Consumer complaint received 2023-01-07
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Problem with paying off the loan
Company: Westlake Services, LLC (CA)

My grandmother, XXXX XXXX, passed on XX/XX/XXXX. I am the person our family has designated as responsible for settling her estate. None of the children were in a position to settle the estate, and I am the XXXX grandson. It is a minimal estate with about XXXX in total assets. The biggest part of her estate is her car. She had a loan on this car through XXXX XXXX XXXX. I called them on XX/XX/XXXX and asked them what I needed to do to get this account settled. They informed me that they needed the XXXX certificate before they could proceed. I sent them the XXXX certificate that day ( proof attached to this request ). I later called back to get the payoff amount. Due to my name not being listed on the XXXX certificate, they could not speak to me. I understood that policy, and had XXXX XXXX ( my aunt and the party listed on the XXXX certificate ) call to obtain the payoff amount. She got the amount to me, and I submitted XXXX payments on XX/XX/XXXX ( from my personal funds as again this is a small estate, and my grandma did not have any XXXX to draw from ) that were above and beyond the payoff ( I added extra interest just in case the payment didn't process right away ). I received the email confirmations for each payment. I had to submit XXXX separate payments as the system would not allow me to submit XXXX for the full amount. I noticed that after a week XXXX of the payments didn't go through. I'm not familiar with XXXX 's system, so I wasn't sure why that was. After this payment still hadn't processed and sufficient time passed, on XX/XX/XXXX, we ( XXXX XXXX and I ) called to get the status. We were told that the payment wasn't able to process due to invalid account number input. This was confusing as we had received a confirmation email. Per the representative, a notification was sent out XX/XX/XXXX ( I believe ) notifying us of this. That notification was NEVER received, which is interesting as we have received every other notification and statement from XXXX. Had we been alerted, we would have fixed the problem immediately. Now, we have a new payoff amount with extra interest and greater fees. It is my opinion, that XXXX should have waived the fees and the extra interest on this loan as this was a lack of communication on their part, especially when you have a party who was expressed that they are trying to get this loan paid off. On XX/XX/XXXX, I paid off the rest of the loan. It is now XX/XX/XXXX, and we have yet to receive any notification of payoff from XXXX. We still do not have the title to the car, and I am unable to move forward with settling the only asset in the estate. Furthermore when XXXX XXXX called ( as that is the only party XXXX is able to communicate with ) on XX/XX/XXXX they now no longer have the XXXX certificate on file, and I had to resend. We still have no idea where the title to this vehicle is, and what is going on on XXXX 's end. This is incredibly unprofessional, and has resulted in extra fees, time, and headaches as a family is already trying to navigate the grieving process. I have attached emails to support the above narrative. I am technically filing this on behalf of XXXX XXXX, as she is the named party on the XXXX certificate. Any help to please allow us to get this chapter of the estate closed would be greatly appreciated!