property in an amount greater than $500.00 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. (c) In a prosecution under this Code section the crime shall be considered as having been committed in any county where any act in furtherance of the criminal scheme was done or caused to be done.

Warrants can be issued for not turning over cars. It's called theft. They may have broken the law though by making those threats if they don't already have a judgment for foreclosure of personal property. Call an attorney if you need help. The DiGiulio Law Firm, LLC. www.atl-law.com 770-309-9551 ----- Reply message -----