Co-signed boyfriends car loan - now being sued

[northga1]

I'm hoping someone can offer some advice for my daughter. She co-signed on a car loan for her boyfriend, it was later repossessed, and I just learned was sold at a "private" sale. They were told to send a registered or certified letter to have it sold at a public sale, which they never did. This was a 2008 car, so after the sale, they were left a balance of $9000. Her boyfriend was dealing with the attorney for the car dealer and told my daughter he had made arrangements with the attorney to pay off the deficit. This morning now they were served with summons from superior court to reply within 30 days to settle this account or get a judgement.

I read online about a Rule17 settlement proposal that could be proposed to stop this from being processed through court if a judgement was settled out of court. If so, could her boyfriend request to settle and have her name removed from this? Also, do they have any recourse to fight this deficit if this car was not sold publicly and maybe they didn't get a fair price for on the dealers private sale? The original price of the car was $17,305 and he had it about 6 months. Any advice for my daughter on if she has any options here? Her boyfriend didnt' tell her he was behind in payments and now he wants her to call the attorney office to try to make a deal.

She's been so careful to keep her own credit in tact, but by co-signing for him, he has really put her in a bad situation.

 

[tpajet]

There's really nothing saying that they have to try to fetch a certain price or portion of the price. In other words, they could have sold that car for $5 if they wanted. They want to get as much of their money as they can, so they want to make sure the car sells. You are then on the hook for the deficiency.

On the other end of this, it really doesn't matter if her boyfriend didn't tell her he was behind. When she co-signed the loan she agreed to pay up if he didn't. That was the risk she took when she co-signed it.