Question about debt restructuring/thai collateral law

[PhuketAmerican]

So, 2 years ago my wife's car was rented in Phuket and then sold cheaply by the thief (to pay gambling debts) to a dealer in Nakorn Sri Thammarat via Phang Nga to be sold with fake papers there. The owner of the dealership is influential and an ex-policeman in Nakorn.

At the time, she had 2 years of payments left, and I asked her who had cosigned the loan. She told me only her ex coworker who is a housekeeper with no assets to lose. We talked and I advised her to not make any more payments, take the credit score hit, and save for a new car in my name 2 or 3 years later.

The car thief was tried and did about 8 months of a 3 year sentence, and all in all we recieved about 90,000 baht.

Fast foward to now, her parents bring a stack of letters to us, and a surveyor?/appraiser? has come to value her parent's modest home in Ao Por, Phuket.

Apparently my mother-in-law co signed too, and my wife did not understand the consequences of this. She is the first person in her family to take a consumer loan, and ignorant of finance and credit to be honest.

The mother-in-law has the Chanote of the family home in her name, and it will auctioned on 11/28/2015 to pay off the now 500,000+ (usurious interest and penalties on 2 years of payments) for the car to the finance company.

I do not have the cash to make this go away, and if this happens, then my mother and father-in-law, brother-in-law, his wife, sister-in-law, her husband, and 5 children under age 6 will come to stay with us in our 2 bedroom home.

Is there any service here like debt restructuring or consolidation whereupon I could make monthly payments of 10,000-20,000 baht until the debt is cleared, and avoid the sale of the house? In the USA a debt relief service would just pay it off and then you have to pay them back over a period with interest.

Intelligent replies only, this is not some dead buffalo scam, I've seen this from start to now and If I new her mother, the land holder, had guaranteed the car I would have insisted we paid it off on schedule.

[robblok]

Seriously why should she stop paying when her car was stolen. That was between her and the finance company. The fact that the car was stolen had nothing to do with her obligation to the finance company

You gave her bad advice.

Now the finance company rightfully tries to get his money back, this is your responsibility. Maybe you can take a loan in your home country to help.

I have not heard about debt restructuring. and hope you can find some.

Edited November 17, 2015 by robblok

[Berkshire]

Was your wife's car "rented" or "stolen?" If the latter, no insurance?

[CharlieH]

Scolding and attacking the OP for what "happened prior", good or not, its already happened and up to him to learn from it.

What he needs now is advice on dealing with the present situation, not a scolding for past events, that is water under the bridge now.

MOVING this to the finance forum.

[PhuketAmerican]

The car was rented for 15,000 baht/ month, then he returned and asked to rent it again.... after that he went and sold it to the illegal reseller in Phang Nga to pay gambling debt. She pressed charges, the family met with us and pleaded to drop them, but after they were unable to get the car back or pay it all off we continued the charges and he got 3 years but was out in months.

[PhuketAmerican]

I thought that since she had no assets nor the housekeeper, the only thing lost would be her credit rating for a few years. She forgot her mother signed too, and that the ramifications of this was that her mothers assets were on the line. Had I known this, we would have kept paying it.

[FritsSikkink]

I thought that since she had no assets nor the housekeeper, the only thing lost would be her credit rating for a few years. She forgot her mother signed too, and that the ramifications of this was that her mothers assets were on the line. Had I known this, we would have kept paying it.

So you tried to screw the finance company and failed. Try to get a new deal with them so the house won't be lost.

[Alration]

The only option that your wife has is to try to negotiate with the finance company to accept a monthly payment although based on her not making payments in the past they really have no reason to trust her.

The guarantor could try to raise a loan against the value of her house to pay off what is now her debt with you making the repayments.

That things have got to the stage of a valuer visiting the guarantor's property and the guarantor then producing a stack of letters suggests that the threats of legal action have been ignored until the knock on the door. Your wife's only option is to throw herself on the mercy of the finance company.

[ezzra]

As already said, Your only best bet is to negotiate with creditors,

take4 all those people that live in the house to the offices of the finance company to show them who they will be throwing out to the street

if they reposes the house,

try to hammer a deal of repayments with them and agree to any interest

they will put on it or ask for an extension so try to raise money against

the property somehow...

[Ks45672]

This exact situation is happening to a family I know in essan

They took a 300k loan and accidentally signed the land as security, couple divorced and Thai husband stopped paying so 3 generations including grandparents and 2 kids under 10 are being evicted from their home and they don't have any " plan B"

They're fighting it in court but my guess is the bank will win as usual....

