Q: What are the legal options for preventing my girlfriend's parents from taking her car in the situation below?
My Girlfriend bought her sister's car, she paid the sister a downpayment and then took over the monthly loan payment. The car is in the mother's name as is the loan. My girlfriend has no documentation to prove she paid the sister anything. Or any legal agreement to put the car in her name when it is paid off. The issue is that her parents are now saying that she has to pay rent which is not something she can afford as a high school student. If she does not pay rent her family has said they will take the car regardless of the payments she has made over the past months.
A: Your girlfriend did not buy a car - she basically has just been making the payments on her mothers car. Without something from the title holder in writing (preferably a contract) there is not much she can legally do. Chalk it up to a hard learned life lesson - sucks that she had to learn it from her own mother though.
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