How do I recover personal property from a repossessed vehicle?

I recently had a boat repossessed. There were personal items on the boat. The problem I am running into is that the boat was financed by a friend and the repo company will not release my property without a letter from him allowing me to do so. I paid all the payments and taxes on this boat for 10 years and have the tax receipts to prove that. My name is in the file to allow me to talk to the bank about the boat. He has contacted me and said that he will not write or contact them to release my property. He's not going to pick up the items. He's just going to leave them where they are. I am going to contact the bank on Monday to see if there is anything they can do to get these items released. HELP!!

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The people who repossesed the boat were acting as agents for the organization holding the note. They don't have the knowledge or authority to say which property on the boat belongs to either party.

It's difficult to understand the relationship between your "friend" who will not authorize the release and the "bank." The one who held the note and now has legal (not physical) possesion of the boat is who you have to deal with. If they are professionals, you will get the property back. What will turn this into a legal hassle is if you say there was property on there that cannot be located now. That's a common issue when the person that lost the property is angry that it was repossessed. Then it will come down to evidence.

There are also issues about things that were physically installed in the boat that would be considered part of it now for example if you installed a new engine or cut a hole in the dashboard to install a new radar, you may not be entitled to that kind of property.