You can't sign away your land and then realise that you can't repay... I know it's sad but imagine if everyone else took loans on their land and didn't repay...

Its hard to make an exception that doesn't upset the current situation and if a judge says they can stay, everyone else in debt would want that same exception

[Jeffrey346]

This is strange.. Where I come from, when a car is stolen and not recovered the insurance company settles the debt with the finance company.

Did she report it stolen to the finance company? If so the debt should have been cancelled. I would get the police report and bring it to the finance company stating that it was indeed reported. Assuming your wife did infact have insurance.

[Tatsujin]

I'm curious why the car insurance didn't pay out to the finance company for the loss and/or you didn't report it stolen to the finance company at the time. Either of which would have stopped this dead in its tracks I would have assumed.

As it stands now, your best bet is to make sure it's reported as stolen with the Police, then take that documentation and insurance policies that the car had at the time to the finance company and ask them to either get the insurance company to pay out directly to them or to restructure the debt over a short(er) period of time.

[Searat7]

In Thailand I understand that full insurance is provided for the first year as part of the purchase price but there is no requirement for full (comprehensive) insurance thereafter even if the vehicle is financed....I think the owner must have liability insurance only. I had a friend whose car was stolen when it was 2 years old and he stopped paying temporarily but started paying again after the finance company obtained a court order. Full insurance should be required for all financed vehicles.

[mrwebb8825]

Try asking the finance company to transfer the collateral of "Mom's" house to your house, then ask for new terms for repayment with a 5,000b kickstart envelope to seal the deal. If you don't own your home then try as stated above and have Mom take out a small morgage loan on the house and pay off the finance company and take payments from you.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

OP did the thief give you B 90 000 ? What did you do with the B 90 k ? What about your insurance ? Why did you ingnore previous legal actions by the financier, because they would have send many letters to your wife before you got into this mess ?

Go to the financier and try to stop the sale in execution, by putting a written payment plan in front of them. I would suggest that you propose a lump sum upfront (how much you can afford) and monthly payments. If they have someone that can stand in as guarantor it will help.

Next time speak to the people that you owe money to and save yourself a lot of money a stress.

[MobileContent]

This is strange.. Where I come from, when a car is stolen and not recovered the insurance company settles the debt with the finance company.

Did she report it stolen to the finance company? If so the debt should have been cancelled. I would get the police report and bring it to the finance company stating that it was indeed reported. Assuming your wife did infact have insurance.

Exactly what I am thinking.

BTW As far as I know all cars under finance have insurance, so either I don't understand all those details or something is not right.

[MobileContent]

At the time, she had 2 years of payments left, and I asked her who had cosigned the loan. She told me only her ex coworker who is a housekeeper with no assets to lose. We talked and I advised her to not make any more payments, take the credit score hit, and save for a new car in my name 2 or 3 years later.

How many years was the finance?

The credit score hit doesn't count much in Thailand and finance companies always want to see a land title.

What car was it? What was the new price?

500,000 Baht on a finance left of two years sounds a bit high.

You could try to raise some cash 250,000 Baht plus I guess the 90,000 Baht that you received went to the finance company. Correct?

[sead]

Something is withheld in this story and i really want to know what op isnt telling or forgot to fill in.

[Gracas]

Something is withheld in this story and i really want to know what op isnt telling or forgot to fill in.

I think it may have something to do with the car being rented out, maybe not a legal rental business and therefore no insurance to cover such things.

[Suradit69]

This is strange.. Where I come from, when a car is stolen and not recovered the insurance company settles the debt with the finance company.

Did she report it stolen to the finance company? If so the debt should have been cancelled. I would get the police report and bring it to the finance company stating that it was indeed reported. Assuming your wife did infact have insurance

She may have voided insurance by renting out the car. essentially using the car for (a rather risky) business rather than just for personal use.

[blackcab]

How much is the assessed value of the family land?

If it's more than 1 million baht get a 500k loan at 15% for a year. Use it to pay the debt off.

After 11 months of repayments get a loan on your property to pay this loan off. Now you have 1 year to pay off the loan on your house.

If you can't repay the loan in full repeat the process.

[Berkshire]

This is strange.. Where I come from, when a car is stolen and not recovered the insurance company settles the debt with the finance company.

Did she report it stolen to the finance company? If so the debt should have been cancelled. I would get the police report and bring it to the finance company stating that it was indeed reported. Assuming your wife did infact have insurance.

Exactly what I am thinking.

BTW As far as I know all cars under finance have insurance, so either I don't understand all those details or something is not right.

Yes, this is the most baffling. I have a friend who rented her car to a guy and he promptly wrecked it. The insurance covered.