Can The Repo Man Find My Car In Another State? (Find Out Whether your car can be Found by the Repo Man!)

Last Updated on January 16, 2023 by Leepu Da Maxim

Well, a Repo man can find your car in another state but it mostly depends on the proper legal authority of the Repo man and whether it can comply with the state laws.

Key Takeaways

• If the car is parked on the street in front of the debtor’s home then the Repo man can repossess the car without notice
• The Repo man must check the laws in the state where the car is located because in the USA laws and regulations regarding repossession vary by state
• In most cases, the repo man can use GPS-tracking devices to locate the vehicle if payments are not made
• Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras can easily recognize license plates and allows the repo man to locate a specific car on the road easily

Repo Man Ways To Find A Car

Ways	Description
Order In Another State	Vehicles that have a GPS tracking device inside the vehicle provide their location in real-time so that repossession agents can easily find the car.
Car At Debtor’s Home	When the car is parked on the street in front of the debtor’s home, recovery agents can repossess the car without notice.
Car A Few Blocks From Debtor’s Home	People who park the car within a few blocks of the debtor make it easier for repossession agents to find the car because they know this technique.
Commute To Work	People who use the car to go to work are tracked by repossession agents, no matter where they go.
Repo Man Costs	Repo man costs are always paid by the debtor and they are charged for each day they provide their services.

How Long Will Repo Man Look For A Car?

When a lender decides to hire repossession agents to repossess a vehicle, this means that the vehicle will be repossessed. In this case, repossession agents can take as long as it takes to find the vehicle. However, these repossession agents know a lot of techniques to effectively find a vehicle.

Also, the experience of these people makes it very easy to find a car that needs to be repossessed. So, people who repossess a vehicle always tend to use a very limited set of actions. Some people simply go in a car in a private garage or a few blocks away from the place where they live. In this way, the vehicle can be found very easily.

However, some people might think that traveling to another state is an efficient way to avoid having a car repossessed. In this type of situation, repossession agents may take longer to find the car that is in another state. Either way, repossession agents always end up finding the car no matter where it is located.

Even they can take as much time as necessary since they don’t exactly charge for finding the car. Here, recovery agents charge their services for each day they work to find a vehicle.

So, if it takes them many days to find a vehicle they are not hurting themselves at all. That is why a person traveling to another state with a vehicle to be repossessed is not solving the problem.

On the contrary, traveling to another state with these vehicles could be a great disadvantage to the same person. In particular, as time goes on repossession agents will continue to charge such persons for each day they provide their services. Also, the law protects creditors from having to pay the cost of the repossession agents themselves.

In this case, the debtor himself will have to bear the costs of the recovery agents. Thus, hiding a vehicle in another state only continues to hurt the same debtor. This only increases the total debt initiated with the loan requested to pay for the same vehicle. Therefore, it is preferable to turn the vehicle over to the repossession agents.

However, once the vehicle is repossessed the debtor has some possibilities in his favor. In these cases, the vehicle can be repossessed by the debtor through full payment of the debt. When the lender wishes to sell the vehicle, then this can completely cancel the loan debt. 

Some vehicles may even have a GPS tracking device inside the vehicle. Many dealerships today choose to implement these types of accessories for easy repossession of a vehicle. Of course, these GPS tracking devices are included when a person applies for a car loan.

Can The Repo Man Track Your Car?

Nowadays, a large number of people who have decided to buy a car through financing cannot always pay off the loan. In these cases, the lender can take legal action and repossess the car through repossession. That is why the repossession people will try to find the vehicle no matter where it is located.

Repossession of a vehicle leads to a huge defect on a person’s credit report for 7 years. Thus, it is always necessary not to get into this situation. These car repossession agents have certain techniques to be able to find a vehicle. 

1. Start Of Vehicle Recovery 

For a vehicle repossession to begin, a set of arrears on a loan are required. Thus, most states have enacted laws that allow a creditor to repossess the car at the desired time. In turn, no prior notice is required for them to enter an address as stated by the Federal Trade Commission.

The start of vehicle repossession depends on the exact payment history with a particular lender. In many instances, immediate repossession does not occur when a person misses a payment. So, with good payment history, it may take two or three missed payments before repossession begins.

However, in some situations, it only takes one missed payment for repossession to begin. This can of course happens due to bad payment history. It could also happen that the lender takes advantage of the situation to repossess the vehicle. Many lenders do this to have the possibility to resell the same vehicle to someone else.

In particular, some lenders grant the possibility of a 30-day payment extension. The confusion for many people here is that they believe that the 30 days starts from the day the lender grants the extension. On the contrary, this 30-day extension for payment starts from the due date. So, this confusion may allow some people to fall behind again.

2. The Action Of The Repo Man

In this case, it is necessary to consider that lenders do not take care of repossessing a vehicle themselves. Lenders must hire repossession agents that are licensed by the state. Hiding a vehicle from repossession agents is much more difficult due to the vast experience they possess.

In principle, repossession agents will be able to know every piece of information about the debtor, such as the debtor’s home address. So, the first place where they will start the search is with the person’s home address. In case the vehicle is parked in front of the debtor’s house, repossession can be carried out without any prior notice. 

If the vehicle is on a public road the repossession agents do not have to ask for permission to seize the car. On the other hand, when the vehicle is in a garage or private parking lot, repossession agents must request permission from the owner. This may be necessary if the garage door is not open.

Additionally, recovery agents know how to implement detective work when it comes to finding a certain car. So, these agents could be waiting several hours outside the debtor’s home. When the debtor uses the car to go shopping or to go to work, upon returning the debtor may find that his or her car has been taken.

Another method used is to search the streets parallel to and near the debtor’s home. Many people try to park a vehicle two or three blocks from their home to avoid repossession agents. In any case, the experience of repossession agents is sufficient to easily detect cars in these situations.

Finally, a large number of vehicles that require financing may include some GPS tracking. In particular, this technique is widely used by dealers to be able to more easily find a vehicle. In this way, repossession agents will know this data and will always be able to know the true location of the care they need to repossess.

At the same time, repossession agents do not work for free, so they have a certain fee. In particular, they charge for each day of work regardless of whether they find the vehicle or not. Thus, recovery agents do not get too stressed when it takes several days to find a car. Even here the worst part is that the repossession agents’ costs are not paid by the lender.

When repossession agent costs pile up, the debtor will have to bear these costs. So, as time goes on and a person successfully hides a vehicle, they will only be hurting themselves. As it takes recovery agents longer to find the vehicle, the only one who is harmed is the debtor. 

References:

https://www.quora.com/Can-a-repossession-agent-repossess-your-car-in-another-state

https://getoutofdebt.org/17261/can-my-lender-repossess-my-car-in-another-state