Apologies for following long winded detailed situation. My Brother purchased an expensive vehicle just before he was diagnosed with early onset dementia. He is currently living in an assisted living facility in Lousiana and loaned his truck to an estranged sister-in-law to move household goods to North Carolina. The truck is in NC with no way to get it back to Lousiana. Since he can longer drive, family members (who are across the country from Lousiana and NC) are looking for options to dispose of the truck and stop the $800.00 monthly vehicle payment that is draining his limited finances. We have considered voluntary repossession by the bank who holds the loan but have been having problems contacting the bank.We just don’t know the possibility of doing that and what the pros/cons are if it is indeed a possibility. We have also considered privately selling it but long distance transactions make it difficult. Has anyone dealt with anything similar?Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
What does "The truck is in NC with no way to get it back to Louisiana." mean? Your estranged SIL will not return it? No one wants to take a bus to NC to recover the truck? Or you're unwilling to engage a recovery/repo professional if SIL will not surrender her free transportation?
Who is your brother's POA?
The first step is probably getting a copy of the title from LA. In my home state you can get a title copy for $15 in any county clerk's office. The title should identify the lien holder, who POA can contact, determine the pay off amount on the truck and how open the lien holder is to having the truck surrendered for the outstanding balance or balance minus some fee. Make _sure_ the POA gets any agreement in writing before any surrender. It's possible the POA could arrange for the surrender in NC if the lien holder does business there too.
Second step is the POA sending a demand letter (or have an attorney send it) requiring SIL to return the truck to a detailing shop in either NC or LA within 10 days and informing her any recovery costs required by her non-compliance will be her responsibility. If needed the POA can engage a recovery specialist to pickup the truck, document it's state and deliver it to a detailing shop clean it up for resale or surrender. Ask the detailing shop to document the truck's condition after cleanup too. Knowing how much surrendering the truck to the lien holder will cost, the POA may decide to see if the detailing shop or the recovery specialist would be willing to act as an agent to sell it for a fee (maybe $500) or just surrender it to the lien holder.
if you can’t contact the bank, there’s little you can do.
the only problem with selling it is, if he needs Medicaid to pay for his long term care within the next few years. If the car is sold, you will have to sell it at market value and document how the money was spent on him.