Is It Possible To Loan A Vehicle And Register It In Maine

In a Nutshell

Repossession is the process of taking back a car after the owner defaults on their automobile loan. Each state has different laws and regulations that dictate every step of the repossession process from start to finish. This page will provide an overview of Maine'southward Repossession Laws and what y'all should know if you've fallen behind on car payments.

How Many Payments Can I Miss Without Risking a Repossession in Maine?
- Will I Be Notified Before the Repossession? How?
- How Can I Forbid a Repossession?
- Should I Exercise a Voluntary Repossession if I Tin't Make the Payments?
What Can Repo Companies in Maine Do?
- What Most the Personal Property in My Car?
What Happens Later on a Repossession in Maine?
- Should I Demand the Creditor Sell the Car if the Lender Decides To Keep It?
- Do I Even so Owe Later on a Repossession in Maine?
Tin I Get My Car Back Afterwards a Repossession in Maine?
Where Can I Find More Information About Repossession Laws in Maine?

When you lot finance a motor vehicle, you sign a contract with the lender and hope to brand payments until the vehicle is paid off. If you don't make your payments equally agreed, the lender has the right to have the auto dorsum. That's because the lender has a security involvement in the loan, and the car is the collateral. In other words, the loan is secured by your motorcar. The process of the lender taking your automobile back is called repossession.

Maine has laws and regulations that govern debt collection and lay out the procedures the lender must follow for repossession. These laws as well establish your rights during the repossession process.

How Many Payments Can I Miss Without Risking a Repossession in Maine?

Maine law states that 10 days after you miss a auto payment, the creditor can send you a letter explaining its intention and correct to repossess your vehicle. The letter will tell you how much you must pay and when you must pay it to keep your vehicle. If yous miss this deadline, your car may be repossessed at any point after that.

Will I Be Notified Before the Repossession? How?

Creditors in Maine mail you a letter of the alphabet x days after you miss your car payment. The letter will contain the post-obit:

The proper name, address, and telephone number of the creditor you need to make the payment to.
A brief identification of the credit transaction, which basically explains the loan you take defaulted on and the car they plan to take back.
The amount you lot need to pay and when you need to pay it to cure the default.
Notice that they may repossess the motor vehicle.

It's important to note that the creditor is only legally required to send yous this notice once in a 12-calendar month period. In other words, if you receive this letter then pay the amount as requested in the alphabetic character, but six months later yous miss some other payment, the creditor isn't required to post you another notice before repossessing the vehicle.

How Can I Prevent a Repossession?

The best way to forbid a car repossession is to be careful when yous first buy a vehicle. Don't agree to a payment that'south a stretch for your budget. Merely if you're already in a car loan contract, yous may run into unexpected financial challenges. In that causes, yous can prevent having your Maine motor vehicle repossessed by:

Paying the corporeality due: Pay the amount listed in the notice the creditor mails yous once your payment is 10 days late. This may not be possible if you're experiencing fiscal hardship. In that case, contact the lender.
Contacting the lender: Your lender may be willing to change the terms of your loan agreement or lower your monthly payments to an corporeality you tin beget, but you need to accomplish out to them and be proactive if you lot anticipate missing a payment.
Filing bankruptcy: Filing either a Affiliate 13 defalcation or a Chapter 7 bankruptcy may be able to stop or delay a repossession.
Purchasing wisely: When initially financing your vehicle, wait for low interest rates and make a downwardly payment, if possible. Also, don't trade vehicles often if you can help it. These precautions volition assist you keep your payments depression and prevent you lot from being upside-down on your loan.

Should I Do a Voluntary Repossession if I Can't Make the Payments?

When you know y'all can't go along to brand the payments on your motor vehicle, you may cull to return information technology to the creditor or dealership that sold it to yous. While this will likely still have a negative impact on your credit score, there are some advantages to voluntary repossession, including:

You won't have to pay the costs of having your machine repossessed. This tin can lower a potential deficiency balance.
Y'all get to control when and how the motorcar is returned to the lender.
You lot avoid having your friends and neighbors witness your car being repossessed.
Y'all may be able to lessen the negative bear upon on your credit report.

