There is little more disheartening than finding out that your car has been repossessed. It is likely that you count on your car for getting to work every day, going grocery shopping, and going out to meet friends. When your car is taken away from you, so is your freedom, and you will feel powerless to change that.
It is important to understand the law when it comes to repossession so that you can figure out whether you have been a victim of wrongful repossession. There are many protections in place for debtors like you, so if the repossession agency broke any of these regulations, they might have acted unlawfully.
How do I know if my car has been wrongfully repossessed?
Repossession is the act of the creditor (the person who is providing the car to you on a loan) deciding to take back one’s property, because you, as the debtor, have broken the terms of the contract. The most common way to break the terms of the contract is by not making the repayments on the car loan.
Although the creditors have the legal right to be able to repossess their property when the terms of the contract have been breached, this does not mean that they can do anything that they want. Perhaps you have reason to believe that the terms of the contract were not, in fact, breached. Alternatively, they might have otherwise broken the law in order to retrieve their property. This is referred to as breaching the peace.
What is breaching the peace?
If a creditor is trying to repossess your car, this gives the entity the right to do so, without breaking the law in the process. However, if you have parked your car on private property such as in your garage, and a creditor breaks into your property in order to retrieve the car, the party would be committing an illegal act.
If you believe that you have had your car wrongfully repossessed in Minnesota, it is important that you consider all aspects of the situation and that you can identify which action was wrongful in your eyes. This will improve the chances of a successful claim.
