I need some help figuring this one out, please

Well, folks, Seedspreader hit it right on the head. This is all about the "company store" type thinking. They drove many folks into death when they did this back in the depression days but folks hung on because what else could they do.

The reasons for all of what has happened with my niece and her husband really don't matter anymore. What matters is the present situation. Anyway, the boys are 13 and 15, most states won't allow them to work and with all the problems with illegal aliens and the underage workers, employers are getting to be more and more sticklers for that. Compound that with the fact that they live in a small town with less than 500 people and no transportation to drive somewhere else to work, how are the boys gonna get jobs?

Anyway, we have decided that they will move in here with us. One of the boys is coming out of high school to go on the road with his dad and be home schooled in the truck on the road. When he is able, he will take the equivalency exam or whatever they have and he will graduate. He's near there anyway, as he takes some accelerated classes now. Very smart boy.

We are going to be taking to my nephew today about giving the truck back and working for someone else. It is illegal for the company to "threaten" these folks with everything they have and maybe if they are "threatened" back with a lawsuit, they will back off. My husband is just the one to do that, and he will.

The 13 year old boy will go to school here and his mother will work for me. I will let her clean house and cook, cause she can do that. She cannot hold down a job, lots of issues that I will not go into here. The 13-year-old son can also work here. He can help do chores, muck out stalls, etc. We raise most of our food here and although it is tough, IF we can get the nephew to get on with another trucking company in this area, he can help share expenses of the whole household.

This will be 3 families living in this little house and it would just be the nephew and myself working. Everyone else is working the farm. Its going to be very tough, but as some others have said, I think this is going to become a more common practice everywhere. I cannot turn someone away who is out of a house, heading into winter, with kids (even though they are teenage kids), and no food.

The Bible tells us to open up our bowels of mercy and I guess that's what I'm going to do. You know, one of the families living with us, is no relation whatsoever, but they were homeless. That's why it was quite a decision as to whether to add this other family. Its whether or not we have the room and whether or not everyone can adjust. There is still some question to that, but we have made it clear to everyone, that all problems are to come to my husband and I to resolve and our answers are the final answers and there is to be no more discussion on those subjects once a decision has been made.

So, I guess we have solved it but please don't be thinking bad about my nephew. As others have said, he got into a stinky position with lots of rosy promises. It didn't work out. Moral of the story? BE CAREFUL WHEN "BUYING" A JOB. IF IT LOOKS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT MOST LIKELY IS!

We just need your continued thoughts and prayers, as will many folks across the nation in the next several years.

sorry this posted twice

I do not think bad of your nephew. My husband is also a trucker. We thought many times over the years of buying his own truck but just could not seem to make the money come out the way I wanted it to. We are lucky, in that he is a local driver now for a very small company with a very involved owner. The owner really hustles for any and all loads he can get along with several contracts with regular local companies. If he hustles up more work than he has drivers - he jumps in a truck and pulls the load himself. This has helped him to attract more work.

I hope that your nephew can find something closer to home. Any little bit will help in a situation like this.

Bless you for taking in his family.

It is a bad time to sell a truck, but, he should if he can.

My husbands Uncle used to drive frequently for a new nursery. They had their own drivers, of course, but every body gets sick some time and he used to fill in for them.

Well, he can't sell the truck, cause he doesn't own it. The company still owns it. He has made some payments on it with his driving, but he couldn't sell the truck if he wanted to. That would be very nice, but he's not allowed because the company wants to keep it under their thumb, so they can pay mechanics to fix the things that are wrong with it, and eventually declare it worthless, so they can take it off of their taxes, at least partially, and then hook the driver into another one. It is a treadmill. You can't get the truck paid off and they are too old to be put on the road for any real use anyway. The trucks they use for this are normally to the point that in another few months, maybe a year, at the most, they would be put in a junk yard, but they can coax just enough life out of them, to hook a young trucker into believing that in this fashion they can become their own boss, OWN THE ROAD, sort of thing, freedom and independence, and actually what they do is sell them into slavery. Its a horrible practice, and you HAVE to read the fine print. Basically all he can do is "give" the truck back and let them do this to someone else with the very same truck.

Its not at all fair. This young man will never own his own truck, because he can't make enough to purchase a truck that would be worth working with.

Yes, indeed, that IS like the company store!

Might I suggest that YOU read the paperwork and fine print? There are things that a middle aged person will catch, that a young man will not.

Oh! I see that your neice is as old as you are: my bad!

I would try to read the fine print anyways. I just would.

I would let them have the truck. This is a similar scam I fell for a couple times when I was younger. Don't let them intimadate him. They probably don't want this to get to court because it was a shady deal to begin with. Never ever send people like this away smiling.

Considering bankruptcy is premature at this point. It's time to give the truck back and stop making payments, then wait for their next move. They may not pursue a deficiency judgement. If they do then bankruptcy is always an option.

I wonder if they wouldn't qualify for free legal aid to get some concrete options?

It sounds like a change in careers may be needed and she may have to get a job/different job.

__________________
"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

Unfortanatley I think we are going to see a lot more people in this situation of being homeless. It is a hard place to be. I don't know about the truck part and he maybe able to negotiate this. Do they have parents that they could stay with awhile? If I were in the same situation as you are I think I would take them in on a tempary basis. But it can cause a lot of problems. During the Great Dpression a lot of people lived in multi generational homes anyway so moving in with the parents or children was not a big deal. We have gotten away from that with the institution of nursing homes.

