Expert: David - 4/2/2009

Question
Hi, I have a question about Ch7 Bankruptcy and a Auto Lease:

I filed for Ch7 BK in 5/2008 and at the time had a 2006 Altima leased through NMAC. I assumed the lease, but about three months later I got behind in payments and could no longer keep up. I received several notices from NMAC that "this is not a demand for payment", they were voluntary reminders to continue payments.

Not the best move on my part but I didn't contact NMAC until 2/2009 to have them take the vehicle, partly because I didn't know what to do and also because I was trying to get money together to make up for the missed payments. My lease ended in 4/2009, so I missed about 10 months of payments.

My question is could I still be sued for a deficency balance? The vehicle has now been returned, has some minor cosmetic damage and is below the mileage alloted for the lease. My big concern is wage garnishment - how likely are my wages to be garnished, and if so how long would it generally take before this process takes place. A month or more, or likely to be over 6 months from now?

Thank You.

Answer
David,

I am not an attorney so I can't speak to your options with them under the BK protection.  I can tell you that most of my clients that let a car go into repossession were sued for judgement and eventually had wage garnishment put into place.

I would call the attorney that did your BK and explain this to him and see if he has an idea.  Then, if your ready to turn things around and start over let me know and I'll help you in my area of expertise, credit repair.

David McArthur
www.financialscoringsolutions.com
219-718-8566