Sold out of trust - units sold, floor plan not paid - is the phrase that ends dealerships. It's also more survivable than the panic suggests, IF the next 48 hours are played with speed and total honesty. Lenders see SOT weekly; what they're deciding isn't whether you slipped, it's whether you're a dealer with a cash-flow wound or a dealer hiding one.
The 48-hour playbook
- Call your floor plan rep BEFORE the audit finds it. Self-reporting flips the entire conversation from fraud-suspicion to workout-mode.
- Bring exact numbers: which units, sale dates, where the money went. Vagueness reads as concealment.
- Propose a concrete cure: dates and sources for each payoff - receivables landing, units closing, a capital injection.
- Stop the bleed: freeze non-essential spending and don't floor new units into an unresolved SOT.
- Get the workout terms in writing - lenders honor documented plans; hallway assurances evaporate.
Routes out (when the gap needs capital)
If the cure needs money you don't have this week, the realistic instruments: a working capital loan against your revenue (fast, priced for urgency), borrowing against owned assets - equipment, paid-off units, even BHPH paper - or in genuine restructures, refinancing the whole position to a new floor plan lender as part of a documented turnaround. That last one requires being ahead of the story: nobody refinances a dealer the current lender is about to sue, everybody considers one executing a written plan.
What turns SOT criminal
Hiding sold units, doctoring records, dodging audits - concealment converts a workout into a fraud referral and a bond claim. However bad the number is, the cover-up is what prosecutors and bond companies act on. Full transparency is not just ethics; it's strategy.
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Dealerun specialists have walked dealers through workouts before - capital options against whatever you own, structured honestly, fast. The earlier you call, the more options exist. Conversations are confidential.
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FAQ
Will my floor plan lender immediately shut me down over one SOT unit?+
Usually not for a self-reported, quickly-cured first instance - expect tighter audits and possibly a line reduction. Repeated or concealed SOT is different: line termination, bond claims, and personal guarantee enforcement follow fast.
Can I refinance my way out of an out-of-trust position?+
Sometimes - as part of a documented cure, with transparency to both lenders. What's not possible: quietly flooring the same inventory with a second lender. That's double-flooring, and it converts a bad month into a courtroom.
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