Hope things work out.

RenieB

I agree.
Just because something is in a contract doesn't mean it's legal.
I would have talked to a lawyer long before now.
(Then again, where my dad is an attorney, I tend to get legal advice even when I'm not seeking it. )


Hunt up a Legal Aid office.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Thanks everyone. My husband and I know of an attorney that is not far from us that, believe it or not, because he knew of the situation money wise my husband and I are in, gave us some advice and took 2 chickens for pay! LOLOLOL

He said he bet there weren't many attorneys doing this! Anyway, he just told us what to do and how to do it, and we did it and handled it. I would imagine a couple of well placed chickens might get him to write a letter for us on this one, which I think is all that will be needed.

Rose, I appreciate the thought, but you know, I don't even know these kids well enough to know what kind of food they like. My niece and I haven't been in close proximity to each other since her kids were little, so I'm looking forward to "meeting" the boys again. We have all kinds of Christmas ornaments and tree and music and all of that kind of thing, but geesh. I don't know what a 15 and 13 year old like. One thing is for certain though, they will get out of the habit of TV while here since we don't have TV and haven't had it for nearly 6 years.

Videos will be the only thing they can watch and it won't be a game boy, cause we don't have it and unless they bring their own TV to hook it up to in their bedroom, they are going to get well acquainted with the outdoors. I really think this is going to be good for the boys. I wouldn't even know what to suggest for them.

The family conference idea is a good one, or rather household conference. We can do that and yes, my husband will be the final say in it all. I think that is the best way to go.

If I come up with anything, that would work for Christmas, I'll let you know, or if anyone else can think of anything, let me know, those of you with kids this age and in this day.

I know for certain you can pray for us all! We will definitely need this. I was thinking this morning, Wow, is this the new Walton-style family?

We have lots of meat in the freezer, thankfully for raising rabbits, calves, chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, and goat. I canned lots of quarts of tomatoes and green beans, apple sauce, pie filling, apple butter, and pear butter, and I have lots of squash on the shelf in the basement, and when our small restaurant closed, that left us with several gallon cans of corn and peas and other things as well as gravy mixes, sugar, flour, and two 5 gallon buckets of Karo syrup, so we can have lots of pancakes and I have maple flavoring from my candy supply, so I can and have made maple flavored syrup for those who don't like karo.

I think we will be okay, just help with the prayers, at this point is all I can see.

This is a good reason for everyone to be stocking up. You never know when it might be your family or a neighbor and would you hesitate to help a neighbor? Here was my question to my husband, what if the situation was reversed and we needed a place? Where would we go?

I think it's wonderful that you are taking them in. I still question if the niece or the teenager are working? Since finances have been a problem for many, many months, both of them should be. It would be tough to take all of them in if none of them are employed.

__________________
Lisa
www.jandlentertainment.us

Can't he just sell the truck?

__________________
Marvelous Madame
Be kind to others. You do not know what burdens they are carrying.

As I mentioned earlier, no, she is not employed due to reasons which I prefer not to discuss, personal reasons for her. Let's just suffice to say, she cannot be employed.

The teenagers, again, cannot work because they are 13 and 15, in a small town of less than 500, with very few employment opportunities, and with them moving in with me, they have to move from another state to here. He is going to get off of the road long enough to load what they have left in his reefer truck, put it all in storage, and drop them (at least the 13 year old and the wife), here, and then he will (if we can get him to give up that particular truck), get back on the road with another company, or continue with this one until we can get him another company, and take the 15 year old with him, which he will home school on the road.

Employment just isn't an option for these folks right now, maybe when the 15-year-old is old enough for a license, he can start team-driving with his dad, or they can both find work in this area, which I really hope for, but we'll just have to see at this point.

Anyway, yes, it will be hard, but if we are sharing expenses, we should be able to manage it.

Seedspreader is right.

Get that truck back to them ASAP and run from that company.
Then any good OTR driver with a years experiance can get a job have him do so.

Ya cant drive OTR till your 23 so the kid has a long wait ahead

Sure, if he can get what he owes on it. If he found a buyer willing to pay what he owes then I have no doubt that the trucking company would release the lien. After that the trucking company would have no claim against him, since the note would be satisfied.

However, with the vehicle market as soft as it is today I've been operating under the assumption that he owes more on the truck than he can sell it for. If that's the case, the trucking company probably won't release the lien until the note is satisfied. In that situation he can still give the truck back and stop making payments, and then the trucking company can try to get whatever it can for the truck. If there is a deficiency between the value of the note and what they can get for the truck then there's a possibility that they might sue for a deficiency judgement.

As an example, let's say that the value of the note is currently $150K, but the truck only sells for $120K. That leaves a deficiency of $30K. The trucking company can try to get a deficiency judgement for $30K, but it will cost them a few thousand to prosecute that lawsuit. Lenders consider going after a deficiency judgement to be just throwing good money after bad most of the time. The problem with going after a deficiency judgement is that if they go after the $30K but spend $4K in legal fees, only to have to borrower go bankrupt, then they will take a bath for $34K instead of $30K.

In most cases lenders don't pursue deficiency judgements.

He CAN'T sell the truck. He doesn't own it. Even though he's making payments on it... he doesn't own it. Even if he could find someone who would pay him twice what the truck costs, he can't sell it.

Trust me on this. This is not like anything most have you have ever been involved in.

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