Who owns your car?

[Mike Arman]

Had an interesting conversation with a large, well known nation-wide 
megabank today.


Seems there's this car they financed - and that's the end of the simple part.


The payment is current (nothing due), but the owner is deceased (two 
weeks), therefore the car is part of the estate.


The person who was driving the car (acquaintance of the owner) took 
it to the bank and dropped it off, taking the license plates with 
them. They were specifically instructed (by registered letter) to 
take the car to the attorney's office, but took it to the bank 
instead. (Separate cause for action, not pertinent to the rest of this.)


I'm trying to recover the car so the estate can sell it - it is 
upside down in the loan (loan is about $4K more than value), but if 
the bank sells it at auction, they'll get nothing for it, and the hit 
against the estate may be $10 to $12K instead of $4K. Obviously worth 
someone's time to do this . . .


The bank's position is that THEY own the car, not the estate, and if 
anyone wants it, the loan has to be paid off in full.

My position is that the estate owns the car (is in title), and while 
yes, there is a valid lien against it held by the bank (which we are 
not contesting), as long as the payments are kept current, they 
should release the car since they do not own it, the estate does.

Their response was that in *all* car loans, it is the LENDER who owns 
the vehicle, and title does not pass until the loan is paid off. I 
disagree. While the lender does have a valid claim against the car, 
and the car is the collateral for the loan, the OWNER is the person 
whose name is on the title.

(They would be slightly more correct in a buy-here-pay-here loan 
situation, but this is a standard, good credit car loan.)

You might want to check YOUR car loan documents (their suggestion!) 
to see who exactly IS the owner of "your" car - hopefully the bank is 
wrong, and we will be spared an extremely unpleasant surprise. (Hey, 
Mr. Banker, if you own it, YOU fix it!)

None of us want this car, but I'm trying to keep the heirs from 
getting screwed over by this megabank.


Best Regards,

Mike Arman
V8Q, it isn't a car, its an ADVENTURE!





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