You have been missing car payments. Ever since you lost your job, you just cannot find a way to make those payments on time. You have to make paying rent and keeping food on the table a priority; you have kids, after all, and you need to care for them.
However, as much as you know that you’re making the right decision, you feel worried that they’re going to come and repossess your car. You have been out going to interviews, turning in applications, handing out resumes and trying to get another job in Gregg County. You can’t do that without your car. It’s a serious worry for you and your family.
So, where can they take your car from? What do you need to know about repossession? Here are a few places people tend to keep their cars and the repossession laws:
On the street
If you park your car on the street, they can repossess it. It does not matter if it is right in front of your house or even if you put it on a side street, rather than the main street. If they have a legal right to take it, they can get it in that situation.
Your garage
They cannot, however, take the car out of your garage. It does not matter how much you owe or how many payments you missed. It is illegal to break into a private residence and take a vehicle. Keeping it in the garage 100% of the time means they cannot repossess it — though it also means you can’t drive it, so it’s something of a catch-22.
In a parking lot
If they cannot get your car from your home, since you keep it in the garage and never park on the street, they may consider following you and towing it from a public area. For instance, if you leave it in a parking lot while you go shopping or go to a job interview, they can repossess it. You may come out and find that your car is gone.
A parking garage
Yes, they can take the car out of a parking garage. The protections you get from a garage only apply when it is your own personal garage. If it’s a parking garage downtown, that’s just another public space, like a parking lot. They can repossess your car.
What can you do?
As you can see, repossession can happen almost anywhere. Rather than trying to hide your car or keep it from them, the best thing you can do is to learn about bankruptcy and the other legal options you have to get back on track financially.
