September 22nd, 2008 by Reed Allmand 
Under the Texas laws, a creditor with a lien upon personal property may repossess the collateral if the debtor defaults. The creditor need not give any notice of the repossession before they repossess the collateral nor get a court order before repossessing collateral. They can use self help or having a recovery agent do it for them.
A creditor cannot repossess if the repossession involves a breach of the peace – breaking in or taking it by force. What exactly constitutes a "breach of the peace" depends on the facts of each case.
After repossession, the collateral is taken to a storage lot or auction house, where it’s stored for a period of time. The repossessed collateral must be sold in a commercially reasonable manner. The debtor will be given reasonable notice of the date, time and place of the sale. If you do not redeem the collateral by paying the full amount of the debt, plus all expenses of repossession, the collateral will be sold by auction. The proceeds will be used to adjust your debt. You still owe the difference between what you owed on the loan, and what the collateral was auctioned for. The creditor can then file a civil lawsuit against you for this unpaid balance.
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
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