Posted by Tony-VA on October 01, 2002 at 15:30:41:
To clarify. In VA, I would file the warrant to get the defaulted buyer into court. Then I would present my promissory note/ security agreement. The judge would ask the buyer if they owed me what the warrant said. When/if they said yes, he found for my company and gave us possession of the home. I still had to evict the tenant, unless they left on their own accord or we came to terms privately. If not, I had to utilize the Sheriff’s office. Each county’s procedure varied so I am being a bit broad here, but this is the jist of the procedure.
I wanted the judge to give me possession of homes, and had even gone through this procedure when homes were abandoned (if they still had personal property inside). The attorney felt that this was fine but not absolutely necessary.
Please understand that I am not saying you do not need to go to court. You do.
As far as getting what we called a “repo title” for the home, DMV here never asked to see any court papers etc. They just checked to see that we were the listed lienholder and if we said we were repossessing the home we paid a few bucks and the reissued the title in our name. Again, this is not necessarily how your state will conduct business. In fact I am not sure it is a wise way to conduct business. But since I did have the court order, it would not have been a problem if they asked for proof.
In summary,
Learn your local court procedures (see below)
Go to court
Get possession of the home
Work with buyer to get them to move out or
Get Sheriff involved for formal eviction
There can be some technicalities to work through here so check with your clerk of the court to see how to go about it in your area.
The best advice I can give you is this. Spend a day in court and watch how others are conducting their day in court. See where each party stands, what they say, what the judge asks and what documents he asks to see. This will take away the mystery and establish a comfort level for you.
Also watch the attornies and see who performs their job well. Then at a break ask for his/her card. Call their office and setup an initial consultation to discuss the repossession/eviction process with them. This worked very, very well for me. It cost very little and now I had an attorney that I could call in quickly who understood my business and it’s quirks should I ever need him. Best money I spent because it was spent BEFORE I made mistakes.
If MH is “Lonnie deal”, a possible “slip” to the repo process…
Use POA to file for repossession title with titling agency (in MI, MH’s are titled as personal property)
Immediately begin eviction process??? by slapping a 7 day Notice to Quit on their door
If not out in 7 days or paid up, file the Summons and Complaint (not in General Civil but in Landlord-Tenant?)
IMPORTANT - Will the judge rule in our favor if he sees this POA was used to “slip” the repo process? OR if he sees we went to get a repo title, what will he do?
Wait the ten days after judgement, then get the Writ of Restitution
Finally, have the deadbeats thrown out by the local sheriff a few days after the Writ has been issued
All contingent on MH deadbeats not wanting a friendly repo. Any advice would be appreciative…
BTW, how is life treating you on the outside of the big company…
Re: Repossession and POA’s for JHyre - Posted by JHyre in Ohio
Posted by JHyre in Ohio on October 03, 2002 at 07:47:17:
As Tony pointed out, some courts will not explore the legalities…they just ask “did you pay”, and if the answer is “No”, they say “Get out”. In that case, the title slip shouldn’t hurt you. If, on the other hand, the court follows the actual legal procedures, you have a problem, because you are filing to evict a tenant, whereas you should be filing to rpossess personal property - the two procedures are similar, but distinct. You’d have to refile at least, and a judge might hold the attempt to slip the process against you. Most of the people who use the PoA to get title back do so once the home is abandoned, because no one is likely to challenge it. If the person is still in the home, a challenge becomes more likely. Given that this is a profoundly local issue, you need to talk to local, specialized counsel about this & have them look at your contracts while you’re at it.
Posted by Tony-VA on October 01, 2002 at 13:31:49:
Just a comment on #4. The judge will be looking at the documentation that you or the defendent give as evidence. The defendent does not have the title (if you Lonnie deals by the book), and their is no need for you to show the title in court.
What we enter into evidence is the original promissory note/security agreement. In VA, we file the warrant in detinue which states how much the owe and that we are seeking possession of the home (and the description of the home).
In a nutshell the judge askes the buyer if they owe us money. They have always admitted that they did, and then the judge gave us possession. We then followed up with the Sheriff. The process will vary not only by state but also by county so check your local court.
As for the title, this is a document that remains in your possession. Each states DMV will differ no procedure I imagine, but most seem to just provide you the repo title when, as the lienholder, you tell them you have repossessed the home. Most clerks are not familiar with mobile homes so they revert to the car repo process. I too was suprised as I never once was asked for any proof that I had legal possession of the home.
VA law has some statutes that make the repossession process possible if it can be done with out force. Again, this is typically associated with vehicle repossession. Despite my attorney’s assurance that it was not absolutely necessary to go through the court to repossess, I always went through the court to have the judge give me possession just the same.
Again, I am not an attorney and your court will likely vary but I would be suprised that a judge would want to see the title at all.
Re: Repossession and POA’s for JHyre - Posted by Tony-VA
Posted by Tony-VA on October 03, 2002 at 08:13:52:
I should have clarified that I do NOT use a power of attorney to repossess the title. One has never been required by my DMV, so long as I was the lienholder and stated that I had repossessed the home.
It should also be clear that the title and the court repossession are two separate and destinct event. I first went to court and obtained possession of the home from the judge. I then worked with the defaulting buyers to get them to leave peaceful or I pursued a formal eviction (it should be noted that most times the mobile home park simulatenously file eviction for back lot rent, so my evicting was not necessary).
Once the judge gave me possession of the home and the defaulting buyer was evicted or left voluntarily, then I took over the home, changed the locks and THEN I WENT TO DMV and received the repo title.
Thanks for the advice. This is our first repossession and we are learning a TON with it. We have done only 6 homes so far this year and like the business, but WOW do you have to stay on top of these folks…
Just for clarification…Did you mean that your lawyer said you did not need to go to the courts to get possession? Does this mean that we could go to the SOS (in VA it is the DMV), file for repossession of title, get title, slap a 7-day Notice To Quit on their door, file the Summons and Complaint with the Landlord-Tenent court (much easier than the General Civil) to get a judgement, and then evict with the help of the sheriff after 10 days?
In Michigan, we can not get an eviction from a place of residence without first going in front of judge, waiting the 10 days after the judgement for payment or appeal by the defendant, then getting the Writ of Restitution to have the sheriff throw their tails out on the street.
It almost sounds as if you are saying, that in VA, you just have to get possession of the home, then prove this to a judge to issue a Warrant, and then getting the friendly Smokies to remove the deadbeats…
Let me know if I missunderstood and thanks for all the great posts…they have always been immensley helpful.