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The Car Dealer Stole My Down Payment or Trade In - Legal Rights - Whitney, LLP - YouTube
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hi this is dan whitney with the whitney
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law firm in towson maryland
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today we're going to talk about the car
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dealer stole my down payment
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so the question is why would a car
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dealer steal somebody's down payment
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do they hate their customers maybe more
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likely they're just greedy
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and the fact is they think they can
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simply get away with stealing the down
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payment
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so i've sued many car dealerships here
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in maryland
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and they are capable of anything one of
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the
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most significant problems that
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my clients run into here in maryland is
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that dealers
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will steal a down payment and they'll
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also sell trade-ins
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when financing is not approved and then
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they leave the customer holding the bag
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and they say we're not going to give
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your down payment back or we've already
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sold your trade-in you're not going to
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get it back
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and customers have no idea what to do
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it's such a terrible situation it's
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completely illegal it's totally unfair
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yet many dealers do this now
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in maryland there's something called a
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spot delivery and
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what a spot delivery simply means is a
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car was delivered to a customer
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by a dealer delivery meaning the
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customer took possession
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the car was delivered in a sense on the
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spot
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and financing has not yet been finally
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approved
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so why is that important well if
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financing is not
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finally approved that means of course it
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may fall through and if financing falls
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through
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that means that the customer is not
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going to be able to finance that car
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with the bank
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and what the dealer is probably going to
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do is you're going to call up the
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customer and say hey bring the car back
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the deal fell apart you know we need our
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car back and
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that's it now in maryland when
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a dealer finds out that financing has
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not been approved
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they have four days from the time of
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delivery
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to notify the customer in writing that
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financing has not been approved
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a notice is also required to be given to
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customers
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at the time of delivery uh if financing
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has not been finally approved at the
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time of delivery
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laying out the customers rights it's
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generally called a spot delivery notice
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and what the notice sets forth is the
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customer's right
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to be notified within four days whether
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or not
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financing has been approved or if it has
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not been approved um
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and if not the customer has the right as
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soon as they return that vehicle to the
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dealer
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they're entitled to immediately and
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that's in law
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immediately get back their down payment
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and their trade and they get back
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100 of the down payment now
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dealers uh almost never provide written
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notice within four days
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customers usually find out two three
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four weeks sometimes it could even be
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months
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uh they find out that financing has not
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been approved now why is that a problem
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that's a problem because in really in
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the scope of a week if somebody turns a
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trade-in in
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they still have their tags and of course
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well at least in maryland if you don't
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turn in your license plate
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um you're going to start getting fined
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if the car is no longer insured
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so people trade their car in they think
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financing is done they turn their plates
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into the mba
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and then when they get a call from the
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dealer saying hey come get your trade
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they say well i've already turned in my
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tags i thought everything was done you
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told me financing was approved
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and the dealer says true to form
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whatever i don't care just come get your
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car
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or you know we're going to have it towed
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somewhere else they don't care now
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regarding down payments when financing
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is not approved what dealers will often
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say
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is they'll call the customer and say
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okay financing has not been approved
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bring our car back
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and the customer will say okay here's
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your car now give me my trade and give
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me my down payment and the dealer often
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says
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regarding the down payment look you
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drove our car for free
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for two three four weeks you put 100
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miles on it
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um we have to reinspect it we have to
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do some touch-up work whatever none of
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it matters the required to give 100 of
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the down payment back but they will
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start to come up with
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excuses uh as to why the customer is not
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going to get their down payment back
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immediately
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for example i have a current case
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against a car dealer here
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in the baltimore area where somebody put
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five thousand dollars down
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they got called about three weeks later
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to come back
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and instead of getting their five
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thousand back immediately
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about three weeks later they got a check
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for 135 dollars
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and the check actually itemized what the
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deductions for
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which doesn't matter because they're all
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illegal deductions all the down payment
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has to be refunded immediately
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after the customer brings the vehicle
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back when financing is not approved
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now that
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is what happens often but even worse
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well
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equally bad is when the dealer actually
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sells somebody's trade-in before
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financing isn't approved
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and you would think to yourself what
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kind of wretched organization would do
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such a thing
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and i would say drive down a busy street
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and look to your left and right
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and that's probably who's going to be
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doing these things the new dealers do
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them the used dealers do it
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uh they all do it just happens it's just
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a fact of life that dealers sometimes
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sell the car before financing is
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approved
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now this leaves the customer in a
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terrible spot
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they have a car that they don't have
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financing for the dealer wants it back
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the trade-in is gone um and they don't
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know what to do and often that's when
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they call
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a dealer lawyer or a dealer fraud lawyer
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like myself to say can you help me
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and the answer is yes we can help um
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depending on where your trade is
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has it really been sold is it just
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waiting at auction to be sold
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um sometimes dealers will buy it back
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from a customer who they sold it to in
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order to give it back
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and sometimes it shakes out where the
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the customer may be compensated
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the retail value of the trade that was
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illegally sold that's happened a number
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of times
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but that's certainly a violation of
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actual maryland law
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and then there's other other causes of
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action
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such as fraud if a dealer tells somebody
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that finance refinancing really is
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approved but it's not
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and uh violations of the consumer
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protection act uh for providing
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misleading information which is
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generally something along the lines of
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yes the deal's final you don't need to
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worry about it everything's done
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this is your new car go and enjoy it but
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really it's not because financing hasn't
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been approved
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so that's a brief discussion on the
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perils of
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spot deliveries in maryland when
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somebody thinks
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you know consumers sometimes also don't
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really understand
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what does it mean if financing doesn't
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get approved it's not really explained
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that that means you got to give it back
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we're not going to sell your trade
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you should get all your money back a lot
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of people just say where do i need to
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sign
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i just want to drive i just want to ride
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you know tell me what i need to sign
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and then have to kind of deal with these
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consequences as a surprise when these
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things come up
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so i hope this has been helpful if you
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were the victim of
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spot delivery fraud or the dealer
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soldier trade or kept your down payment
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after financing was not approved give me
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a call
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dan whitney at the whitney law firm i'd
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be happy to provide a free consultation
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um i hope this has been helpful if so
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please consider leaving a thumbs up
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and if you'd like to see a video on any
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other deal or fraud topics of which
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there are many
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please just leave something in the
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comments and i will make a video about
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the subject if i can
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thanks for watching take care
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