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Vehicle Levies

By Mark Shapiro

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Published: 31Jan2012
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I am not an attorney, I am a Judgment Broker. This article is my opinion, from my California experiences, and laws are different in every state. If you ever want a strategy to use or legal advice, please contact an attorney.

A classic method to enforce judgments is requesting a Sheriff to garnish a debtor's vehicle, which might be a truck, car, motorcycle, etc.

Garnishing a debtor's vehicle could get difficult and risky for a few reasons:

1) It takes a large sum of money to request a Sheriff levy and sell a debtor's vehicle. If you don't have significant of gambling dollars to gamble, it's best not to attempt this.

2) A sale might not make any sense. The debtor's vehicle might not have sufficient equity left due to previous loans or leases.

Other considerations and expenses are the imperfect market (a forced sale) at Sheriff auction sales, State exemptions, and the expenses involved having to pay the Sheriff to levy, place in storage, and sell at auction, the debtor's vehicle.

Especially when you don't estimate all the costs first, you could certainly lose money trying to levy a debtor's vehicle.

3) The Sheriff will usually not search for concealed vehicles, and won't break locks or force entry into a locked area, unless they have a new court order instructing them to do so.

One must explain the vehicle in detail to the Sheriff, exactly where it is parked, and the license plate number. The Sheriff, usually makes only a few attempts to levy the vehicle for the initial fee.

4) One cannot legally threaten anyone. Because of laws, particularly in California, usually one should avoid communicating to a debtor that one plans to request a Sheriff to levy their vehicle.

In California, the best legal way for a judgment owner to request the Sheriff to levy the debtor's vehicle, is with a surprise.

Losing their vehicle may cause a big reaction with the debtor. In the best case, that reaction might be to pay the Sheriff or you to call off the levy.

There is also the chance their reaction could be irrational. Many debtors count on their vehicles for transportation to go shopping, or to work, or to take children to school.

Before you try to levy a debtor's vehicle, try a wage or bank levy first.

After you do the homework, you might decide to buy a writ, and then request the Sheriff to levy the debtor's vehicle. The debtor might respond by filing their claim of exemption.

If your debtor files for bankruptcy, whatever money you spent will likely be wasted.

One might hear from the debtor, after they attempt to file a theft report on their vehicle, and learn what happened, or if they witness the Sheriff towing their vehicle.

Sometimes a debtor may contact you, to make arrangements to get their vehicle back s quickly as possible, and that could be the best chance to make a deal. Remember, what you paid the Sheriff and the court, is gone.

For every 3 debtors who claimthey'll file for bankruptcy, usually 1 really does. Listen to the judgment debtor, then return to your office and check on PACER.

If the auction with the Sheriff goes through, make sure to contact the Sheriff's office and make note of what is needed. In California, the Sheriff usually sends one the notice of the sale auction, with the price of the opening bid.

Attend the auction, to protect your interests. If you do not show up, someone might purchase the vehicle at the opening bid price. If that happens, you would get nothing - and you'll lose whatever you had to pay for storage fees.

In California, you attends the auction with certified funds (see CCP 701.590), for a minimum opening bid, that is the total of the liens, and the debtor's exemption.

One may credit bid for anything above the opening bid (which can include the debtor's claimed exemption), to help keep the bidding price up, up to the amount itemized on the writ for the judgment.

Unlike EBay, fierce bidding is very rare at Sheriff auctions. Often, there are just a few bidders at the sale.

Sheriff's sales are rarely advertised well. The law simply requires the Sheriff to place a flyer in a public location, for example a post office or a grocery store. One could do their own advertising and attempt to attract more bidders.

When you aren't the winning bidder, the Sheriff does the math, deducts expenses, takes their cut, and eventually sends you a check.

When you're the winning bidder, you may sell the vehicle or keep it. If you sell it, you need to pay more, to get the vehicle ready to sell.

When you are the assignee of record, you need to choose if you'll split any possible profits with your original judgment creditor.

Many enforcers don't split any vehicle levy profits, as they don't get to split any expenses of a vehicle levy, or the risks of losing everything they spent; with the original judgment creditor.

http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - where Debts and judgments quickly get enforced by an expert - matched for free to your debtor. Mark Shapiro, offering the best no obligation free leads for collection agencies, enforcers, and contingency collection lawyers.

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