What to do regarding a totaled car with 48 payments left?
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What to do regarding a totaled car with 48 payments left?
A friend’s husband wrecked her car; he was an un licensed driver and an
Asked on January 11, 2019 under Accident Law, Pennsylvania
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
She doesn't reallty have any rights or options and must pay the remaining 48 months which she owes.
1) A financing agreement for a car is a contract. The car's buyer owes all the money due under the agreement so long as the financing compnay has not committed fraud (did not lie about something material or important to get her to finance the car) and has not breached the terms of the agreement in a material way (e.g. by failing to pay the dealership, so that the car was repossessed).
2) What happens to the car has no effect on the obligation to pay the financing. Even if totalled or stolen, the buyer has to pay.
3) If her husband was unlicensed and excluded, then the insurer does not have to pay: the exclusion specifically, contractually states that they don't, and also, in letting an unlicensed driver drive, she breached her obligations under the insurance contract, and that breach let's the insurer avoid paying her.
So she owes the money, and has no grounds to make the insurer pay.
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