Sec. 103. Restrictions on Deficiency Judgments in Consumer Credit Sales — (1) This section applies to a consumer credit sale of goods or services.

     (2) If the seller repossesses or voluntarily accepts surrender of goods which were the subject of the sale and in which the seller has a security interest, and the cash price of the goods repossessed or surrendered was four thousand dollars ($4,000) or less, the buyer is not personally liable to the seller for the unpaid balance of the debt arising from the sale of the goods, and the seller is not obligated to resell the collateral.

Terms Used In Indiana Code 24-4.5-5-103

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Judgment: means all final orders, decrees, and determinations in an action and all orders upon which executions may issue. See Indiana Code 1-1-4-5
     (3) If the seller repossesses or voluntarily accepts surrender of goods which were not the subject of the sale but in which the seller has a security interest to secure a debt arising from a sale of goods or services or a combined sale of goods and services and the cash price of the sale was four thousand dollars ($4,000) or less, the buyer is not personally liable to the seller for the unpaid balance of the debt arising from the sale.

     (4) For the purpose of determining the unpaid balance of consolidated debts or debts pursuant to revolving charge accounts, the allocation of payments to a debt shall be determined in the same manner as provided for determining the amount of debt secured by various security interests (IC 24-4.5-2-409).

     (5) The buyer may be liable in damages to the seller if the buyer has wrongfully damaged the collateral or if, after default and demand, the buyer has wrongfully failed to make the collateral available to the seller.

     (6) If the seller elects to bring an action against the buyer for a debt arising from a consumer credit sale of goods or services, and under this section the seller would not be entitled to a deficiency judgment if the seller repossessed the collateral, and the seller obtains a judgment:

     (a) the seller may not repossess the collateral; and

     (b) the collateral is not subject to levy or sale on execution or similar proceedings pursuant to the judgment.

     (7) The amounts of four thousand dollars ($4,000) in subsections (2) and (3) are subject to change pursuant to the provisions on adjustment of dollar amounts (IC 24-4.5-1-106). However, notwithstanding IC 24-4.5-1-106(1), the Reference Base Index to be used under this subsection is the Index for October 2012.

Formerly: Acts 1971, P.L.366, SEC.6. As amended by P.L.137-2014, SEC.15; P.L.186-2015, SEC.21.

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