Consumer complaint received 2024-05-19
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Repossession — Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle
Company: CREDIT ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION (TX)

I am out of town for an extended period of time ( provided address is temporary mailing address only ) and my landlord had my vehicle towed in error ; even though it was registered with them to my unit and they where aware I would be out of town. In their removal of several abandoned vehicles left by previous tenants or dumped in the lot my vehicle was towed away as well as the landlord failed to check the list of authorized vehicles prior to towing my properly registered and parked vehicle leading to it being repossessed. 

I was unaware of the tow as I was out of time and only learned of it when I made a payment on XX/XX/XXXX through the lenders app. After making the payment I received a pop up alerting me the vehicle had been repossessed. 

I called the lender and the woman I spoke to in the repossessions department confirmed my account was current and in good standing and she noted I was actually one month ahead ; something I did in case I ran into an issue with a future payment. She confirmed I had the full and proper insurance and did a full review of my account with me on the phone finding it was and has always been in good standing furthermore she stated it must have been an error as she could not find a reason it would have been repossessed. 

After speaking with her manager she realized they had received a notice from the tow yard that it was in their yard and subject to sale for unpaid towing and recovery fees so they repossessed it with out attempting to contact me in any way shape or form to learn why it would have been left abandoned at a tow yard and provide me a chance to recover it from the tow yard. 

I will now have an involuntary repossession on my credit reports defaming my charter before current and future lenders ; banks or other finical institutions. 

They have provided me with multiple different charges to pay to redeem my vehicle. First was just over {$2000.00}, second was over {$600.00}, third was equal to one months payment yet on the app they show three different repossession related charges totaling {$3800.00}. They have also backed out all my payments from my account and have raised the account total. According to what they told me I had already paid approximately {$2500.00} towards the purchase of this vehicle plus an additional down payment of {$4000.00} cash and I had a remaining balance of just over {$13000.00}. Original balance was {$14000.00} it now shows a new balance of {$14000.00}. Balance owed should be {$13000.00}. 

According to the repossession company the vehicle was repossessed on XX/XX/XXXX and delivered directly to a scrap yard for auction and per the lender is scheduled for auction on XX/XX/XXXX. Not even 30 days from repossession date. Being it went to an auto dismantler that uses heavy fork lifts to move vehicles around causing damage to the under carriage, oil & transmission pans as well as suspension , XXXX XXXX bumpers and rocker panels I fully expect it to be damaged and/or parts striped from it. 

I have spoken with an attorney about taking legal action against my landlord over this issue and the law firm pointed out this would be a wrongfully repossession since I was not in arrears and in good standing ; as they jumped the gun and repossessed it with out attempting to contact me to go pick it up or to learn why it may have been impounded. 

If I had known it was towed or they contacted me I would have most certainly made arrangements to have it returned to my property. As I am still out of the state I would have hired a tow company to pick up and return it to my apartment. 

I have asked the lender for arbitration and they refused ; I asked that they report it as a voluntary repossession which would lessen the damage to my reputation ; they refused ; I suggested a mutual release agreement where they would agree to remove this from my credit reports and not take any collections actions against me and in return I would agree not to pursue legal action against them ; this they too refused. 

They reused all my attempts to resolve this and said they will wrongfully record it as I refused to redeem it. They also keep saying I have agreed to make certain payments towards their unreasonable repossession fees ; this is not the case I have not agreed to any additional payments and have disenrolled from their auto pay system : I have attached what I have been able to access from my payment history and you will see on XX/XX/XXXX past due was {$0.00} then the repo fess appear above that with different totals then I was given over the phone and they can not tell what the " repo repair fees '' are or as there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and aspare key was inside the lower center console.