QUESTION
Taking over payments on a vehicle without getting it in my name?
Asked on Jun 16th, 2017 on General Practice - Georgia
More details to this question:
My son in law wanted to sell his car before he went overseas. He just wanted someone to take over payments, no cash money. So I told him that I would take over the payments and the insurance but I was interested in refinancing it and could we just leave it in his name for now. He said that was fine. So I have been making the car payment and the insurance payment for over a year now. The car was involved in an accident and the insurance company totaled it. After the insurance company paid it off , there was money left over so, they sent it to my son in law because it was still in his name. My question is , Since i took over the car payments and the insurance payments, shouldn't I get that money?
1 ANSWER
If you had an agreement with your son-in-law that you would now own the car, he should send you the money. The insurance company, of course, is not party to the agreement and has no reason to believe that you are the owner, especially if the insurance remained in your son-in-law's name.
With regard to a claim against your son-in-law, if he should deny the agreement, you will have a difficult time proving it, as the facts could merely show that he allowed you to use the car while he was away, in exchange for your taking over payments, not that he sold it to you. BTW both of these contracts, the one you claim to sell you the car, and the one your son-in-law may claim, to lease you the car while he was overseas, probably require a writing to be enforceable under the UCC (although the fact that you are family members may relax this requirement). Thus, you may not be able to enforce a contract by which you purchased the car. He may not be able to enforce a ocntract by which you leased the car, but since the car is now totalled, he doesn't have to.
Answered on Jun 16th, 2017 at 11:32 AM