What Can Repo Companies in Maine Do?

Creditors utilize companies that specialize in vehicle repossession to take back cars when owners don't make their payments. In Maine, these repossession companies are allowed to go on your property and accept possession of the car in one case your loan is in default and your lender has given the required discover. The repo companies don't need a court social club to repossess your machine if they tin do and so without a breach of the peace. This means they can't break locks or use force to repossess the vehicle. Y'all're also non allowed to alienation the peace or use force to prevent the repossession agents from taking the motor vehicle.

The country of Maine also requires that repo companies be licensed as debt collectors through the Maine Agency of Consumer Protection.

What Nearly the Personal Belongings in My Automobile?

If there's a adventure that your motorcar may exist repossessed, you lot should remove all of your personal holding. If you don't, and the car is repossessed, yous tin can still get your belongings back. The laws in Maine are clear that the repo company must inventory whatever unsecured property left in the motor vehicle and immediately notify you that the belongings will be made available in a fashion convenient to you.

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What Happens After a Repossession in Maine?

Maine constabulary states that a creditor must requite y'all reasonable written find of the fourth dimension and place of the auction of the vehicle if the sale is public. If it'due south individual, yous must be notified of the date after which the machine will be sold. Information technology'south upwardly to the lender whether to sell the car in a individual sale or at a public auction. If you don't experience you lot were given a reasonable corporeality of observe, you can consult an attorney to meet if it's worth suing the lender.

If you've paid threescore% or more of the greenbacks price of the car or the balance on the loan, your creditor must sell the vehicle within xc days. If you lot've paid less than 60%, the lender can cull to keep the vehicle. They must notify y'all if they make up one's mind to go on it. You can object to this and insist the creditor sell the vehicle.

Every aspect of the vehicle'due south sale must exist commercially reasonable, which means the lender must sell it in a fair and appropriate manner. For example, if the automobile sells for significantly less than fair market value, it may not be considered commercially reasonable.

Should I Need the Creditor Sell the Car if the Lender Decides To Keep It?

If the car is worth more than you still owe on the loan, information technology's in your best interest to deny the creditor's request to go on your motor vehicle. But keep in listen that the car may withal sell for less than what you lot owe.

Creditors in Maine are allowed to utilise the auction proceeds to pay for the costs of the repossession so long as they're reasonable. This includes storage fees and costs to prepare for the sale. Subsequently that, the gain are applied to your loan balance. If the proceeds don't pay off the repo costs and your loan debt, you'll be responsible for the deficiency residuum.

Allow'south say, for instance, that you owe $seven,000 on your motor vehicle (including creditor's repossession costs) and the machine sells for $4,000. The $3,000 difference is the deficiency remainder. There's an important exception though. If your initial car loan was $2,800 or less, the creditor tin can't pursue you for the deficiency residuum. If the repossessed vehicle brings in more at the auction than you owed, the lender must give y'all the surplus.

Do I Still Owe After a Repossession in Maine?

Having your car repossessed doesn't mean you lot no longer owe on the loan. In fact, you may owe more than just the balance of the loan. That's because the lender adds the costs of repossessing the car to your loan remainder. If the car doesn't bring in plenty coin at sale to cover all these expenses plus the loan corporeality, y'all have to pay this deficiency residual.

While a voluntary repossession won't eliminate the possibility of a deficiency remainder, it can aid reduce information technology.

Tin I Go My Car Back After a Repossession in Maine?

Co-ordinate to state law, you have the right to redeem your car any time earlier it's sold. To redeem the car, y'all have to pay off the entire loan balance plus any of the lender's reasonable fees and costs for repossession. If you have the money bachelor to pay the loan balance plus the reasonable fees, achieve out to your lender as shortly as possible and ask what you need to do to redeem your vehicle. Brand sure y'all have them send you everything y'all agree to in writing.

Where Tin I Notice More Data Virtually Repossession Laws in Maine?

The Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection has information on financing a vehicle and how to avert repossession.
Pine Tree Legal Assistance has self-help information and provides free legal services for depression-income individuals.
Information on vehicle repossessions from Maine Legal Services for the Elderly.

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