Who owns your car?

[Richard J Lebens]

I don't see what is complicated.  If you want to sell the car the
estate will have to pay off the loan.  The departed individual borrowed
X dollars and agreed to pay it back.  The cars current value has
nothing to do with the amount they still owe the bank.

Say the car is worth $1000 and the loan with the car as collateral is
$14,000.  If they repo'd the car and sold it for $500 the estate would
still be responsible for $13500.

A representative of the estate can go get the car and drive it around
but he can not sell it without clear title which will be resolved when
the lien holder is paid.



--- Mike Arman <armanmik at earthlink.net> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> 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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> 
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