When and How to Repossess Your Vehicle
If you host enough trips on Turo you will eventually encounter a guest who won’t return your vehicle.
Hosts often wonder what to do when their vehicle doesn’t come back. “Should I just wait to see what happens? Should I call the police? Should I go get it back myself?” In this article I’m going to walk you through some best practices for retrieving your vehicle from a guest when they refuse to return it at the end of their trip.
To repossess or to not repossess
There are differing opinions across the host community about whether a host should or should not repossess their own vehicle. You have a couple of options available when the vehicle doesn’t come back and the one you choose has more to do with your own personality and comfort level than “right” or “wrong.”
When a vehicle doesn’t return, and once it’s reported to Turo Trust and Safety as missing, they will begin the process of locating and retrieving the vehicle for you after a 24-hour waiting period from the time the reservation ended. This is obviously the passive, and safest approach.
The other option is to locate and retrieve the vehicle yourself. It is entirely within your rights as the vehicle owner to do so. This is the active, more time-consuming, and higher-risk approach.
As I mentioned, there is no right or wrong, it all comes down to personal preference. As for me, I have always repossessed my own vehicles and have never relied on Turo to do the work for me after the 24-hour waiting period. My personality is to always maintain control of the situation and get the vehicle back in my possession as soon as possible. And, if I’m being honest, I kind of dig the adrenalin rush. I’ve repossessed seven or eight times with a couple of those involving a high speed chase and a couple of unnerving confrontations. But, I’m still alive, in one piece, writing this article.
Won’t Turo cover me if it’s never returned?
If your vehicle is not returned and Turo cannot locate and retrieve it, after a period of time you will be paid the actual cash value of the vehicle the same as if it was totaled in an accident. This could either work in your favor, or against you.
If you paid cash for your vehicle, or have paid off the lien, you’ll likely be okay. If the vehicle is financed and the actual cash value is equal to or greater than the balance owed the lien holder, you will be taken care of and could actually enjoy some profit.
If you are upside down, however, and owe the lien holder more than the actual cash value of the vehicle, you will come out of pocket for the balance and this will be a negative outcome for you.
Also, keep in mind, that your protection plan deductible will apply to your payout for this total loss!
When to repossess your vehicle
At the 30-minute late mark the guest loses all rights to the possession of your vehicle and you may retrieve it at that time if you choose to do so. If you are going to let Turo handle retrieval, as has been mentioned, Turo will wait 24-hours before beginning the process.
The timing of my repossession depends on some factors. If the guest is not communicating and shows no signs, via GPS, of heading my direction, I begin the process of repossession at the 1-hour late mark after notifying Turo at the 30-minute late mark that the vehicle hasn’t been returned.
If the guest is communicating, but obviously lying and still joy-riding with no signs of heading my direction, I still prepare to begin the process at the 1-hour late mark. If they are communicating, seem to be genuine in their explanation about why they’re late, and show some signs of heading my direction, I wait it out and carefully watch the movements of the vehicle.
I don’t like for time to pass and I act quickly because a lot can happen with/to my vehicle in a short time. The longer it is in the possession of a questionable guest, the more time there is for it to end up at a chop shop, involved in a crime, damaged, given or sold to someone else, driven too far away for me to retrieve, or (for those in the Southwest) driven across the Mexican border never to be seen again.
There are some best practices to follow to safely repossess your vehicle.
If you’re going to take control of the situation and repossess your vehicle yourself, I want you to quickly, and safely get the vehicle back in your possession with as little drama as possible.
Your safety is most important.
There is nothing more important than your own safety. Repossessing your vehicle comes with risk and could put you in the middle of an intense situation. It is, after all, just a vehicle and you should never value it so highly that you allow yourself to be injured, or even killed just to get it back.
Take someone with you.
Once you’ve located the vehicle and are beginning the repossession process, it’s best to take someone with you if possible. This person can assist by driving you to the vehicle, to avoid possible Uber charges later, but can provide you with some backup if the situation becomes intense. They could also be helpful by talking you out of doing something stupid!
Take possession when the vehicle is parked.
You really want to avoid any kind of confrontation if possible. Ideally, you’ll locate the vehicle parked and vacant, preferably at a location such as a store or restaurant, and not at the guest’s residence.
If you’re doing this by yourself, with a chase vehicle, park that vehicle a short distance away, out of sight, walk to the target vehicle, get in and drive away quickly. Once you’ve returned the target vehicle to your location, you can then Uber back to your chase vehicle, if necessary, and Turo will reimburse you for the Uber expense.
If the vehicle is on the move, use your GPS tracker to get as close to the vehicle as you can, with eyes on it, while maintaining a safe distance. Try to wait it out for the guest to park, leaving the vehicle vacant. If you can’t, then you have to decide if you want to confront the driver. Again, do this safely! You may want to call and ask for a police presence if you do this. The police will not actively engage, since this is a civil matter, not a criminal matter, but will usually agree to be simply present to help mitigate escalation and keep everyone safe.
Arrange the property exchange.
If you take the vehicle while it’s parked, there’s a good chance the driver will have personal belongings in the vehicle. That’s good. Drive away with them. You’re doing nothing wrong by doing so, and you’ll need these belongings to help get your key fob back.
As soon as you have possession of the vehicle and have driven away, message the guest through the Turo app. Let them know you have the vehicle, and their belongings (if applicable) and give them instructions for meeting you at a police station to exchange their belongings for your key fob. Always do this at a police station if possible!
If there are no belongings in the vehicle and you cannot get your fob back from the guest, you can file a damage claim with Turo for the fob and be paid the full cost of the fob plus programming, with no deductible applied.
Process all incidentals.
After you’ve completed the repossession, be sure to submit all incidentals and damage claims (if applicable) within 24 hours of retrieving the vehicle.
The vehicle will most likely be missing fuel, for which you’ll need reimbursed.
You’ll process late charge/additional usage charge.
You’ll request a $50 improper return fee.
Submit your Uber receipt for reimbursement, if applicable.
Submit any other qualifying incidentals such as smoking, cleaning, etc. if there is evidence to substantiate the incidental.
Leave the guest review.
This is a very important step to help your fellow hosts in the community. We need to know when a guest has caused you to do a repossession. There’s a good chance they will be banned from the platform after your experience, but in the event that they are allowed to book again, we need to read your very detailed review narrative so we don’t allow this person to book with us. We’re counting on you!