UCC 9-625 is one more way Virginia law short changes consumers

Robert Weed Woodbridge VA Bankruptcy Lawyer

Published by Robert Weed ·

4 mins ·

You may have never heard of the Uniform Commercial Code. (The Uniform Commercial Code gives your car finance company the right to repossess your car, if you don't pay.) But the UCC also gives you important rights. For example, UCC 9-210 gives you the right to ask for an "accounting" your car loan.

UCC 9-210 tells the car finance people they need to explain the bill they send to you.

That came up for two of my clients this week. Mr & Mrs H think that Fairfax Credit Union is over charging them on their car loan by $1200. So I had them send a UCC 9-210 request to Fairfax Credit Union.

(Mr & Mrs H had filed bankruptcy with me last year. Mr H lost time from work after a car accident, and needed time under Chapter 13, to catch their house back up.)

Not only does UCC 9-210 give them the right to demand an accounting, UCC 9-625(a) give the Credit Union just 14 days to reply.

Because Mr and Mrs H have had trouble with the credit union before, they asked me what if the credit union just ignores the request? We'll UCC 9-625(f) says there's a $500 fine if they don't answer on time.

You can find UCC 9-210 and 9-625(a) in Virginia law, numbered as 8.9A-210 and 8.9A-625(a). But, guess what? UCC 8.9-625 does NOT have (f). The Virginia General Assembly left out the $500 fine for ignoring a consumer request for an accounting.

In most areas of the law, a consumer fighting a bank would be better off nearly anywhere in the country rather than Virginia. This is just one example.