household furnishings secured with Citifinancial
April 24th, 2006 by Questions
Hi,
I had to declare bankruptcy and all is underway except that citifinancial is saying that it is secured and that I owe them still, I understand that except that on the loan it says Misc personal and the form I filled out years ago when I got the loan, states, VCR, TV, Bed etc, nothing specific and no value to them per say, ALSO I have a roommate who owns way more than I do in the house, my question is, what are my options, can they seize HER stuff, also at the time I own one TV and on the loan it says one TV, now I own two, can they seize both? Lastly I had an old beater car as asset for them, the car died years ago,what can they do? Thanks for your help
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April 27, 2006 at 11:05 am, A licensed trustee said:
Here’s the short answer: if when you borrowed from CitiFinancial you agreed to pledge some of your possessions as security for the loan then Citi Financial has the right to either the items listed as security or their fair market value. There’s no way around this as it formed the basis for the loan and presumably you took the money.
The longer answer: Citi is entitled to the items on the list or the items fair value. If the descriptions on the list are not sufficeint to clearly identify the items pledged as collateral you might argue that there are deficiencies in their documentation. If you have thrown out or otherwise disposed of an item then arguably it’s fair value is NIL. If you sold an item then Citi should be entitled to whatever you sold the item for (unless they want to argue that you sold it for less than its fair value).
The thrust of the “long answer” is that there may be ways to dispute Citi Financial’s security, BUT if you do so be prepared for a fight. Citi Financial has rights and if you decide to take them to war they might just decide to fight back. At the end of the day if Citi Financial wins in Court, the Court may add Citi Financial’s legal bill to the amount that you owe and that may be a very BIG number.
Our best advice, deal with Citi Financial fairly – offer to surrender the items listed as security or offer to settle with them for the items fair value. The simplest solution is to simply tell them to come and take the stuff – who knows, they may decide it is not worth the trouble.