In Thomas v. USAA Fed. Sav. Bank, No. 23-10003, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79269, at *8 (E.D. Mich. May 5, 2023), Judge Hood dismissed a TILA case filed by a car buyer.
Plaintiff complains that she provided Defendant with a notice of recission with respect to her automobile loan on a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee. She brings her action under TILA, pursuant to which she has certain rights due from Defendant, as she is a consumer and Defendant is a creditor under TILA. See 15 U.S.C. §1602(i), (g). Plaintiff correctly cites 15 U.S.C. §1635 for the proposition that a consumer has a right to recission under TILA. The recission provision of TILA, however, does not extend to automobile loans. The recission provision applies only to credit transactions involving “property which is used as the principal dwelling of the” consumer. 15 U.S.C. §1635(a). Section 1635(a) provides in full: “Except as otherwise provided in this section, in the case of any consumer credit transaction (including opening or increasing the credit limit for an open end credit plan) in which a security interest, including any such interest arising by operation of law, is or will be retained or acquired in any property which is used as the principal dwelling of the person to whom credit is extended, the obligor shall 8 have the right to rescind the transaction until midnight of the third business day following the consummation of the transaction or the delivery of the information and rescission forms required under this section together with a statement containing the material disclosures required under this subchapter, whichever is later, by notifying the creditor, in accordance with regulations of the Bureau, of his intention to do so. The creditor shall clearly and conspicuously disclose, in accordance with regulations of the Bureau, to any obligor in a transaction subject to this section the rights of the obligor under this section. The creditor shall also provide, in accordance with regulations of the Bureau, appropriate forms for the obligor to exercise his right to rescind any transaction subject to this section. 15 U.S.C. §1635(a) (emphasis added). Plaintiff’s property is an automobile, not a principal dwelling. For that reason, she does not have a right to rescind her transaction with Defendant. See, e.g., Blue v. Cap. One Auto Fin., 2022 WL 1092121, at *2 (N.D. Ohio Apr. 12, 2022) (“By the express language of the statute, this right of recission and the return of property apply only to residential mortgages. They do not apply to the purchase of a motor vehicle.”); West v. Wells Fargo Auto, 2023 WL 199676, at *3 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 17, 2023) (“Courts routinely hold that the right to rescind under § 1635(a) does not apply to the purchase of motor vehicles.”).