Deliver Initial Payment with airSlate SignNow

Deliver initial payment

- Hi, this is Dan Whitney with the Whitney Law Firm in Towson, Maryland. Today, we're going to talk about "The car dealer stole my down payment". So, the question is, why would a car dealer steal somebody's down payment? Do they hate their customers? Maybe. More likely they're just greedy. And the fact is, they think they can simply get away with stealing the down payment. So, I've sued many car dealerships here in Maryland and they are capable of anything. One of the most significant problems that my clients run into here in Maryland, is that dealers will steal a down payment and they'll also sell trade-ins when financing is not approved and then they leave the customer holding the bag and they say, "We're not gonna give you down payment back" or "We've already sold your trade-in, "you're not gonna get it back." And customers have no idea what to do. It's such a terrible situation. It's completely illegal. It's totally unfair. Yet many dealers do this. Now, in Maryland there's something called a spot delivery. And what a spot delivery simply means is, a car was delivered to a customer by a dealer. Delivered meaning the customer took possession. The car was delivered, in a sense on the spot and financing has not yet been finally approved. So why is that important? Well, if financing is not finally approved that means of course it may fall through. And if financing falls through, that means that the customer is not gonna be able to finance that car with the bank. And what the dealer's probably gonna do, is you're gonna call up the customer and say, "Hey, bring the car back. "The deal fell apart. "We need our car back and that's it." Now, in Maryland when a dealer finds out that financing has not been approved, they have four days from the time of delivery to notify the customer in writing that financing has not been approved. A notice is also required to be given to customers at the time of delivery, if financing has not been finally approved at the time of delivery, laying out the customer's rights. It's generally called a spot delivery notice. And what the notice sets forth is, the customer's right to be notified within four days whether or not financing has been approved or if it has not been approved. And if not, the customer has the right as soon as they return that vehicle to the dealer, they're entitled to immediately, and that's in the law, immediately get back their down payment and their trade-in. And they get back 100% of the down payment. Now, dealers almost never provide written notice within four days. Customers usually find out two, three, four weeks, sometimes it could even be months. They find out that financing has not been approved. Now, why is that a problem? That's a problem because in, really in the scope of a week, if somebody turns a...