Haven’t Made A Payment On This Car In 2 Years And It’s Still In My Driveway

Location: Illinois

Not sure where else to post this because I don’t plan on taking legal action (don’t even know if I can), but I feel like there may be people here who know better or more than I do who could point me in a direction.

I have a car that I financed in 2020. Everything went well until I totaled the car in early 2024. The car was undriveable and I was at fault due to driving in the rain (hit a guard rail because it’s a Hellcat), so I couldn’t get my insurance to fully cover it and I didn’t have funds for a deductible.

Previously in late 2023, I filed bankruptcy because my mother had gotten cancer and the medical bills had become too costly so I ended up being -$15k in the hole with credit card debt. I was no longer able to make payments for my car and it seemed extremely pointless to pay anyways since the car became unusable.

Apparently my bankruptcy had gotten in the way of the bank repoing my car and for some unknown reason they were unable to follow through with repossession. The reason is unknown because my bankruptcy lawyer told me the opposite and that they WERE able to repo it at any time though… So i’m not fully sure what actually happened when they asked the judge for permission to repo and why he denied it. So the car has been sitting in my driveway since late 2023.

In September 2025, the bank sent me a letter stating they have decided to forgive my debt and let me off the hook due to me not owing much anymore on the car.

November 2025 I received a check in the mail from my leftover GAP insurance since my car loan was forgiven. I figured the next step would be to ask for a lien release so I can get the title for the car and finally get rid of it. I call the bank’s bankruptcy department immediately and submit a request for lien release paperwork to get the title from the DMV.

The bank tells me they will be mailing me my lien release in 10 business days. 10 business days pass, nothing comes in. So I call again, they state the request wasn’t properly submitted and that they are going to send it in correctly this time and that I need to wait another 10 business days. 10 business days pass, still nothing in the mail.

At this point I’m extremely confused and call again and they tell me that it’s actually a lengthy process but I should be receiving it in the mail the second week of January. So I wait until the second week of January and still nothing comes in the mail. After this I figured calling them again would be pointless. I have no way to get this damn car out of my driveway lol.

I’m currently in a house that i’m renting and my lease expires in 8 months. I’m going to need this lien release before then because I obviously can’t just leave this car on my landlord’s property.

My landlord is a super nice guy but he’s starting to get somewhat annoyed from the busted up car sitting in his driveway since 2023 and I feel extremely bad because it definitely comes off as me taking advantage of his kindness when that really isn’t the case…

Can anyone give me some advice on what I can even do? Or am I just screwed and completely at the bank’s mercy here? Lmao