One more on poverty and how small things turn gigantic.

This one is not totally my SIL's fault, and is one more illustration on how poor people get fucked by pretty much everything.

A few years ago, my SIL bought a brand new, top of the line Honda Accord. She quickly figured out that she could not make payments on it, and my FIL was paying for the car. SIL, in a rare fit of responsibility, a few months before he died, decided to do something about this debt she knew she could not cover.

So. She bought a "beater", cheap, and dh did the fixes it needed. It was an ok car, not great, but since she barely drives it wasn't a bad deal.

She returned the Honda to the dealership.

A while later, the dealership offered a much lowered interest rate to get her to take the car back. She accepted. The idea was that she'd park the Accord so it would be a low mileage car when she decided to sell it, and use the beater, and I think use some of the money she got from her dad outside of the estate to pay off part of the loan. I didn't get much into those details.

But... and things usually go like that. The Accord had air conditioning, the beater did not. The beater needed more work, and broke down while dh was in New Mexico dealing with the stuff in his dad's house. SIL had it towed to her apartment complex, and got a verbal agreement from management that it could stay there, parked in a back corner.

SIL lives in a high end rental complex. Most of the cars there are new.

Anyhow, the beater just sat. Dh didn't really have the time to deal with it (I forget what it needed) and one of SIL's friends was supposed to buy it. But the situation was quiescent, not emergent, so it never rose to the level of dh thinking that something needed to be done.

The SIL, last weekend, noticed that... her beater was gone.

And, btw, did I mention that the old manager had quit without notice and there was a new management team at the complex?

When dh told me the car was missing my first reaction was to say that hopefully it had been stolen, not towed.

Anyhow, further investigation revealed that alas it had been towed. They claim that there was a sticker on it for "at least" two weeks. The fact that the plate (with current registration) was tied to SIL's renter info didn't make a difference.

Impound lot in Everett. $900 to spring it, accruing at $70/day.

And there, my friends, is how poor people get fucked.

Because what is there to do? If you don't go pick up the car, the charges keep on going up, you get taken to collections, and apparently in this state, you can also lose your driver's license. There is no discount, no "but it was supposed to be allowed to stay there", no recourse at all.

The best suggestion they had was for her to come in today, pay up, and sign over the title, which at least removes the car as her responsibility. That didn't sit well, because ugh, the bottom feeding towing company gets their money AND the car, which may not be worth much, but it not completely without value.

Needless to say, we had to "loan" her the money to spring the car. We'll never get repaid, for this or any of the other money we've "loaned" over the years.

But we did come up with a better solution. SIL has a towing addendum to her car insurance. The plan, which she swore up and down she checked with all parties, is to go spring the car, have a tow truck (paid for by her policy) meet her at the impound lot, and have the car towed to Carmax, who say they'll buy it.

We'll see.

But yeah. One more case where a small error in judgement when you are poor can result in a much larger outlay of cash, or the loss of a vehicle etc.